Why Rescue Old Data?
Our understanding of global warming and climate change is incomplete. To fully comprehend the global environmental challenges we face, we need to collect and analyze as much raw data as possible.
Many countries of the world are establishing a Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) composed of new observation sites to closely monitor weather trends over the next century. However, to collect at least 100 years worth of data before we could make accurate predictions and to understand what corrective actions we need to make. By then, it will be too late to take corrective actions to stem the trend towards extreme climate throughout the world.
Old Is Better
Data Rescue CGO program
There is a quicker, cheaper solution: locate, organize, and rescue historic weather data. For a fraction of the cost and the time being expended on CGOS, we could rescue each piece of old environmental information, digitize it and place it on a secure medium for everyone’s use. Questions about climate change could be answered quickly; hopefully in time for mankind to take corrective measures.
The data rescued by IEDRO enables the meteorological and scientific communities to provide more accurate severe weather forecasting and to understand climate change. This knowledge offers the world community a greater ability to more accurately predict long-range weather patterns, and thus it enables meteorological professionals to:
- Prevent famine and starvation.
- Provide more accurate lifesaving flood forecasts.
- Prevent the spread of airborne and insect-borne disease.
- Construct and reinforce buildings, bridges, and public services to withstand predicted severe weather.
- Better understand the nature and extent of global warming and climate change, as well as the rate at which our climate is changing.
- Gain a clearer understanding of human history.
Data Rescue Problems and IEDRO’s Solution
Weather data describes the atmosphere at a particular time and place. It may include temperature, relative humidity, wind direction, wind speed, barometric pressure, visibility, precipitation, and other factors. There are two basic types of weather observations:
- Surface Observations — Readings taken by an observer from weather instruments which are about five feet off the ground. Readings may be hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly.
- Upper-Air Observations — Taken from a radio transmitter attached to weather sensors. The sensors trail a balloon as it rises from the ground up to 100,000 feet.
Problems with Historic Observations
Observations — Records of unusual environmental disturbances were recorded in ship’s logs, personal diaries, newspaper accounts, or other temporary media before the invention of modern meteorological instruments. Many times the data was imperfect or estimated. For example, winds at sea may have been described by sea conditions or the billowing of ship’s sails, while winds on land may have been estimated by the movement of trees and other flora.
Recording Methods — Prior to 1985, weather observations were recorded on paper and transmitted via radio, telephone, and teletype to weather forecasters. Unfortunately, many times transmission difficulties prevented the readings from reaching users. This handicapped scientists wishing to study a particular weather phenomenon, since they did not have a complete set of weather observations archived.
Strip charts were used to record observational data such as temperature, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity, precipitation, stream flow, wind direction and speed, etc.
Strip charts look like pen traces on a grid. The charts are mounted on cylinders that rotate at a constant speed, and a pen, attached to a mechanical device, records the changes in parameter values over time. Depending on the speed at which the cylinder turns, the charts may represent parameter changes over a 24-hour period or a 7-day week.
The Problem
From strip charts the process to extract information and digitize the values involves manually running a digitizing pen to trace the chart then hand entering the data on a form. This process takes 15 -20 minutes of effort per chart.
IEDRO’s Solution
Dr. Ed Root, one of IEDRO’s talented volunteers, is developing a computer program that will copy and digitize a scanned or photographed image of a strip chart. The digitized data will be provided in a comma delimited file, or transcribed in a table. The time required for the program to digitize a chart will be less than 5 seconds!
