A DATA SET is a series of observations collected by the same methodology. Each data set should have documentation sufficient for someone unfamiliar with the research to replicate the study. Data sets may be broken into subsets (data files) that are discrete in space and time, in that order. The documentation for a data set should include all spatial and temporal subdivisions of the data.

(Data, Abstract, Methods, Variables)

NOTES:

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PERSON(S) COMPLETING THIS FORM: E-MAIL ADDRESS:

DATA SET IDENTIFIER: Meteorological data from El Verde Field Station: NADP Tower

PROJECT TITLE: Meteorology at El Verde (NADP Tower)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:Rainfall and temperature have been measured at the El Verde Station since 1964, twenty two years previous to LUQ LTER 1. In McDowell and Estrada-Pinto ⁽¹⁾, the collection procedures, the daily raw precipitation data from 1964 to 1986, and some summary statistics of the precipitation data covered on that period of time were reported. Meteorological sensors were installed at the El Verde Field Station's flat concrete rooftop, 3 m above the ground surface at an elevation of 350 m asl after the September 1989 (Hugo) hurricane. Since 1995, rainfall and temperature data since 1975 and sensors data since 1990 from the above records are being published on the LUQ LTER Web site. Begining in 2003, Ramírez and Meléndez-Colom report a summary of the data from these data set online. The latter is a downloadable pdf file that can be found at: http://luq.lternet.edu/publications/EVFSMetSum/EVFSMeteorSummarysince1975.pdf

(1) William H. McDowell and Alejo Estrada-Pinto.1988. Rainfall at El Verde Station, 1964-1986. Center for Energy and Environmenta Research (CEER), Technical Report No. CEER T-228.

LTER CORE AREAS: (Annotate all that apply)

Inorganic Inputs and Nutrient Movement

LEF LTER 1 RESEARCH TOPIC: (Annotate all that apply)

Environmental monitoring

We define a data file as a component of a data set. A data set can have only one data file or more. Basically, different data files have different data structures or format.
DATA SET FILES (SUBSETS):

Data File No.	Data File Identifier	On-Line Filename	Starting Date	Periodicity of sample	End Period
1	Hourly data 2001 - 2004	EVFSTowerMetHourly2001-2004.txt	2001	hourly	2004
2	Hourly data 2005 - 2008	EVFSTowerMetHourly2005-2008.txt	2005	hourly	2008
3	Daily (24 h) data	EVFSTowerMetDaily.txt	2000	daily	2008

RESEARCH LOCATION: The meteorological sensors are installed at the top of a 20 m tower, the NADP Tower, behind the main buildings of El Verde Field Station.  

INVESTIGATORS:

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS E-MAIL address

Alonso Ramírez

aramirez@lternet.edu

OTHER RESEARCHERS E-MAIL address

Jill Thompson	jill@coqui.net
Douglas Schaefer	dougschaefer@scientist.com
William Lawrence

Alonso Ramírez

aramirez@lternet.edu

(787) 764-0000  ext. 7781

SOURCE OF FUNDING (SPONSOR): NSF-LTER and El Verde Field Station

DATA SET ABSTRACT: Meteorological sensors are located at the top of a 20 m tower, the NADP Tower, behind the main buildings of El Verde Field Station, 350 masl.  No large trees are present near the tower.  Sensors are connected to a Campbell 10X data logger, with a storage module, and downloaded every two weeks using a wireless radio connection from the laboratory to the tower.  The data is compiled at the station and send to ITES once a month. The station was initiated in 1999.  In a separate physical location, rainfall and maximum and minimum air temperatures are measured manually on a daily basis (see other data sets under "cross reference"). 

