Preliminary Meteorological Measurement Standards

1
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

2
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

3
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

4
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

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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

6
Intersite Exchange of Data (1986)

• Each site must make one stations 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

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

9
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

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ClimDB Centributed Mechanics (Baker et al. 2000)
Individual Site
Central Site
Public User
Monthly Data (V-One,V-Many)
CGI Script
Dynamic URL
Relational Database
Site Database
Daily Data
CGI Script
Harvester
Static URL
Graphics
Local Script
Exchange filters
Exchange format
Report formats
Distribution filters
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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

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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

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

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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

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Metadata Serves Important Roles
I never metadata I didnt like
Data Interpretation
Data Discovery
Data Integration
Metadata R Us
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LTER NETWORK METEOROLOGICAL METADATA SCHEMA
MEASUREMENT_LEVEL
STATION_LEVEL
LTER_SITE_LEVEL
LTER_CODE STATION_CODE LATITUDE LONGITUDE STATION
_DESCRIPTION TOPOGRAPHY ELEVATION SURFACE_TYPE EX
POSURE WIND_EXPOSURE STATION_START STATION_HISTORY
STATION_PHOTO
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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

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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

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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

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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

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ClimDB Variable Names
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Extension of ClimDB to Level 2 3
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Monthly Distribution Formats

• V-One
• DVS 003 MATMPM
• Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May
  Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov
  Dec
• 1990 45.0 50.0 53.0 58.0 64.4
  70.9 74.5 73.4 70.6 63.2 53.0
  45.7
• 1991 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 MPRECIP
• Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May
  Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov
  Dec
• 1990 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 MPRECIP
• 1990 Jan 45.0
  37.2 52.7
  4.20
• 1990 Feb 50.0
  40.3 59.6
  2.58
• 1990 Mar 53.0
  41.3 64.7
  1.80
• 1990 Apr 58.0
  44.4 71.5 1.30