date: Wed Jan 9 13:44:27 2008 from: Phil Jones subject: FW: Location of WMO's GCOS stations to: Adrian Simmons , "Stephan Bojinski" , Richard Thigpen Adrian, Stephan, Dick This isn't an important email, so you can ignore till the AOPC meeting. I'm trying to help Ian Strangeways (who Adrian may know) to write a book about temperature measuring - how we calculate global T, errors etc. He's also talking to Chris Folland about SST. I'm trying to stop him going off on pointless tangents. I've sent him chapter and verse on GCOS and most of my papers. First, he wanted to put loads of AWSs around the world to measure T properly - common sensors etc. I muttered something about living in the real world... Now, he's on about the lack of detail in the locations of GSN sites and also those in Volume A. I've also told him this is pointless and what matters is getting the data from these sites. I don't care if they are a little bit inaccurate in their locations and I doubt ECMWF and the other operational centres care either. It seems as though he's found some people who do, expecting to be able to go to google earth and give it detailed locations and find a Stevenson Screen! Have a look through some of the links - the Gladstonefamily website (!!) and that for El Nahud in Sudan. I just wanted to make sure people in the WMO building and CBS are aware that at some point someone will say, we can't the weather stations WMO say are there. Maybe if we did know where they are to a greater accuracy, we could check by Google Earth whether instruments were there !! Maybe they have some resources they can give to GCOS..... Cheers Phil From: "Ian Strangeways" To: Subject: FW: Location of WMO's GCOS stations Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 19:49:47 -0000 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 12.0 Thread-Index: AchR/XO2SRu80DnSSveJbT5+q6GNPQAMdvTw X-UEA-Spam-Score: 2.0 X-UEA-Spam-Level: ++ X-UEA-Spam-Flag: NO Phil You may find this email exchange interesting. Ian -----Original Message----- From: Philip Gladstone [[1]mailto:philip@gladstonefamily.net] Sent: 08 January 2008 13:50 To: Ian Strangeways Subject: Re: Location of WMO's GCOS stations Ian, The deal is that even the data that the WMO has in their Pub 9 Vol A is inaccurate at the minute level. Part of what I am trying to do is to improve that data. You can look at [2]http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/cgi-bin/wxdiff.pl to get some idea of the scale of the problem. My master list is at [3]http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/cgi-bin/location.pl/pjsg_all_location.txt (also available in other formats -- linked from page above). You could filter this by the GCOS sites.... In some cases the location of the observations is marked. In many cases, the location selection process has picked the airport reference point. If you find any better data, then please let me know. The data is good for Australia and for some sites in the US. For the rest of the world it is not so clear. For example, I got this message today: > I work on LIMH. =) > > I'm writing from the meteo station, in this moment. > > It's 05:13/Z. > > Bye > > Max > > Location Source Latitude Longitude Latitude Longitude > > New for LIMH 45.93518 7.70724 45° 56' 07" N 7° 42' 26" E > Consensus 45.93000 7.70000 45° 55' 48" N 7° 42' 00" E > > Estimated elevation at new location is 3462 meters, originally 3488 meters > > Page: [4]http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/site/LIMH?showall=1&lat=45.93518&lng=7.70724 > The WMO location was 2.5 miles away from this new location. Is LIMH really the same as 16052? [I've asked the person who sent me the email]. Good luck Philip Ian Strangeways wrote: > Dear Philip > > > > I am writing a book for Cambridge University Press with the title > /Measuring Global temperatures Past, Present and Future/, following on > from my earlier books, also for CUP, with the titles /Measuring the > Natural Environment/ (1^st and 2^nd editions) and a year ago a book with > the title â/Precipitation: Theory, Measurement and Distribution/â. You > may also have seen my series of articles for the Royal Meteorological > Society magazine /Weather/ on /The Met. Enclosure/ (15 articles between > 1995 and 2005). > > > > In writing the present book on temperature, I will be including some > details of the WMO GCOS network of surface stations. However, I have > been unable to find a list giving the station locations to better than 1 > minute lat/long and this does not pinpoint their position well