DATA SET METHODS: Provided under individual variable descriptions. (See Variables)

REFERENCES:

CROSS REFERENCE: LTERDBAS 14: Rainfall at El Verde since 1975; LTERDBAS 16: Maximum temperature at El Verde since 1975 ; LTERDBAS 17: Minimum temperature at El Verde since 1975; LTERDBAS 33: Meteorological data at El Verde Field Station: Roof station

SAMPLE LOCATION: ITES, Data Mngr.'s Cabinet DM333-01, Drawer #1

STORAGE SITES: N/A

INVESTIGATOR'S ASSIGNED KEYWORDS: weather, climate, meteorology, meteorological monitoring, modeling, rainfall, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, wind vector, wind rose

LEF LTER OFFICIAL KEYWORDS (See table): EL VERDE, TABONUCO, CLIMATE, RAINFALL

PUBLICATIONS:

DISSEMINATION: UNRESTRICTED

REASONS TO RESTRICT DATA IN THIS DATA SET BEYOND ITS TWO YEAR POLICY PERIOD*:

*WILL HAVE TO BE APPROVED BY LTER PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: N. BROKAW, A. LUGO

SITES DESCRIPTIONS: Meteorological sensors are located at the top of a 20 m tower, the NADP Tower, behind the main buildings at El Verde Field Station, 350 m asl.  

Geographical positional system (GPS) Coordinates for each location:

location	latitude	longitude
El Verde Field Station: NADP Tower	18° 19' 22" N	65° 49' 13" W

VARIABLES (ATTRIBUTES):

VARIABLES (ATTRIBUTES):

FILE NAME OR #ABOVE (all in which the variable appears)	1,2,3	1,2,3	1,2	1,2	3
ABBREVIATION (as it appears on the data file)	RAIN(MM)	TEMPMAX(DEGREESCELSIUS)	RELHUM(PERCENT)	SOLARRAD(WATTS-M2)	SOLARAD(KILOJOULES-M2_D)
NAME OF VARIABLE	Rainfall	Air temperature (dry)	Relative humidity	Solar radiation	Solar radiation
DEFINITION OF VARIABLE	Rate of liquid water precipitation, measured by a tipping bucket gauge. Summing the recorded values over a time period gives total rain. Values divided by the length of the recording interval gives the rainfall intensity (i.e., mm/hr).	Air temperature measured by thermistor within a radiation shield	Relative humidity as measured by a capacitive sensor under AC excitation in a radiation shield.	Solar radiation as measured by a LiCor silicon pyranometer. It is a measure of the total incoming light intensity available for photosynthesis and evaporation.	Solar radiation as measured by a LiCor silicon pyranometer. It is a measure of the total incoming light intensity available for photosynthesis and evaporation.
UNIT	millimeters	centigrade		watts/m2	kiloJoules/m2
PRECISION	0.1	0.1	1	0.0001	0.0001
RANGE OR LIST OF VALUES	0 - 50	15 - 40	40 - 100
DATA TYPE	decimal	decimal	decimal	decimal	decimal
MISSING DATA CODES	blank cell or  -99999	blank cell or  -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or -99999

VARIABLES (ATTRIBUTES):

FILE NAME OR #ABOVE (all in which the variable appears)	1,2	1,2	1,2,3	1,2,3	1,2,3
ABBREVIATION (as it appears on the data file)	WINDMAX	WINDMAXTIME	WINDSPEEDAVER(M_S)	WINDDIR(DEGREES)	SDWINDDIR
NAME OF VARIABLE	Maximum mean horizontal wind speed	Maximum mean horizontal wind speed time	Mean horizontal wind speed	Wind direction	Wind direction standard deviation
DEFINITION OF VARIABLE	Maximum mean horizontal wind speed as measured by a rotating cup anemometer.	Time in hhmm of measurement of maximum mean horizontal wind speed measured (in hhmm)	Mean horizontal wind speed as measured by a rotating cup anemometer.	Wind direction as measured by a freely rotating wind vane oriented relative to geographic north.	Wind direction standard deviation calculated from the wind vectors measured approx. every 10 sec during the sampling interval
UNIT	metersPerSecond	datetime	metersPerSecond	degree	degree
PRECISION	0.1		0.1	1	1
RANGE OR LIST OF VALUES	0 - 30	0 - 2359	0 - 30	0 - 359	0 - 359
DATA TYPE	decimal	integer	decimal	decimal	decimal
MISSING DATA CODES	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or  -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or -99999

VARIABLES (ATTRIBUTES):

