Preliminary Meteorological Measurement Standards Statement of standards before site selection (TIE

1979) Selected sites assume obligations

To collect data To characterize the ecosystem To make data available

Original Meteorological Committee Dr. Harvey L. Ragsdale and Dr. Lloyd W. Swift of the Coweeta

LTER site were co-chairs Swift and Ragsdale, 1985

Original LTER Meteorological Standards

Standards (Swift and Ragsdale 1985) Original LTER planning document (TIE 1979) Site-specific material (Waring et al. 1978) National Weather Service (USDC 1970) World Meteorological Organization documentation

(WMO 1970, 1971) LTER scientist experience

Climate Committee Established 1986Objectives

Establish baseline meteorological measurements Characterize each LTER site Enable intersite comparisons

Document both cyclic and long-term changes Provide a detailed climatic history

Correlate with bioecological phenomena Provide data for modeling

provide a basis for coordinating specialized or short term meteorological measurements

Standards Document 1986

Standardized measurements (4 levels) Not a single inclusive set Established degrees of uniformity Flexible for site specific requirements

Instrumentation, frequency, reporting guidelines Site selection guidelines Retention of original records required Statement of accuracy and precision levels

Standardized Measurements (4 Levels)

Level 0: entry level only (1 year) Daily temp and precipitation (all LTER sites)

Level 1: basic climatic station Continuous temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind

(all LTER sites will achieve) Level 2: research meteorological station

More intensive, more parameters, continuous (most LTER sites) Level 3: specialized measurements

Coordinate plans to develop standardized techniques Facilitate potential intersite comparisons

Intersite Exchange of Data (1986)

Each site must make one station’s data available Specific single site study data may be proprietary Sharing of data will not be automatic

Individual requests will be necessary If future intersite study is anticipated

Plan for identical instrumentation and methods Pay special attention to reporting accuracy and precision Seek advice from climate committee

http://sql.lternet.edu/climdb/climdb.html

LTER Information Manager Activities

Network Information System (NIS)

All-site bibliography All-site personnel directory Distributed Table of Contents (DTOC) Site Description Database (SiteDB) Climate Database Project (ClimDB)

NIS Research Module Strategy

Enable cross-site data integration Centralize access to cross-site data Local site maintains control of data Modular design Prototype development

ClimDB “Centributed” Mechanics (Baker et al. 2000)

Individual Site Central Site Public User

Exchange filters

Exchange format

Relational Database

Site Database

CG

I S

crip

tL

ocal

Scr

ipt

Dynamic URL

Static URL

CG

I S

crip

t

Distribution filters

Reportformats

Monthly Data (V-One,V-Many)

Daily Data

GraphicsH

arve

ster

ClimDB Project Objectives

For all LTER sites:

Provide current climatic data summaries Provide comparable climatic data summaries Fulfill the needs of LTER intersite and synthesis

efforts Demonstrate “centributed” database approach

ClimDB Background

LTER Climate Committee (Greenland 1986)Standardized baseline meteorological measurements

CLIMDES (Greenland et al. 1996)LTER site monthly summaries (1961-1990)

XROOTS Climate Workshop (Bledsoe et al. 1996)Report formats (V-one, V-many)

LTER Information Management Committee Meeting (1996)“Centributed” database, exchange format, harvest mechanism

CLIMSTAN Workshop (Greenland et al. 1997)Exchange format refinement, Metadata standard development

Communication of the Research Scientist with the Information Manager is important!

Please fill out the web

form

“This is too good

to be true”

I can’t wait to give you

my metadata

Identifying End-User Needs

XROOTS Climate Workshop Identification of distribution report formats Separation of internal data management storage structures

from exchange and report formats

CLIMSTAN Workshop: Blend of Science and Information Management Participants included Climatologists, Information Managers,

Data Users/Modelers, and a Field Technician

CLIMSTAN Workshop Accomplishments

New LTER standard climate methods documentation Defines levels of site participation (0-4)

Database guidelines documentation Exchange format Quality assurance (local and network guidelines) Participation instructions Naming conventions (time resolution, parameter, aggregation, units)

Metadata requirements and schema Data distribution through a web interface

Report format refinement Graphical format refinement

Metadata “R” Us

Data Integration

Data Interpretation

Data Discover

y

“I never metadata I didn’t like”

