Comments on: Some Prompt Data Responses

By: Steve McIntyre

Steve McIntyre — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 14:28:26 +0000

Ron Ray responded that the data was at http://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/gsn/gsndy.zip . This file does not appear to contain any US sites, while the list of sites that Parker obtained from Ron Ray does. I’ve asked Ron Ray the following:

Thanks for this. David Parker used a number of US stations. When I unpacked gsndy.zip, I identified 451 different station numbers in the file, none of which seemed to include Parker’s US stations. I’ve also had difficulty locating a list of GSN stations that synchronizes with the station numbers. I matched lists from http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/hofngsn/HOFNGsnStn, http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/ghcnd-stations.txt http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo/gsnmonstn.txt , all of which overlapped, but none of which yielded all the station identifications. Is there a list of stations in the gsndy file with particulars?

Secondly, I’ve also seen a directory with GSN daily data at http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/gsn/ . Can you explain what the connection is between the gsndy.zip file and the data in the other directory?

Also, in your directory ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/gsn , I notice that there are two subdirectories rawdata and reformatted . What is the connection of the data in these directories with the gsndy.zip file and the data at ghcn?

Regards, Steve McIntyre

By: Steve McIntyre

Steve McIntyre — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 20:27:30 +0000

#15. I’ve posted up a couple of “pages” – see left frame Station Data and Station Locations in which I’ve been posting up links as I notice them. I appreciate additions. (This one I’d notice, but there’s lotgs of information and a big job to collate. Right now I’m having trouble getting lists of GSN stations. Or rather I’ve got 3 lists, each inconsistent and none complete)

By: Barry

Barry — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 20:06:08 +0000

RE # 9 . There is a site providing photos and metadata for the ASOS sites that were being used in a study. Provides photos from all of the major compass points.

http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwdi~ASOSPhotos

By: Steve McIntyre

Steve McIntyre — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 14:41:23 +0000

For the paleo data, this is simply a new wrapper for the same data base that’s been operating for many years. I’ve mentioned the WDCP World Data Center for Paleoclimatoloyg or ITRDB International Tree Ring Data Base quite often – these are the archives to which I encourage scientists to constribute. That’s what you’re locating here. It’s an excellent archive and I’ve attempted to commend it on all possible occasions.

By: MrPete

MrPete — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 14:23:23 +0000

Speaking of data and sources, NOAA maintains a very nice site with map/text search access to quite a few databases, from weather to paleo info. Appears to even provide details on exact location of of tree ring sites.

http://gis.ncdc.noaa.gov/website/ims-nvds/paleo/viewer.htm

By: BradH

BradH — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 12:23:53 +0000

I’m kind of overcome by the professionalism and openess of these guys.

Perhaps there is some hope, after all.

By: Steve McIntyre

Steve McIntyre — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:59:54 +0000

Wheels within wheels. I was unable to identify all of Parker’s sites in any online NOAA version, so I asked him for a URL for his data. Although there are many online data sets, it turns out that he used unarchived data obtained from Ron Ray at NOAA. I’ve written Ray asking him for a copy (or a link) for the data that he sent to Parker.

By: Willis Eschenbach

Willis Eschenbach — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:30:16 +0000

The other thing about airports is that they watch the wind pretty carefully … which makes it odd that he used gridded NCEP/NCAR reanalysis winds.

By: hswiseman

hswiseman — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:07:19 +0000

I suspect that Parker saw the ASOS data and felt that these sites had good equipment, consistent TOB, and solid data archives and site histories. In other words, data collected through the practice of some consistent conventions applied over hundreds of sites. Pretty good fodder for the statistical engines. And he is correct. The ASOS sites seem to be producing good data from what I could tell through a casual inspection. That does not mean they are necessarily good sites for observation of GW or AGW. JFK/BOS/PHL/ are 24/7/365 blast furnace operations over square miles of paving. Small airports in reasonable proximity with comparable geography to these majors could be a check point Compare BOS/PLY, JFK/ISP, PHL/TTN for example.

By: steven mosher

steven mosher — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:33:38 +0000

Sorry SteveM I missed that alert.

and
I just bought a bunch of lottery tickets figuring that I had some great nack for
randomly picking airport sites. Wanna buy some? I’ll give you a good deal.

The nice thing about airport sites is that ordinarly they are selected for a reason.

Flat. few obstructtions. Predictable prevailing winds.

I’m not sure it’s a random sampling of places to measure climate.