FILE NAME OR #ABOVE (all in which the variable appears)	1,2	1,2	1,2	1,2	1,2	1,2
ABBREVIATION (as it appears on the data file)	PPDFMAX	PPDFMAXTIME	PPDFMAXSEC	SOLRADMAX	SOLRADTIME	SOLRADSEC
NAME OF VARIABLE	Maximum Photosynthetic photon flux density	Maximum Photosynthetic photon flux density time hours and minutes	Maximum Photosynthetic photon flux density time seconds	Maximum solar radiation	Maximum solar radiation time hours and minutes	Maximum solar radiation time seconds
DEFINITION OF VARIABLE	Maximum photosynthetic photon flux density as measured by a LiCor silicon pyranometer. It is a measure of the energy available for photosynthesis.	Time when maximum photosynthetic photon flux density was recorded in hours and minutes (hhmm) following the 24-hours format	Seconds when maximum photosynthetic photon flux density was recorded in hours and minutes (hhmm) following the 24-hours format	Maximum solar radiation as measured by a LiCor silicon pyranometer. It is a measure of the total incoming light intensity available for photosynthesis and evaporation.	Time when maximum solar radiation was recorded in hours and minutes (hhmm) following the 24-hours format	Seconds when maximum solar radiation was recorded in hours and minutes following the 24-hours format
UNIT	micromol/m2		second	watts/m2	datetime	second
PRECISION	0.0001
RANGE OR LIST OF VALUES					0 - 2359
DATA TYPE	decimal	datetime	datetime	decimal	datetime	datetime
MISSING DATA CODES	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or  -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or  -99999	blank cell or -99999

VARIABLES (ATTRIBUTES):

FILE NAME OR #ABOVE (all in which the variable appears)	1,2	1,2,3	1,2,3	1,2,3	1,2,3
ABBREVIATION (as it appears on the data file)	PPFD(MICROMOLES_M2))	PPFD(MILLIMOLES_M2)	WINDROSE1-45(M_S)	WINDROSE46-90(M_S)	WINDROSE91-135(M_S)
NAME OF VARIABLE	Photosynthetic photon flux density	Photosynthetic photon flux density	Wind rose 1-45 octant	Wind rose 46-90 octant	Wind rose 91-135 octant
DEFINITION OF VARIABLE	Photosynthetic photon flux density as measured by a LiCor quantum sensor whose spectral sensitivity is matched to the photosynthetic response curve. It is a measure of the energy available for photosynthesis.	Photosynthetic photon flux density as measured by a LiCor quantum sensor whose spectral sensitivity is matched to the photosynthetic response curve.	Wind rose as determined by the anemometer and wind vane. It is the fraction of the total wind vector during the measurement interval in the N-NE compass octant. Contributes to the sum of all eight values to calculate the wind speed during the measurement interval.	Wind rose as determined by the anemometer and wind vane. It is the fraction of the total wind vector during the measurement interval in the NE-E compass octant. Contributes to the sum of all eight values to calculate the wind speed during the measurement interval.	Wind rose as determined by the anemometer and wind vane. It is the fraction of the total wind vector during the measurement interval in the E-SE compass octant. Contributes to the sum of all eight values to calculate the wind speed during the measurement interval.
UNIT	micromol/m2	millimoles/m2/hour	meterperSecond	meterperSecond	meterperSecond
PRECISION	0.00001	0.0001	0.0001	0.0001	0.0001
RANGE OR LIST OF VALUES	0 - 3	0 - 13000	0 - 30	0 - 30	0 - 30
DATA TYPE	numeric	numeric	decimal	decimal	decimal
MISSING DATA CODES	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or -99999

VARIABLES (ATTRIBUTES):

