Montana Hydrometeorological Networks

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Regional Surface Meteorological Networks

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) (5 additional stations in Montana). 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.

High Plains Regional Climate Center (HPRCC) Automated Weather Data Network (AWDN) - The HPRCC oversees and ingests data from various state agricultural networks and makes it available as the AWDN. The AWDN is comprised of 167 stations located primarily in High Plains region (2 in Montana). The network provides hourly observations of air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, soil temperature, wind speed, wind direction, and precipitation. For further information visit the HPRCC AWDN home page at: http://hpccsun.unl.edu/awdn/.

State and Local Surface Meteorological Networks

Montana Department of Transportation (DOT) Road Weather Information System (RWIS) Network - The Montana DOT operates this network of 59 stations located along highways throughout the state of Montana. The network provides 5-minute observations of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and wind direction. This network is included within the University of Utah MesoWest and NOAA/FSL MADIS data sets.. For further information visit the Montana DOT RWIS home page or the Surface Systems, Inc Road Weather page.

Montana Air Monitoring Network - The Montana Department of Environmental Quality Planning, Prevention, and Assistance Division operates this network of 4 stations located throughout the state of Montana. The network provides hourly observations of air temperature, wind speed, and wind direction. For further information visit the Planning, Prevention, and Assistance Division page.

Precipitation and Radar Networks

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 (106 in Montana) 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/.

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 (104 in Montana). 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

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 (98 in Montana). 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.

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 USDA/NRCS Montana Snow Survey Program. No Map.

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 (4 in Montana). 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/.

Radiation and Flux Networks

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 (1 in Montana). 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/

Surface Radiation (SURFRAD) Budget Network - The SURFRAD network is operated by the NOAA/Air Resources Laboratory (ARL)/Surface Radiation Research Branch (SRRB). The primary parameters measured by each station include upwelling and downwelling solar and infrared radiation. Ancillary observations include direct and diffuse solar radiation, photosynthetically active radiation, UVB, spectral solar, air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and barometric pressure. The temporal resolution of all observations is 3 minutes. There are 6 SURFRAD sites currently located across the US (1 in Montana), with 2 additional sites planned (Sioux Falls, SD and Canaan Valley, WV). For further information visit the SURFRAD home page at: http://www.srrb.noaa.gov/surfrad/.

Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) - The BSRN is a project of the World Climate Research Programme. The primary parameters measured by each station include global radiation, direct and diffuse radiation, downward longwave radiation, and meteorological observations. The networks includes 12 stations within the United States (1 in Montana). For further information visit the BSRN home page.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Ultraviolet Monitoring Program (UV-Net) - The EPA operates this network of 20 Brewer spectrophotometers throughout the US (1 in Montana). The network provides observations of full-sky spectrally resolved solar radiation in the UV-B and UV-A bands. The irradiance and total column ozone concentrations are derived from these data. For further information visit the EPA UV-Net page.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) UV-B Monitoring Network - The USDA operates this network of 29 stations with locations throughout the US (1 in Montana). The network provides 3-minute observations of spectral total/direct/diffuse radiation, air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, barometric pressure, and photosynthetically active radiation. For further information visit the USDA UV-B Monitoring page.

Ameriflux Network - The Ameriflux network consists of 54 sites conducting long-term measurements of CO2, water and energy fluxes throughout the US (1 in Montana). The typical observational frequency is 30 minutes. The parameters measured at each site vary, but Ameriflux has defined a core set of parameters that most sites collect, including fluxes of CO2, energy and water, basic meteorological and radiation parameters, and soil temperature and moisture. For further information visit the Ameriflux home page or the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division Surface Exchange Sites web page.

Soil Networks

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 (1 in Montana). For further information visit the SCAN home page.

Montana Counties Soil Climate Network (MCSCN) - The MCSCN is a county funded initiave in Montana. They use Davis weather stations to collect observations of temperature relative humidity, dew point, wind speed, wind direction, solar radiation, UV index, soil temperature, soil moisture, pressure, and evapotranspiration. Stations (8 active) are primarily located to the east of the Rocky Mountains in north central Montana. Data is collected by MesoWest. No map yet.

Hydrology Networks

United States Geological Survey (USGS) Streamflow Network - The USGS (part of the US Department of the Interior) operates this network of 7237 streamflow gages (180 in Montana) 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 Montana District Office home page at: http://mt.water.usgs.gov/.

Upper Air Networks

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 (2 in Montana). 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.

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.

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 (3 in Montana). 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.

Other Networks

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 Montana) near real time observations of aerosol spectral optical depths, aerosol size distributions and precipitable water. For further information visit the AERONET home page.

