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| Regional Surface Meteorological Networks |
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| United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) Agricultural Weather Networks
(AgriMet) - There are two networks included here with similar data collection
efforts. The USBR Great Plains Region operates the Great Plains Cooperative Agricultural
Weather Network that consists of 20 stations located in central and western Montana. The
USBR Pacific Northwest Region operates the Pacific Northwest Cooperative Agricultural
Weather Network that consists of 69 stations located throughout the Pacific Northwest
(primarily Washington, Oregon and Idaho) (17 in Idaho). Both networks provide up to
15-minute observations of air temperature, dew point, relative humidity, precipitation,
solar radiation, wind speed, wind direction and wind gust. Other parameters collected at
some stations include soil temperature (at 1, 2, 4, 8, 20 and/or 40 inch depths),
barometric pressure, leaf wetness, and diffuse solar radiation. This network is included
as part of the University of Utah
MesoWest and NOAA/FSL
MADIS data sets. For further
information visit the
USBR Great
Plains Region AgriMet home page or the
USBR Pacific Northwest
Region AgriMet home page. |
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| Union Pacific Railroad Weather Station Network - The Union Pacific Railroad
operates this network of 264 weather stations (22 in Idaho) located in the central and western United
States. Further information on Union Pacific is available on their
home page. This network is included as part of the University of Utah
MesoWest and NOAA/Earth
System Research Laboratory (ESRL) Global Systems Division (GSD)
MADIS data sets. |
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| State and Local Meteorological Networks |
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| Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL)
Network - The NOAA/Air Resources Laboratory/Field Research Division operates
this network of 31 stations at locations around the Idaho National Engineering and
Environmental Laboratory site in southeastern Idaho. The network provides 5-minute
observations of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction,
solar radiation, precipitation, and barometric pressure. This network is included
within the University of Utah
MesoWest and the NOAA/FSL
MADIS data sets. For further
information visit the Field Research Division home page at:
http://www.noaa.inel.gov/. |
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| Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) Road Weather Information System
(RWIS) Network - The ITD operates this network of 41 stations located
along highways throughout the state of Idaho. The network provides 5-minute
observations of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and wind direction.
This network is included as part of the University of Utah
MesoWest and NOAA/Earth
System Research Laboratory (ESRL) Global Systems Division (GSD)
MADIS data sets.
For further information visit the
ITD RIWS page. |
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| KTVB7 First Alert Weather Network
- KTVB-TV in Boise, ID operates this network of 10 stations located primarily at
schools throughout southwestern Idaho (9 in Idaho). The network provides up to 1-minute
observations of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction,
precipitation, and barometric pressure. For further information visit the
KTVB7
network page. |
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| Precipitation and Radar Networks |
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| NOAA/National Centers for Environmental
Prediction (NCEP) Hourly Precipitation Data - NOAA/NCEP routinely develops
a National Multi-sensor Hourly Precipitation Analysis (Stage II) data set from
hourly radar precipitation estimates and from hourly gage reports. The gage data
includes hourly observations from ~4000 gages across the US (99 in Idaho)
collected by the NOAA River Forecast Centers and sent to NCEP. Further information
on these data is available at:
http://wwwt.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/mmb/ylin/pcpanl/. |
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| NOAA/NWS Cooperative Observer 15-minute Precipitation Network - The
NOAA/NWS
routinely collects 15-minute observations of precipitation from Fisher-Porter and Universal
rain gages operated by 2777 cooperative observers located throughout the US (59 in Idaho).
These data are archived at NOAA/National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) as data set TD 3260.
For further information visit the NOAA/NCDC TD3260 page at:
http://ols.nndc.noaa.gov/plolstore/plsql/olstore.prodspecific?prodnum=C00505-TAP-A0001 |
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| Snowpack Telemetry (SNOTEL) Network - The United States Department of
Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) operates this network of 754
stations with locations throughout the mountainous areas of the western US (81 in
Idaho). The temporal resolution and parameters measured vary by station. Up to hourly
observations of air temperature, precipitation, snow depth, and snow water content are
typically provided. Other parameters that may be available include relative humidity, wind
speed, wind direction, solar radiation, soil moisture, and soil temperature. These data
are archived by the NRCS, Western Regional Climate Center, and other. For further
information visit the
NRCS SNOTEL Data Network
home page or the
Western Regional Climate Center SNOTEL data page or the
US Bureau
of Reclamation SNOTEL page. |
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| USDA/NRCS Snow Survey Program - The USDA/NRCS Snow Survey Program
provides mountain snow course data at approximately 800 locations throughout the
western US. For further information visit the
USDA/NRCS Snow
Course Data Network page and the
Idaho
Snow Survey Program. |
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| Weather Surveillance Radar 1988 Doppler (WSR-88D)
Network - The NOAA/NWS and the Department of Defense operate this network
of 143 WSR-88D radars across the contiguous US (2 in Idaho). The Level II
data are the three meteorological base data quantities (reflectivity, mean radial
velocity, and spectrum width) and are recorded at all NWS and most DOD sites.
Level II data are then processed in order to create a number of meteorological analysis
products known as Level III data. Level III data are recorded at the NWS sites. The
Level III products included base reflectivity, base spectrum width, base velocity,
composite reflectivity, echo tops, velocity azimuth display (VAD) wind profile,
vertically integrated liquid (VIL), 1-hour precipitation, storm total precipitation,
hail index overlay, mesocyclone overlay, severe weather probability overlay, storm
structure, storm tracking information overlay, and tornadic vortex signature overlay.