Metadata Serves Important RolesMetadata Serves Important Roles

LTER NETWORK METEOROLOGICAL METADATA SCHEMA

MEASUREMENT_LEVEL

LTER_CODESTATION_CODE

LATITUDELONGITUDESTATION_DESCRIPTIONTOPOGRAPHY ELEVATIONSURFACE_TYPEEXPOSUREWIND_EXPOSURESTATION_STARTSTATION_HISTORYSTATION_PHOTO

STATION_LEVELLTER_SITE_LEVEL

LTER_CODE

CLIMATE_CONTACT_NAMECLIMATE_CONTACT_EMAILCLIMATE_CONTACT_PHONEDATA_CONTACT_NAMEDATA_CONTACT_EMAILDATA_CONTACT_PHONEQUALITY_ASSURANCEPRIMARY_STATIONSECONDARY_STATIONSCLIMDES_URLCOMMENTS

LTER_CODESTATION_CODEWHAT_MEASURED

BEGIN_DATELOG_INTERVALSUMMARY_INTERVALINSTRUMENT_HEIGHTMEASUREMENT_HISTORYOBSERVATION_METHODINSTRUMENT_TYPEACCURACYCALIBRATION_HISTORY

NIS Research Module Issues / Lessons Learned

Science must drive development Site participation necessary – provide incentives Metadata capture and integration with data Host site commitment of resources and time Long-term maintenance and continual updates Proprietary rights – provide data use agreement

Data Use Agreement

Assures data provider of ethical use of data Provides citation for data source Gives protection through disclaimer Requires notification of data usage Requests copies of derivative publications Encourages good scientific citizenship

Successful Intersite Collaboration(Webster 2000)

Collegiality, trust, respect Site visits: method, procedure coordination Incentives for participation

Publications Monetary support

Baseline of data and prior research Time and patience Effective Leadership

Typical Intersite Study: Information Management

Scientist serves as data manager Complete metadata is not assembled Long-term accessibility to the database is not

planned Future updates to the database are not possible

ClimDB Variable Names LTER_Site The three-letter LTER site code

Station Local site name for the weather station (10character max)

Date An 8 character field, yyyymmdd

Daily_AirTemp_Mean_CFlag_Daily_AirTemp_Mean_C

Daily mean air temperatureData quality flag for daily mean airtemperature.

Daily_AirTemp_AbsMax_CFlag_Daily_AirTemp_AbsMax_C

Absolute maximum air temperature.Data quality flag for absolute maximum airtemperature

Daily_AirTemp_AbsMin_CFlag_Daily_AirTemp_AbsMin_C

Absolute minimum air temperature.Data quality flag for absolute minimum airtemperature

Daily_Precip_Total_mmFlag_Daily_Precip_Total_mm

Daily total precipitationData quality flag for daily totalprecipitation

Extension of ClimDB to Level 2 & 3

Measurement Parameter Name UnitsAir Temperature Airtemp CPrecipitation Precip MmRelative Humidity Rh PctWind Speed Windsp MsecWind Direction Winddir DegResultant Wind Speed Reswindsp MsecResultant Wind Direction Reswinddir DegStandard Deviation of WindDirection

Stdevwinddir Deg

Global Radiation Globalrad Jcm2Vapor Pressure Vaporpressure KpascalAtmospheric Pressure Atmpressure KpascalDewpoint Temperature Dewpointtemp CSnow Depth Snowdepth MmPan Evaporation Panevap MmdaySoil Temperature at xx cm(e.g., 5 cm)

Soiltempxx (e.g.,soiltemp05)

C

Soil Moisture at xx cm (e.g.,5 cm)

Soilmoisturexx(e.g., soilmoisture05)

Units unresolved :two possible units

Monthly Distribution FormatsV-One

DVS 003 MATMPMYear Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec1990 45.0 50.0 53.0 58.0 64.4 70.9 74.5 73.4 70.6 63.2 53.0 45.71991 44.1 50.5 52.2 59.3 65.0 70.2 73.4 72.4 71.3 64.1 53.8 46.6 1992 46.8 49.0 51.6 55.4 63.4 72.3 76.7 75.4 69.6 62.3 52.2 44.8

DVS 003 MPRECIPYear Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec1990 4.20 2.58 1.80 1.30 0.37 0.15 0.03 0.04 0.22 0.99 2.36 3.28

V-Many DVS 003 Year Month MATMPM MATMPI MATMPX MPRECIP1990 Jan 45.0 37.2 52.7 4.201990 Feb 50.0 40.3 59.6 2.581990 Mar 53.0 41.3 64.7 1.801990 Apr 58.0 44.4 71.5 1.30