[nws-changes] 20121024: surface temp calibration revision Fwd: ADMIN NOTICE NOUS41 KWBC

• To: nws-changes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: [nws-changes] 20121024: surface temp calibration revision Fwd: ADMIN NOTICE NOUS41 KWBC
• From: Linda Miller <lmiller@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2012 09:05:51 -0600

-------- Original Message --------

085
NOUS41 KWBC 241441
PNSWSH

Technical Implementation Notice 11-52
National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC
1040 AM EDT Wed Oct 24 2011

To:       Subscribers
          -Family of Services
          -NOAA Weather Wire Service
          -NOAAPORT
          -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network
          Other NWS Partners, Users and Employees

From:     Jay Lawrimore
          Chief, Climate Analysis Branch
          National Climatic Data Center

SUBJECT:  Surface Temperature (Infrared) Calibration Revision for
          the Hourly02 and Daily01 Products
          Effective January 7, 2013

Effective Monday, January 7, 2013, at approximately 1500
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), The National Climatic Data
Center will add a surface temperature type field in the hourly02
(CRNH02) and daily01 (CRND01) products.  These revisions will
affect the reported surface temperature (Infrared) for stations
of the U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) and the
U.S. Historical Climatology Network-Modernization (USHCN-M).

Presently, the surface temperatures values in these fields are
being reported as uncorrected measurements; however, due to an
ongoing equipment refresh to a new infrared surface temperature
sensor model, USCRN is now also reporting corrected surface
temperature measurements for some stations. These changes will
impact previous users of the data because the corrected values
will differ from uncorrected values.

To distinguish between uncorrected (raw) and corrected surface
temperature measurements, a surface temperature type field will
be added to the hourly02 and daily01 products. This new field
will be one character in length and will immediately precede the
existing surface temperature fields. For the hourly02, the new
field will be inserted at column 125 with any following fields
shifted forward by 2 characters.

For the daily01, the new field will be inserted at column 88,
with any following fields shifted forward by 2 characters.  The
possible values of the new field will be "R" to denote raw
surface temperature measurements, "C" to denote corrected surface
temperature measurements, and "U" for unknown when measurements
are missing.

The details of these changes will be online at:

ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/uscrn/products/daily01/New_IR_Se
nsor.txt

ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/uscrn/products/hourly02/New_IR_S
ensor.txt

For both products, the fields for average, maximum, and minimum
surface temperature will remain 7 characters in length with one
decimal place of precision, and report the temperature in degrees
Celsius.

The documentation for the products will also be revised to
clearly explain the purpose of the new surface temperature type
field.

If you have questions or feedback, please contact:

  Scott Embler
  National Climatic Data Center
  151 Patton Ave
  Asheville, NC  28803
  828-350-2027
  Scott.Embler@xxxxxxxx

NWS Technical Implementation Notices are online at:

  http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm

$$