enough to > judge their exposure (rural/urban) and hopefully even to see the > Stevenson Screen. Do you have any suggestions about where I can find > such information? Does CWOP have such a list for example? > > > > Hope you can help > > > > Best wishes > > > > Ian Strangeways > > > > > > /Dr Ian C Strangeways/ > > /7 Cherwell Close/ > > /Thames Street/ > > /Wallingford/ > > /Oxfordshire, OX10 0HF/ > > /United Kingdom/ > > / / > > /Tel 01491 839398/ > > /e-mail: ian.strangeways@ntlworld.com > <[5]mailto:ian.strangeways@ntlworld.com> / > > / [6]www.ianstrangeways.org.uk <[7]http://www.ianstrangeways.org.uk/> / > > Synop Information for 62781 in En Nahud, Sudan The following information is known about 62781. If you think that any information is incorrect, then please follow the instructions for correcting that data item. It is possible that this page will report a problem where no problem exists. If you believe that this has happened, then please contact me (address at the bottom of this page) and explain clearly why you think this page is in error. Note that any changes that you make may take a few days to show up here, so please give it a week before commenting. Location Map: If this message persists, then your browser is not compatible with Google Maps. [] [8]Larger [9]Smaller View in [10]Google Earth. Registered Location Latitude: 12B0 42' 0" N (deg min sec), 12.7000B0 (decimal), 1242.00N (LORAN) Longitude: 28B0 26' 0" E (deg min sec), 28.4333B0 (decimal), 02826.00E (LORAN) Elevation: 564 meters (1850 feet) -- validated against 570 meters (1870 feet) from SRTM.C_20TO43_3 Location: En Nahud, Sudan The site coordinates appear to be of low precision, and the station may be anywhere within the marked area. Clicking within the map area (or you can drag the '62781' marker) will display the latitude/longitude of that point. If the displayed location of the weather observing location is incorrect, please drag the marker to the right location (or click in the right location), and then [11]send the updated information. Please note that we are trying to spot either the Stevenson Screen (or equivalent) or the location where the barometric readings are taken. Email address: Comments, including how you know the location of this weather station. Press Cancel if you do not know where the weather station is located. The latitude and longitude of the marker will be included in the message. Cancel The location information for this site was gathered from 3 data sources. The source which most closely matches the consensus is chosen. Many of these sources only report the location to the nearest minute (or hundredth of degree). This can lead to the marker being placed noticeably incorrectly. Please see [12]Discussion of Location Errors for more information. The position of the clicked point on the map is: The position of the '62781' marker on the map is: Latitude: dummy (deg min sec), dummy (decimal), dummy (LORAN) Longitude: dummy (deg min sec), dummy (decimal), dummy (LORAN) Estimated elevation is dummy meters (dummy feet) from dummy. There are no photographs of the station. If you have pictures of this location, then please upload them to [13]Flickr ([14]detailed instructions) and add the two tags 'wxtagged' and 'wx:wmo=62781'. If the picture is of the weather station itself, then please also add the 'wx:station' tag as well. Please geotag your images, and those coordinates may be used in the estimation of the location of this site. You can try to find photographs from the area surrounding the site marker by clicking on Find nearby photographs. (There are some) (There are none) (There may be some) (Automatically loaded if any) Status: Searching... Status: None found. Clicking on the map above will redo the search centered on the clicked point. Status: 3 found. If any images are of the weather station, then please click on those images, and add the 'wxtagged' and 'wx:wmo=62781' tags to those images. For the station itself, please add the 'wx:station' tag as well. Some users do not permit other users to add tags to their images. In these cases, just add a comment to the picture asking the photographer to add the tags themselves. Clicking on the map above will redo the search centered on the clicked point. You can try to find photographs from the area surrounding the selected point by clicking on Find nearby photographs. Data Status Over the last 28 days, no data was seen on the following dates: 2007-12-21. All the means and standard deviations shown below are from the last 28 days. Change analysis