All Level II and III data are archived at NOAA/NCDC. For further information visit
the NOAA/NCDC Radar Resources page at:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/radar/radarresources.html or the NOAA Radar
Operations Center at:
http://www.roc.noaa.gov/. |
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| Radiation and Flux Networks |
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| University of Oregon Solar Radiation Monitoring Laboratory Network -
The University of Oregon Solar Radiation Monitoring Laboratory Network consists of 21
stations located throughout Oregon and nearby states (5 in Idaho). The parameters
measured vary by station but typically provide up to 5-minute observations of global,
direct and diffuse solar along with some meteorological parameters. For further
information visit the SRML Network home page at:
http://solardat.uoregon.edu/
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| Soil Networks |
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| Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) - The SCAN is operated by the United
States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The
network provides hourly observations of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed,
wind direction, solar radiation, precipitation, barometric pressure, snow water content,
snow depth, soil temperature (at 2, 4, 8, 20, and 40 cm depths), and soil moisture (at 2, 4,
8, 20 and 40 cm depths). The 80 SCAN stations are located across the US in primarily
agricultural regions (4 in Idaho). For further information visit the
SCAN home page. |
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| Hydrology Networks |
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| United States Geological Survey (USGS) Streamflow
Network - The USGS (part of the US Department of the Interior) operates this
network of 7237 streamflow gages (125 in Idaho) at locations throughout the US.
The network provides hourly or more frequent observations of stage (water level) from
which discharge (flow) is computed using a stage-discharge rating relation. The
rating is defined by occasional direct current-meter measurements of discharge. All
data are available through the USGS and the district offices in each state. Many of
these gages provide realtime data
relayed via the GOES satellite data collection system. The realtime data are
provisional data that have not been reviewed or edited. These realtime data
may be subject to significant change and are not citeable until reviewed and approved
by the USGS. Realtime data may be changed after review because the stage-discharge
relationship may have been affected by: 1) backwater from ice or debris; 2) algal and
aquatic growth in the stream; 3) sediment movement; and 4) malfunction of recording
equipment. Each station record is considered provisional until the data are
published. The data are usually published with 6 months of the end of the water year
(1 October to 30 September). Data users are cautioned to consider carefully the
provisional nature of the information before using it. For further information on the
USGS streamflow network visit the USGS Water Resources of the United States page at:
http://water.usgs.gov/ or the
USGS Idaho District Office home page at:
http://id.water.usgs.gov/. |
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| USDA/ARS Watershed Research - The USDA/ARS operates a number of
research watersheds throughout the US. Some of the best instrumented include the
Reynolds Creek in Idaho, the Walnut Gulch in Arizona, the Southern Plains
Experimental Range in Oklahoma, the Little Washita River in Oklahoma, the Blackland
Prairie in Texas, the Goodwater Creek in Missouri, the Walnut Creek in Iowa,
Goodwin Creek in Mississippi, the Little River in Georgia, the Oconee River in
Georgia, the North Appalachian Watershed in Ohio, the National Agriculture Research
Center in Maryland, and the Mahantango Creek in Pennsylvania. Most of these have at
least one surface meteorological station and a precipitation gage network. For
further information visit the USDA/ARS Watershed Research home page at:
http:/www.nwrc.ars.usda.gov/watershed/. |
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| Upper Air Networks |
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| NOAA/NWS Radiosonde Network Low Vertical Resolution Data - The NOAA/NWS
typically releases radiosondes twice per day at 0000 and 1200 UTC at 69 locations throughout
the US (1 in Idaho). During special weather situations the NWS can request to release
additional radiosondes at off-times (e.g. 1800 UTC). The low resolution data is sent out
over the Global Telecommunications System (GTS) and provides mandatory and significant level
observations of pressure, altitude, temperature, dew point, wind speed, and wind direction.
There are 3 types of radiosondes utilized within the US network, Vaisala, VIZ (or Sippican),
and Microsonde. These data are archived by NOAA/NCDC and other organizations. For further
information on the NWS Radiosonde network visit the
NWS Upper-air Observations Program
home page. A several year archive of GTS upper air data is available at the
NOAA/FSL Radiosonde Database. |
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| NOAA/NWS Radiosonde Network High Vertical Resolution Data - The same
radiosonde locations mentioned in the previous data set also provide a 6-second vertical
resolution data set that provides observations of pressure, temperature, altitude,
relative humidity, and azimuth and elevation angles. UCAR/JOSS has developed software
to derive 6-second vertical resolution winds from the angle data. These data are
archived by NCDC and UCAR/JOSS. |
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| Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL)
Wind Profiler - The NOAA/Air Resources Laboratory/Field Research Division operates
a wind profiler at the INEEL site in southeastern Idaho. The profiler provides 30-minute
vertical profiles of wind speed and wind direction.
For futher information visit the
Field Research Division home page. |
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| Ground Based Global Positioning System (GPS) Meteorology Demonstration Network
(GPS-MET) - The NOAA/FSL ingests data from 323 GPS locations around the US
operated by many different agencies (1 in Idaho). Typically each location provides
30-minute observations of integrated precipitatable water along with a number of surface
meteorology parameters (air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, etc).
For further information visit the GPS-MET home page at:
http://www.gpsmet.noaa.gov/jsp/index.jsp. |
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| Other Networks |
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| Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) - AERONET is an optical ground-based aerosol
monitoring network and data archive supported by NASA's Earth Observing System. The network
hardware consists of identical automatic sun-sky scanning spectral radiometers owned by national
agencies and universities. Data from this collaboration provides globally distributed (1 in Idaho)
near real time observations of aerosol spectral optical depths, aerosol size distributions and precipitable
water. For further information visit the
AERONET home page. |
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