1. REPORT FROM THE GCOS ARCHIVE CENTRE
Bryant Korzeniewski, Jay Lawrimore, and Matt Menne NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information
September 2016
NOAA Satellite and Information Service | National Centers for Environmental Information

2. Overview Hourly and Synoptic Data Daily data Monthly data
Integrated Surface Data
Daily data
GHCN-Daily as the GSN Archive
Monthly data
GHCN-Monthly and CLIMAT messages
International Surface Temperature Initiative
Global Databank

3. Hourly and Synoptic Data

4. Integrated Surface Dataset
Contains global hourly and synoptic observations compiled from ~100 sources
Developed as a joint activity with the 14th Weather Squadron of the U.S. Air Force.
Data feed and new additions managed by the 14th Weather Squadron.
Comprises over 20,000 stations worldwide, with data as far back as 1901, though big increases in volume occur in the 1940's and again in the early 1970's
Data access includes several methods: FTP, an interactive interface (called Climate Data Online), a GIS services map interface, and various Web Services

5. Integrated Surface Dataset
Currently over 11,000 stations "active" and updated daily in the database.
The data gap in the 1960s can be filled in with data from NCAR.
The best spatial coverage is in North America, Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia. Coverage in the Northern Hemisphere is better than the Southern Hemisphere,
NCAR has data from the mid-1960’s to early 1970’s to fill in the data gap during said period.

6. Daily Data

7. GHCN-Daily The GSN Daily database
The GSN daily database is managed as a subset of the Global Historical Climatology Network-Daily (GHCN-D) data set
U.S. and global daily in situ dataset derived from multiple (~30) sources
Integrates latest U.S. daily source archives and real-time updates for many U.S. Networks as well as Canada. GTS updates for non-U.S. sites in some cases. Monthly updates for Australia, ECA&D sites.
>30,000 temperature stations
>100,000 precipitation stations
>40,000 snowfall or snow depth stations
Used ISD’s “Global Summary of the Day” as a source for snow depth observations outside the U.S. and Canada
For ease of access, a separate directory of GSN station files is maintained at ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/gsn

8. Number of Stations by Year by element
Drop off in precip. is due to India dataset ending in 1970’s and Brazilian data that ended in the 1990’s. Increase in data in 2000’s is CoCoRaHS.
Snowfall in 2000’s is CoCoRaHS. Little dip in Snowdepth around 2000.

9. GHCN-D Temperature record length
One record is 240 years in duration.  Milan, Italy

10. Updates to GHCN-D
Approximately 990 out of the 1019 GSN stations have daily data of some kind in the GHCN-Daily/GSN archive.
A small number of the GSN sites are updated regularly through arrangements made by the GCOS Lead Centres (Iran, Estonia, Uzbekistan, Estonia, Cyprus) while other National Meteorological Services provide occasional updates via .
Some are updated through bilateral agreements with other countries and the Lead Centre at NCEI (USA, Australia, Canada, Russia).
The number of GSN stations was around 850 about three years ago.

11. Ongoing Global Additions
In addition, wider ongoing updates are provided by the European Climate Assessment activity led by KNMI
This program provides monthly updates of daily observations for stations throughout Europe, parts of North Africa, and the Middle East
The NMS in Uzbekistan consistently provides data within the first two to five days each month
The NMS of Cyprus has previously provided data for Larnaca on a periodic basis via
Data from the U.S., Canada and Australia are received via ftp.

12. Ongoing Global Additions
NCEI prefers to establish regular data updates of full period of record datasets through ftp or web services to ensure the most consistent and complete historical and current data
Period of record updates help ensure the global archive remains consistent with changes and corrections to historical data made by individual countries.
Several countries have provided complete copies of their daily climate databases for inclusion in GHCN-D
Updates for last month are generally available by the 15th of the current month
Data received will be put into the ISTI Databank as well as entry into GHCN- Daily

13. Monthly Mean Surface Data

14. GHCN-Monthly
Monthly mean temperature maintained in GHCN- Monthly dataset.
Currently version 3 in operations (7280 stations)
Version 4 (~26000 stations) in beta, will be released operationally in October.
Essential for monitoring mean changes in global land surface temperature
Precipitation data are also available in version 2.
Example of global coverage and temperature anomalies in GHCN-M version 4 (Data-Year: 2010)

15. GHCN-Monthly version 4
The greatest increase in percent land coverage is since 1990.
This new version will ensure consistency between GHCN-Monthly and GHCN-Daily datasets

16. GHCN-Monthly
Temperature records in GHCN-Monthly are adjusted to reveal the true climate signal by removing artificial influences associated with factors such as changes in instrumentation, observer practices, and station environment that can occur through time.

17. GHCN-Monthly (Monitoring and Assessment)
GHCN-Monthly temperature records are combined with ocean surface temperature data for monitoring climate variability and change.

18. Monthly CLIMAT messages
Monthly CLIMAT messages serve as the basis for operational climate monitoring activities and are used to update NCEI’s GHCN-Monthly dataset
Most CLIMAT stations provide data all 12 months of the year
Most consistent reporting in WMO Regions IV and VI

20. International Surface Temperature Initiative

21. International Surface Temperature Initiative
A new international effort was initiated in September 2010 led by NCEI, the UK Met Office, and other international partners
To help facilitate greater international collaboration associated with global dataset development, transparency, quality control, and benchmarking
Data stewarded in the ISTI Databank
Approximately 85% of the ISTI Databank consists of data from NCEI’s GHCN-Daily/Monthly datasets

22. Global Land Surface Databank
ISTI Databank of land surface temperature exists in various “Stages”
Stage 0: paper record
Stage 1: Native format
Stage 2: Common format
With data provenance tracking flags added to each data value to provide traceability back to the original source
Stage 3: Merged dataset
J. J. Rennie, J. H. Lawrimore, B. E. Gleason, P. W. Thorne, C. P. Morice, M. J. Menne, C. N. Williams, W. Gambi de Almeida, J.R. Christy, M. Flannery, M. Ishihara, K. Kamiguchi, A. M. G. Klein-Tank, A. Mhanda, D. H. Lister, V. Razuvaev, M. Renom, M. Rusticucci, J. Tandy, S. J. Worley, V. Venema, W. Angel, M. Brunet, B. Dattore, H. Diamond, M. A. Lazzara, F. Le Blancq, J. Luterbacher, H. Mächel, J. Revadekar, R. S. Vose and X. Yin, 2014: The International Surface Temperature Initiative global land surface databank: Monthly temperature data release description and methods. Geoscience Data Journal, 1, 75–102, doi: /gdj3.8.

23. Global Land Surface Databank
GHCN-Monthly version 4, for example
ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/globaldatabank/

24. Summary Hourly and Synoptic Data Daily data Monthly data
Integrated Surface Data
Daily data
GHCN-Daily as the GSN Archive
Monthly data
GHCN-Monthly and CLIMAT messages
International Surface Temperature Initiative
Global Databank

25. Thank you!

26. www.ncei.noaa.gov www.climate.gov
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