period to [15]Last 3 days [16]Last 7 days [17]Last 14 days [18]Last 8 weeks [19]Last 13 weeks [20]Last 26 weeks [21]Last 39 weeks [22]Last 52 weeks Barometer Latest daily graph: [23]Latest daily graph Temperature Latest daily graph: [24]Latest daily graph Dewpoint -- or switch to [25]Relative Humidity Latest daily graph: [26]Latest daily graph Neighboring Stations This is a list of stations that are close to this station. You can look at those for comparison purposes. The average difference between your station and each station below is listed as well. This may allow you to detect local stations which are erroneous. You can also use these numbers to adjust your instruments -- especially if a number of ASOS stations have similar differences to your station. Also, try increasing the analysis period to more than the default 28 days. The difference is only given if both stations report reasonably often during each day. Some stations only report every 6 hours, and this makes the average of less interest. In this case, the average is not displayed. Since this station has not been reporting continuously during the analysis period (it missed 1 days out of 28), the offsets below may not be accurate. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed to tell you when new stations come online in this area. Choose either within [27]100 miles [28][] or [29]250 miles [30][] . Site Distance Location Barometer Temperature Dewpoint [31]62809 103.3 miles Southwest Babanusa, Sudan (lat 11.3333B0, long 27.8167B0, altitude 453 meters) [32]HSOB 125.3 miles East El Obeid, SD (lat 13.1532B0, long 30.2327B0, altitude 574 meters) [33]HSLI 146.2 miles Southeast Kadugli, SD (lat 11.0000B0, long 29.7167B0, altitude 499 meters) [34]62803 186.0 miles East Rashad, Sudan (lat 11.8667B0, long 31.0500B0, altitude 885 meters) [35]HSFS 218.7 miles West El Fasher, SD (lat 13.6149B0, long 25.3246B0, altitude 729 meters) [36]HSNL 245.1 miles West Nyala, SD (lat 12.0500B0, long 24.8667B0, altitude 643 meters) [37]62750 277.4 miles East Ed Dueim, Sudan (lat 14.0000B0, long 32.3333B0, altitude 378 meters) [38]HSKI 287.2 miles East Kosti/rabak, SD (lat 13.1667B0, long 32.6667B0, altitude 381 meters) [39]HSRN 300.2 miles East Renk, SD (lat 11.7500B0, long 32.7667B0, altitude 282 meters) [40]HSSM 308.1 miles Southeast Malakal, SD (lat 9.5590B0, long 31.6522B0, altitude 388 meters) The sites marked above thus did not report continuously during the analysis period, so the offsets may (probably will) not be accurate. Location Formats The location is shown in three different formats. Each of these is used in some software, and is shown on some websites. Degrees Minutes Seconds: [41]VWS/VWSAPRS, [42]WeatherLink 5.5, [43]WeatherLink (5.2-5.4), WeatherView (Linux) Decimal degrees: FreeWX, [44]WeatherView32 (PC application) LORAN: [45]WeatherDisplay, WUHU, Henriksen WServer Resources [46]CWOP Home: This describes the whole CWOP program and has a large amount of useful information. [47]CWOP Guide (PDF): This is a guide to siting and operating a CWOP station. This is a must-read document. [48]APRS WX Message format: This describes the actual format of the messages transmitted that carry WX information. [49]WXQC Mailing List: This is a mailing list where data quality issues are discussed. Assistance with software configuration can often be found here. [50]Topo Map Reading Guide: How to read USGS topographic maps, with a good section on reading contours. [51]Geographically nearby web pages: Use [52]Geourl to find web pages that deal with locations geographically close to this site. Website comments, problems etc to [53]Philip Gladstone Last modified Sunday, 09 December 2007 This page is one of 32731 similar pages. This one was generated in 0.22 seconds. [54]RE GCOS station locations [55] RE GCOS station locations [56]RE GCOS station locations1 [57] RE GCOS station locations1 [58]RE GCOS station locations2 [59] RE GCOS station locations2 [60]RE GCOS station locations3 [61] RE GCOS station locations3 [62]RE GCOS station locations4 [63] RE GCOS station locations4 [64]RE GCOS station locations5 [65] RE GCOS station locations5 [66]RE GCOS station locations6 [67] RE GCOS station locations6 [68]RE GCOS station locations7 [69] RE GCOS station locations7 > > > Prof. Phil Jones Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090 School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784 University of East Anglia Norwich Email p.jones@uea.ac.uk NR4 7TJ UK ----------------------------------------------------------------------------