Where is the databank merge code? How can I make it work?

The merge code was written in FORTRAN 95 and is located within each variants directory. For example, if one were to find the code for the recommended merge, the location is here:

ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/globaldatabank/monthly/stage3/recommended/code/

Once uncompressed, there are four files that are required for the program to run correctly. The program will fail if any one of these files are missing. A description of each file is below:

databank_sources.txt: This is the prioritized list of sources that go into the merge program. This file tells the user the name of the source, number of stations, whether it was originally a monthly or daily source, and whether it includes TMAX, TMIN, or TAVG temperature. In order to acquire the source data, one is required to grab the data from the databank monthly stage 2 FTP site.

lookup_IA.txt: This is the lookup table the program reads in to determine the probability of station match and station uniqueness.

merge_module.f95: This is a module the main program calls to when performing certain functions. This was done so simple procedures called multiple of times were only written once. In addition, this provides the user the opportunity to write in their own code and compare results.

merge_main.f95: This is the main program. The first section, named "User Defined Thresholds," is where the user can define directory structures and performance thresholds.

A more description about these files, along with justification, can be found in the merging methodology document. A compiler is required to run the program. There are many different FORTRAN compilers, however the code was written so that it can comply with the g95 compiler, which is free and available to the public here.

Once a compiler (such as g95) is installed, simply type in the following command:

g95 merge_module.f95 merge_main.f95

And you should be good to go! Although not required, the user is strongly encouraged to tweak any of the thresholds and/or priority list in order to achieve different results. 

If here are any questions, feel free to send an e-mail to data.submission@surfacetemperatures.org, or simply comment on this post