Today marks the release of the first beta version of the
global land surface databank constructed under the auspices of the
International Surface Temperature Initiative’s Databank Working Group. The
release is of monthly average temperatures from stations around the globe that
have been made available without restriction.
The release will be in beta for a period of 3 months before
an official first version release. It is hoped that during this time users can
take a look and provide feedback (preferably through the Initiative blog) and
advice to ensure that the first version release is of the highest possible
quality. Additional data submissions received prior to November 30th
will be incorporated in the first version release.
The release consists of:
·
Over 40 distinct source decks (compilations /
holdings) submitted to the databank to date in Stage 0 (hardcopy / image; where
available), Stage 1 (native digital format), and Stage 2 (converted to common
format and with provenance flags).
·
A recommended merged product and several
variants thereon which have all been built off the stage 2 holdings
·
All code used to process the data merge
·
Documentation necessary to understand at a high
level the processing of the data
The release is available from ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/globaldatabank/.
The merged product can be found at ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/globaldatabank/monthly/stage3/
. The recommended merge consists of over 39 thousand stations, which range in
length from a few years to over two Centuries.
This is data that mostly has not been quality controlled or
bias corrected. It is important to stress that it therefore does not constitute
a climate data record / dataset suitable for monitoring long-term changes.
Rather, it provides a basis from which research groups can create algorithms to
produce climate datasets. The results from these algorithms can then be
compared and benchmarked as part of the International Surface Temperature
Initiative activities. We hope that many groups and individuals take up this
challenge which will lead to improved understanding of land surface air
temperature changes particularly at regional scales.
This release is the culmination of two years effort by an
international group of scientists to produce a truly comprehensive, open and
transparent set of fundamental monthly data holdings. In the coming weeks a
number of additional postings to the blog will attempt to explain different
aspects of this databank.
More information on the Initiative and how to get involved
can be found at www.surfacetemperatures.org
.
I'm wondering why Homogenized Environment Canada data was used rather than the full database? Steven Mosher has made a scraper for the full daily and monthly databases (raw) that gives a lot more stations than the 300 homogenized ones. I would suggest actually using both.
ReplyDeleteRobert, we have used known data sources that are open. But 'known' here means known to us. There are almost certain many 'unknown knowns' things we don't know about. Our preference is for raw data over homogenized so we don't nix subsequent homogenization. So, any sources such as this - its not too late for inclusion. Of course, it is possible that the data is in one or more of the combobulated sources such as GHCND-raw or GHCNM-source etc. But we would also always prefer to use data with better provenance chain back towards (preferably to) the original observation itself.
DeleteHi Peter,
ReplyDeleteHere is the database I am referring to:
http://climate.weatheroffice.gc.ca/advanceSearch/searchHistoricDataStations_e.html?searchType=stnProv&timeframe=1&lstProvince=&optLimit=yearRange&StartYear=1840&EndYear=2012&Month=11&Day=5&Year=2012&selRowPerPage=100&cmdProvSubmit=Search
Unfortunately Environment Canada has not made their database available as one individual file like they have with the homogenized stuff meaning you have to download for each of the 8300 sites individually. However in previous work Steven Mosher developed a scraper for me which downloads the data and collates it into a format similar to GHCN.
http://stevemosher.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/chcn-canadian-historical-climate-network/
If you would like access to this database and its 8300 entries then I suggest you email him and he will be able to get it to you or help you get it.
From my experience this database includes more than the GHCN in many areas of Canada.
Thanks. We;ll take a look. I'll try to remember to drop back here with an update. I know that NCDC has a bilateral with Canada so the dailies may be in the top-dog GHCND deck already. I'll pass this on to the databank team.
Delete