United States Meteorological Data: Daily and Hourly files to Support Predictive Modeling
Abstract
A unified climatological database for several ORD numerical models has been assembled from several National Weather Service (NWS) datasets, including Solar and Meteorological Surface Observation Network (SAMSON) data for 1961-1990 (versions 1.0 and 1.1), combined with NWS precipitation and evaporation data. Together these NWS products provide coordinated access to solar radiation, sky cover, temperature, relative humidity, station atmospheric pressure, wind direction and speed, and precipitation. The resulting hourly and daily weather parameters provide a unified dataset for use in coordinated exposure modeling. The data files, which include some derived data for modeling (e.g., short-grass crop standard evapotranspiration ET) are publicly available on this website at Meteorological Data. By using observational data for models, “trace-matching” Monte Carlo simulation studies can transmit the effects of environmental variability directly, by-passing issues of correlation (covariance) among external driving forces.
This report covers a period from May 2, 2001 to December 27, 2004 and work was completed as of December 27, 2004.