Metadata for Station Inventory for Daily Global Historical Climatology Network Data Metadata for Station Inventory for Daily Global Historical Climatology Network Data

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Identification Information:

Citation:

Originator: Montana Climate Office
Publication date: 02/04/2015
Title:: Station Inventory for Daily Global Historical Climatology Network Data
Online linkage: ftp://mco.cfc.umt.edu/ghcnd/stations/Readme.html

Browse graphic file name: http://mco.cfc.umt.edu/images/MCOInventoryThumbnail.jpg
Browse graphic file description: Montana Climate Office station inventory thumbnail
Browse graphic file type: JPEG

Abstract:

The inventory of climate stations is a point dataset for the Daily Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) for Montana and surrounding areas of Montana. GHCN is an integrated database of daily climate summaries from land surface stations, Climate records from numerous sources have been integrated and subjected to a common suite of quality assurance reviews. The inventory of stations also merges information from a second station inventory posted by GHCN, and brings the information together into one geographic representation. The inventory of stations is distributed as geodatabase tables and in shapefile\csv format.

Purpose:

The inventory of climate stations includes a hyperlink to an overview of the meteorological elements measured, the units of measure, and the time period of collection. A second hyperlink is provided to link the user to a comma-seperated-value (CSV) file with actual measurements. Depending on the station, measurement dates range from approximately 1895 to the present day.

Supplemental information:

Processed from text file source using Python 2.7 code maintained by the Montana Climate Office.

Time period of content:

Calendar date: 01/01/2015
Currentness reference: publication date

Status:

Progress: Complete
Maintenance and update frequency: As needed

Access constraints: None

Use constraints:

The Montana Climate Office (MCO) provides this product/service for informational purposes only. The MCO did not produce it for, nor is it suitable for legal, engineering, or surveying purposes. Consumers of this information should review or consult the primary data and information sources to ascertain the viability of the information for their purposes. The MCO provides these data in good faith but does not represent or warrant its accuracy, adequacy, or completeness. In no event shall the MCO be liable for any incorrect results or analysis; any direct, indirect, special, or consequential damages to any party; or any lost profits arising out of or in connection with the use or the inability to use the data or the services provided. The MCO makes these data and services available as a convenience to the public, and for no other purpose. The MCO reserves the right to change or revise published data and/or services at any time.

Point of contact:

State Climatologist
Director of the Montana Climate Office
Montana Climate Office
32 Campus Drive
Missoula, Montana 59812-0576
Telephone: 406.243.6793
E-Mail: state.climatologist@umontana.edu

Point of contact:

Michael D. Sweet
Research and Information Systems Specialist
Montana Climate Office
32 Campus Drive
Missoula, Montana 59812-0576
Telephone: 406.243.5265
E-Mail: michael.sweet@umontana.edu

Data set credit:

United States National Climatic Data Center Daily Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN-DAILY) Version 3.11 and the Montana Climate Office

Data Quality Information:

Logical consistency report: Consistent with source

Completeness report: Complete

Lineage:

Process step:: Source at ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/ghcnd-inventory.txt is programmatically parsed. A Python 2.7 coded program reads the text files and writes them to the target location in text and file geodatabase (10.1) format.

Spatial Data Organization Information:

Point and vector object information:

SDTS object type: Entity point

SDTS object count: 0

Spatial Reference Information:

Horizontal coordinate system definition:

Latitude/Longitude:

Latitude resolution: 8.9831528411952133e-009
Longitude resolution: 8.9831528411952133e-009
Geographic coordinate units: Decimal Degrees

Geodetic model:

Horizontal datum name: D WGS 1984
Ellipsoid name: WGS 1984
Semi-major axis: 6378137.0
Denominator of flattening ratio: 298.257223563

Entity and Attribute Information:

Entity type label:

Station Inventory for Daily Global Historical Climatology Network Data

Entity type definition: Codes for Daily Global Historical Climatology Network Data

Attribute label: OBJECTID

Attribute definition: Internal feature number.
Attribute domain:: Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.

Attribute label: SHAPE

Attribute definition: Feature geometry.
Attribute domain: Coordinates defining the features.

Attribute label: Station

Attribute definition:: The station identification code. The first two characters denote the FIPS country code, the third character is a network code that identifies the station numbering system used, and the remaining eight characters contain the actual station ID.
Attribute domain: Identifiers generated by GNCN using data and a rule-base.

Attribute label: Latitude

Attribute definition: Latitude of the station in decimal degrees.
Range domain minimum: -90
Range domain maximum: 90
Attribute units of measure: decimal degrees

Attribute label: Longitude

Attribute definition: The longitude of the station in decimal degrees.
Range domain minimum: -180
Range domain maximum: 180
Attribute units of measure: decimal degrees

Attribute label: Elevation

Attribute definition: The elevation of the station in meters.
Attribute domain: positive real number

Attribute label: State

Attribute definition: The U.S. postal code for the state (for U.S. stations only).
Codeset name: FIPS

Attribute label: Name

Attribute definition: Geographic name of the station
Attribute domain: Names provided by Global Historical Climatology Network.

Attribute label: Network

Attribute definition: Identifies the station numbering system used.
Codeset name: network code

Attribute label: GSNFlag

Attribute definition:: Flag that indicates whether the station is part of the GCOS Surface Network (GSN). The flag is assigned by cross-referencing the number in the WMOID field with the official list of GSN stations.
Attribute domain: Provided by Global Historical Climatology Network.

Attribute label: HCNFlag

Attribute definition:: Flag that indicates whether the station is part of the U.S. Historical Climatology Network (HCN).
Attribute domain: Provided by Global Historical Climatology Network.

Attribute label: WMOID

Attribute definition:: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) number for the station.
Attribute domain: Number provided by World Meteorological Organization.

Attribute label: DailyCSV

Attribute definition:: The full qualified file path (URL) to the comma-separated-value file that contains the measurement data for this station.
Attribute domain: Internet Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

Attribute label: DailyHTML

Attribute definition:: The full qualified file path (URL) to the comma-separated-value file that references and HTML describing the measurement data for this station.
Attribute domain: Internet Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

Attribute label: ET_CREATOR