Regional Surface Meteorological Networks
	Click on the maps for larger image


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) (5 additional stations in Montana). 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.

High Plains Regional Climate Center (HPRCC) Automated Weather Data Network (AWDN) - The HPRCC oversees and ingests data from various state agricultural networks and makes it available as the AWDN. The AWDN is comprised of 167 stations located primarily in High Plains region (2 in Montana). The network provides hourly observations of air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, soil temperature, wind speed, wind direction, and precipitation. For further information visit the HPRCC AWDN home page at: http://hpccsun.unl.edu/awdn/.

State and Local Surface Meteorological Networks

Montana Department of Transportation (DOT) Road Weather Information System (RWIS) Network - The Montana DOT operates this network of 59 stations located along highways throughout the state of Montana. The network provides 5-minute observations of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and wind direction. This network is included within the University of Utah MesoWest and NOAA/FSL MADIS data sets.. For further information visit the Montana DOT RWIS home page or the Surface Systems, Inc Road Weather page.

Montana Air Monitoring Network - The Montana Department of Environmental Quality Planning, Prevention, and Assistance Division operates this network of 4 stations located throughout the state of Montana. The network provides hourly observations of air temperature, wind speed, and wind direction. For further information visit the Planning, Prevention, and Assistance Division page.

Precipitation and Radar Networks

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 (106 in Montana) 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/.

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 (104 in Montana). 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

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 (98 in Montana). 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.

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 USDA/NRCS Montana Snow Survey Program.	No Map.

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 (4 in Montana). 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/.

Radiation and Flux Networks

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 (1 in Montana). 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/

Surface Radiation (SURFRAD) Budget Network - The SURFRAD network is operated by the NOAA/Air Resources Laboratory (ARL)/Surface Radiation Research Branch (SRRB). The primary parameters measured by each station include upwelling and downwelling solar and infrared radiation. Ancillary observations include direct and diffuse solar radiation, photosynthetically active radiation, UVB, spectral solar, air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and barometric pressure. The temporal resolution of all observations is 3 minutes. There are 6 SURFRAD sites currently located across the US (1 in Montana), with 2 additional sites planned (Sioux Falls, SD and Canaan Valley, WV). For further information visit the SURFRAD home page at: http://www.srrb.noaa.gov/surfrad/.

Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) - The BSRN is a project of the World Climate Research Programme. The primary parameters measured by each station include global radiation, direct and diffuse radiation, downward longwave radiation, and meteorological observations. The networks includes 12 stations within the United States (1 in Montana). For further information visit the BSRN home page.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Ultraviolet Monitoring Program (UV-Net) - The EPA operates this network of 20 Brewer spectrophotometers throughout the US (1 in Montana). The network provides observations of full-sky spectrally resolved solar radiation in the UV-B and UV-A bands. The irradiance and total column ozone concentrations are derived from these data. For further information visit the EPA UV-Net page.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) UV-B Monitoring Network - The USDA operates this network of 29 stations with locations throughout the US (1 in Montana). The network provides 3-minute observations of spectral total/direct/diffuse radiation, air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, barometric pressure, and photosynthetically active radiation. For further information visit the USDA UV-B Monitoring page.

Ameriflux Network - The Ameriflux network consists of 54 sites conducting long-term measurements of CO2, water and energy fluxes throughout the US (1 in Montana). The typical observational frequency is 30 minutes. The parameters measured at each site vary, but Ameriflux has defined a core set of parameters that most sites collect, including fluxes of CO2, energy and water, basic meteorological and radiation parameters, and soil temperature and moisture. For further information visit the Ameriflux home page or the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division Surface Exchange Sites web page.

Soil Networks

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 (1 in Montana). For further information visit the SCAN home page.

Montana Counties Soil Climate Network (MCSCN) - The MCSCN is a county funded initiave in Montana. They use Davis weather stations to collect observations of temperature relative humidity, dew point, wind speed, wind direction, solar radiation, UV index, soil temperature, soil moisture, pressure, and evapotranspiration. Stations (8 active) are primarily located to the east of the Rocky Mountains in north central Montana. Data is collected by MesoWest.	No map yet.

Hydrology Networks

United States Geological Survey (USGS) Streamflow Network - The USGS (part of the US Department of the Interior) operates this network of 7237 streamflow gages (180 in Montana) 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 Montana District Office home page at: http://mt.water.usgs.gov/.

Upper Air Networks

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 (2 in Montana). 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.

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.

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 (3 in Montana). 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.

Other Networks

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 Montana) near real time observations of aerosol spectral optical depths, aerosol size distributions and precipitable water. For further information visit the AERONET home page.