FILE NAME OR #ABOVE (all in which the variable appears)	1,2,3	1,2,3	1,2,3	1,2,3	1,2,3
ABBREVIATION (as it appears on the data file)	WINDROSE136-180(M_S)	WINDROSE181-225(M_S)	WINDROSE226-270(M_S)	WINDROSE271-315(M_S)	WINDROSE316-360(M_S)
NAME OF VARIABLE	Wind rose 136-180 octant	Wind rose 181-225 octant	Wind rose 226-270 octant	Wind rose 271-315 octant	Wind rose 316-360 octant
DEFINITION OF VARIABLE	Wind rose as determined by the anemometer and wind vane. It is the fraction of the total wind vector during the measurement interval in SE-S compass octant. Contributes to the sum of all eight values to calculate the wind speed during the measurement interval.	Wind rose as determined by the anemometer and wind vane. It is the fraction of the total wind vector during the measurement interval in the S-SW compass octant. Contributes to the sum of all eight values to calculate the wind speed during the measurement interval.	Wind rose as determined by the anemometer and wind vane. It is the fraction of the total wind vector during the measurement interval in the SW-W compass octant. Contributes to the sum of all eight values to calculate the wind speed during the measurement interval.	Wind rose as determined by the anemometer and wind vane. It is the fraction of the total wind vector during the measurement interval in the W-NW compass octant. Contributes to the sum of all eight values to calculate the wind speed during the measurement interval.	Wind rose as determined by the anemometer and wind vane. It is the fraction of the total wind vector during the measurement interval in the NW-N compass octant. Contributes to the sum of all eight values to calculate the wind speed during the measurement interval.
UNIT	meterperSecond	meterperSecond	meterperSecond	meterperSecond	meterperSecond
PRECISION	0.0001	0.0001	0.0001	0.0001	0.0001
RANGE OR LIST OF VALUES	0 - 30	0 - 30	0 - 30	0 - 30	0 - 30
DATA TYPE	decimal	decimal	decimal	decimal	decimal
MISSING DATA CODES	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or -99999

VARIABLES (ATTRIBUTES):

FILE NAME OR #ABOVE (all in which the variable appears)	3	3	3	3
ABBREVIATION (as it appears on the data file)	TEMPMAXTIME(HHMM)	RELHUMMAX	RELHUMMAXTIME(HHMM)	TEMPMIN(DEGREESCELSIUS)
NAME OF VARIABLE	Time of max air temperature measured	Maximum relative humidity	Time of maximum relative humidity measured	Minimum air temperature (dry)
DEFINITION OF VARIABLE	Time in hhmm of measurement of air temperature	Maximum relative humidity as measured by a capacitive sensor under AC excitation in a radiation shield.	Time in hhmm of measurement of maximum relative humidity measured	Air temperature measured by thermistor within a radiation shield
UNIT				centigrade
PRECISION		1		0.1
RANGE OR LIST OF VALUES	0 - 2359	40 - 100	0 - 2359	15 - 40
DATA TYPE	datetime	numeric	decimal	decimal
MISSING DATA CODES	blank cell or  -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or  -99999	blank cell or  -99999

VARIABLES (ATTRIBUTES):

FILE NAME OR #ABOVE (all in which the variable appears)	3	3	3
ABBREVIATION (as it appears on the data file)	MINTEMPTIME(HHMM)	RELHUMMIN	RELHUMMINTIME(HHMM)
NAME OF VARIABLE	Time of max air temperature measured	Minimum elative humidity	Time of minimum minimum relative humidity measured
DEFINITION OF VARIABLE	Time in hhmm of measurement of air temperature	Minimum relative humidity as measured by a capacitive sensor under AC excitation in a radiation shield.	Time (in hhmm) of measurement of minimum relative humidity measured
UNIT
PRECISION		1
RANGE OR LIST OF VALUES	0 - 2359	40 - 100 percent	0 - 2359
DATA TYPE	datetime	decimal	datetime
MISSING DATA CODES	blank cell or  -99999	blank cell or -99999	blank cell or  -99999

COMPUTATIONAL METHODS:

Variable Name	Formula
Temperatures	averaged over a period of 60 minutes and 24 hours
Rain	summed for a period of 60 minutes and 24 hours
Humidity	averaged over a period of 60 minutes and 24 hours
Wind speed	averaged over a period of 60 minutes and 24 hours
Wind direction	averaged over a period of 60 minutes and 24 hours
Wind vectors (speed and direction)	summed in eight bins for the measurement interval
Standard deviation	calculated from the wind vectors measured approx. Every 10 sec during the sampling interval

Observations: The station was initiated in 1999, previous to this date only data from the station's roof is available. An additional station for temperature and humidity measurements in the forest understory was added in 1997. Additional measurements of daily rainfall and maximum and minimum air temperatures for this site since 1975 exist on separate files.

DATE OF LAST REVIEW: April 19 , 2006
DATE OF LAST ENTRY: December 29, 2005
STAGE OF DATA SET MANAGEMENT (dates):
RECEIVED peridically since Sep 1989
ENTERED:
FILED 1989