Citizen Science Data Repositories

Historical Weather Data Repositories

There is a large number of regional and national databanks of observational climate data. Several global initiatives are in place to consolidate the databanks to allow comprehensive, one-stop access by climate researchers. However, many of the databanks cover only the computer-based record, which started in the late-middle 20th century. ACRE’s interests are focussed on a deeper historical perspective, taking in the paper-based records that preceded the computer era. Five sources of data which offer the temporal spread suited to ACRE’s data rescue are outlined below. The International Surface Pressure Databank ( ISPD ) The ISPD is the world's largest collection of atmospheric pressure observations, stretching from 1722 to near-current (data in early years is sparse). It has been developed by extracting observations from numerous sources including established international archives of meteorological variables and combining these with observations rescued and recorded by ACRE partners. The ISPD consists of three components: station observations, marine observations, and tropical cyclone best track pressure reports. The station component merges more than 40 national and international collections and numerous contributions made by ACRE partners. The ISPD is assembled under the auspices of: • Working Group on Surface Pressure of the Global Climate Observing System - GCOS) • Working Group on Observational Data Sets for Reanalysis of the Earth System Research Laboratory, NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and the University of Colorado's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). • ACRE - many of the paper-based digitised observations have come from ACRE partners. Examples include UK Met Office data covering global observations for an extensive period and the South Australian Weather Folios Project’s contribution of 350,000 observations covering the SW Pacific for 1879-1905. Version 4 of the ISPD has the following content: Stations: 39,085 Year-files: 616,572 Sea level press observations: 1,301,543,547 Surface pressure observations: 912,145,218 Version 5 of the ISPD covering 1755-2010 is currently being assembled Reanalysis – the ISPD observational data are used as input to a reanalysis which also incorporates data from ICOADS and IBTrACS (see below). Products of these reanalyses are available to the scientific community. Over 60 organisations have contributed to the existence of the ISPD, many of them as Partners and Chapters of the ACRE Project

International Comprehensive Ocean Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS)

ICOADS

is

the

largest

collection

of

verified

surface

marine

observations

in

the

world

covering

1662

(data

in

early

years

are

sparse)

to

near-present.

The

observations

include

sea

surface

and

air

temperatures,

wind,

pressure,

humidity,

and

cloudiness.

Observational

data

originated

mainly

from

digitised

ships’

logbooks

but

in

later

years,

included

readings

taken

by

moored

and

drifting

buoys

and

other

automated

platforms.

Established

international

databases

contributed

the

majority

of

readings

but

current

updates

to

ICOADS

are

flowing

principally

from

ACRE

and

its

partners.

In

late

2011,

ICOADS was de-funded and remains in suspension.

ICOADS is assembled under the auspices of:

• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) National Science Foundation • WORLD Data Centre for Meteorology U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) • ACRE- OldWeather has contributed some 1.6 million marine surface weather observations and along with the Weather Detective Project out of Australia is in the process of contributing another 1.5 million entries covering the mid-late 19th Century.

Enhanced

Data

Set

–

ICOADS

does

not

undertake

its

own

reanalysis

but

it

does

provide

an

interpolated

data

set

where

observed

data

are

synthesized

to

products

by

computing

statistical

summaries,

on

a

monthly

basis,

for

samples

within

2°

latitude

×

2°

longitude

and

1°

×

1°

boxes

beginning in 1800 and 1960. (link to Reanalysis page of website)

International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS)

IBTrACS

provides

tropical

cyclone

best

track

data

in

a

centralized

location

to

aid

the

understanding

of

the

distribution,

frequency,

and

intensity

of

tropical

cyclones

worldwide.

It

combines

information

from

numerous

tropical

cyclone

datasets

to

present

the

most

complete

available

global

set

of

historical

tropical cyclones from 1842 to current.

The IBTrACS is assembled under the auspices of:

• National Climate Data Centre

of the Global Climate Observing System - GCOS)

• Working Group on Observational Data Sets for Reanalysis

of

the

Earth

System

Research

Laboratory,

NOAA's

National

Climatic

Data

Center

(NCDC)

and

the

University

of

Colorado's

Cooperative

Institute

for

Research

in

Environmental

Sciences

(CIRES).

• ACRE - Partner data will enrich IBTrACS central pressure and wind observations for storms that occurred prior to the 1940, particularly for the Indian Ocean and South China Sea regions.

Meteorological Archival and Retrieval System (MARS)

The Meteorological Archival and Retrieval System (MARS) is the main repository of meteorological

data at ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). It contains petabytes of

operational and research data, as well as data from Special Projects. It includes forecasts, analyses,

climate re-analyses, reforecasts and multi-model data reaching back to 1990.

National Centres for Environmental Information

GHCN-M

The Global Historical Climatology Network-Monthly (GHCN-M) temperature dataset includes the

removal of inhomogeneities associated with non-climatic influences such as changes in

instrumentation, station environment, and observing practices that occur over time. Version 3 is the

latest dataset for operational climate monitoring activities. It has a temporal spreead of 1950 to recent.

GHCN-D

The Global Historical Climatology Network - Daily (GHCN-Daily) dataset integrates daily climate

observations from approximately 30 different data sources. Version 3 contains station-based

measurements from well over 90,000 land-based stations worldwide, about two thirds of which are for

precipitation measurement only. Other meteorological elements include, but are not limited to, daily

maximum and minimum temperature, temperature at the time of observation, snowfall and snow

depth. It has a temporal spreead of 1880 to recent.

ISD

The Integrated Surface Database (ISD) consists of global hourly and synoptic observations compiled

from numerous sources into a single common ASCII format and common data model. ISD integrates

data from over 100 original data sources, including numerous data formats that were key-entered from

paper forms during the 1950s–1970s time frame. The database includes over 35,000 stations

worldwide, some extending to 1901. ISD includes numerous parameters such as wind speed and

direction, wind gust, temperature, dew point, cloud data, sea level pressure, altimeter setting, station

pressure, present weather, visibility, precipitation amounts for various time periods, snow depth, and

various other elements as observed by each station.

LINKS ISPD Guidelines for submitting data to ISPD (download) Annual maps of contributing weather stations Time series map of stations for ISPD version 4 (video) Procedures for blending station component (download) Other Sources The following links may be useful for those interested in other climate databases, including from model-derived sources Reanalysis.org Met Office Hadley Centre observations datasets Global Observing Systems Information Center (GOSIC) WMO Climate Data and Data Related Products International Surface Temperature Initiative [ ISTI] Global Precipitation Climatology Centre [ GPCC] Global Precipitation Analysis MERIT image portal (proof of concept)

ICOADS Review of ICOADS Status (download) Time Series Display of Data (video)