This page describes and gives options for manipulating the
NOAA NCDC USHCN dataset. We start with the
options for manipulating, because once you are comfortable with the
system, they are the most useful.
Dataset Options
- Help/Terse
- switches back and forth between this relatively
descriptive page that contains extended explanations, and the page that just has the information.
- Expert Mode
- switches into a mode that lets you access
several datasets at the same time, and enter data-manipulating
commands directly as text rather than clicking on a series of pages.
When in Expert Mode there is a list of active datasets at the top of
the page, followed by a text window containing the command equivalent
of the current page. These commands can be edited or extended.
- Views
- (the icons that show different views) go to an interactive data
viewer that let you view the data with a variety of plot types
(including colors and contours), zoom
in and out, and select different slices and different variables. You can
also save the view in a variety of formats, including as a clickable
link in your own html document, as well as extract the data in the
view as a table or datafile.
- Data Selection
- lets you pick out a subset of the full dataset. You should try
the interactive data viewer first.
- Data Files
- lets you download
the dataset in your choice of format.
- Tables
- lets you view the data as a table.
A number of formatting options are available.
Note that there will be many more options once you have picked a
particular variable, because the server is currently more adept at manipulating
single variables than it is at manipulating datasets (e.g. collections
of variables).
Dataset Description
We start with a quick reminder of where you are in the collection of datasets.
As you go from left to right, the datasets listed get more and more
specific, ending with the current dataset, NOAA NCDC USHCN. Datasets with documentation are marked (*): the * links to the documentation directly.
NOAA NCDC United States Historical Climatology Network
NOAA NCDC United States Historical Climatology Network: Monthly averaged maximum, minimum, and mean temperature and total monthly precipitation from stations in the United States.Documents
give additional information about the current dataset.- outline
- shows all the different parts of this dataset (the parts are datasets and variables, see below).
- dataset documentation
-
- detailed documentation
-
Variables (also called data or dependent variables) are sets of numbers, along with the grids (independent variables) that place those numbers in space and time, and the additional information (such as units) that render the data meaningful. Datasets are collections of variables and datasets. This will become clearer once you look at the outline.
| cfv | NOAA NCDC USHCN cfv[Max
prcp
mean
Min
]
|
| elev | NOAA NCDC USHCN elev[ ID |]
|
| filnet | NOAA NCDC USHCN filnet[Max
calc_mean
mean
Min
prcp
]
|
| lat | NOAA NCDC USHCN lat[ ID |]
|
| lon | NOAA NCDC USHCN lon[ ID |]
|
| Name | NOAA NCDC USHCN Name[ ID |]
|
| raw | NOAA NCDC USHCN raw[Max
prcp
mean
Min
]
|
| state | NOAA NCDC USHCN state[ ID |]
|
| State Division | NOAA NCDC USHCN statediv[ ID |]
|
| tos | NOAA NCDC USHCN tos[Max
calc_mean
mean
Min
prcp
]
|
| urban | NOAA NCDC USHCN urban[Max
calc_mean
mean
Min
]
|
Grids
Grids are the independent variables contained in this dataset.
| StationID | grid: /ID (ids) ordered [ (11084) (12813) (13160) ... (489905)] N= 1221 pts :grid
|
| time | grid: /T (months since 1960-01-01) ordered (0011 1 Jan 1695 - 0011 1 Feb 1695) to (Dec 1996) by 0.9999999 N= 3624 pts :grid
|
References
Karl, T.R., C.N. Williams, Jr., F.T. Quinlan, and T.A. Boden, 1990: United States Historical Climatology Network (HCN) Serial Temperature and Precipitation Data, Environmental Science Division, Publication No. 3404, Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 389 pp.
