How Data in Library Holdings can be used to Improve Climate Databases

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How Data in Library Holdings can be used to
Improve Climate Databases by Joey Comeaux
(NCAR) Steve Worley (NCAR) Joe Elms (NCDC)
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INTRODUCTION

• Discuss Objective
• Definition
• Examples of the problem
• CDMP Project
• How can ASLI Assist?

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OBJECTIVE

• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR -
  Data Support Section)
• National Climatic Data Center (NCDC)
• Improve the chronological and spatial coverage of
  Meteorological and Oceanographic observations

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1973 - Later Good Coverage
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1963-1972 Lost Observation ?
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Need More Observations
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Earth Systems Research Lab (ESRL) NOAA Climate
Study Ingest Surface or Sea Level
Pressure Will produce long term analysis of
surface pressure
Future Projects NCEP and ECMWF Reanalysis
projects 80-100 years coming soon Climate
Studies Back to 1850?
Reanalysis Project which use most
current numerical model to analyze long periods
of meteorological and oceanographic observations

• ERA-40
• Ingested
• Surface
• Upper Air
• Ship
• Satellite Observations
• Produced gridded analyses extremely useful for
  Climate Studies and other research

• NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis (NNR)
• Ingested
• Surface
• Upper Air
• Ship
• Satellite Observations
• Produced gridded analyses extremely useful for
  Climate Studes
• and other research
• Ongoing project

Stefan Bronnimann Institute for Atmosphere and
Climate Science Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology Climate Study Ingest Upper Air
Observations Will produce Upper Level Monthly
Mean Circulation Data
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ERA-40
NNR
SB
ESRL
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CDMP

• Climate Database Modernization Program
• NOAA/NCDC
• Simple Mission
• To make major climate and environmental
  databases available via the world wide web
• Mechanisms
• Imaging existing hard copy sources
• Key entering data into database

Mechanism for obtaining the objective?
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ASLI

• How can ASLI Assist?
• We believe there are potential sources of data
  tucked away in various Libraries
• Potential sources have already been identified at
  Univ. of Alaska in Fairbanks and Environment
  Canada
• Thanks to Julia Tripplehorn
• Useful data also likely in Russia, China and
  other countries
• This is an international effort

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• Info Required
• Type of Data
• Type of Measurement
• Time Period
• Location and Elevation
• Station or Platform ID

• Surface Data
• Land Station
• Oceanographic
• Upper Air
• Radiosondes
• Aircraft
• Station Histories
• Manuals of latitude, longitude, elevation, name,
  time period

Librarian Potential Data Source

• Temperature
• Winds
• Precipitation
• Pressure
• ..

Example of A Process to Determine Potential
Benefit of a Data Source
Analyze Data Compare to existing
climatological database
NCAR DSS
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Librarian Potential Data Source
Data will improve Temporal or spatial Coverage
of Climatic database
NCAR DSS
NCDC CDMP
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• Type of Media
• Hardcopy
• Books, manuals, computer print-outs
• On digital media
• 1/2 inch tapes
• Microfiche
• DAT tapes
• Already in Digital form

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SUMMARY

• NCAR and NCDC are attempting to improve the
  database of Meteorological and Oceanographic
  observations
• It is possible some valuable sources of data
  exist in different libraries
• To determine if data is unique, we need to know
  
• Type of observation
• Time period covered
• Geographic location
• Station or platform ID

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SUMMARY

• Types of Data
• Observations from Land Surface stations or
  Oceanographic platforms
• Upper Air observations from
• Radiosondes (balloons)
• Aircraft
• Station Dictionaries
• Manuals which provide station ids, latitude,
  longitude and elevation, name, time period
• Others ?

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SUMMARY

• Contact
• Joey Comeaux
• email joey_at_ucar.edu
• phn 303-497-1256