Daily Data
Filename: varname.YYYY.MM.txt
where: varname is the name of the variable (something informative)
YYYY is the four digit year
MM is the 2 digit month
example: Precipitation.1999.02.txt represents Precipitation data for
February, 1999.
File content:
line 1 YYYY MM free form comment which includes units
line 2 "CellID" "Lat" "Long" "01" "02" "03" "04" "05" "06" "07" "08" "09" "10" "11" "12" "13" "14" "15" "16" "17" "18" "19" "20" "21" "22" "23" "24" "25" "26" "27" "28" "29" "30" "31"
line 3 (data lines here to end of file)
line 4 ...
line 5 ...
... ...
... ...
line 39927 ...
line 39928 ...
example file: precipitation.1999.09.txt
The first two lines are reserved for header information. The first line should contain the year
and month, followed by a short description of the data (inluding units!).
Line 2 is header as described below. Surrounding each parameter in line two of the header with double
quotes and a space would be most helpful. Lines 3-39928 contain the data. Having at least one space between
each column is optimal.
RIMS members should record their data (eg., 31f8.1) to as many decimal places as needed.
All files should have 34 columns regardless of the number of days in the month.
Line 1 Contains Three items:
YYYY The year in four digits
MM The month in two digits (e.g. August = 08)
comment This is a free form comment line for information deemed appropriate.
Units are required here.
Line 2 Contains column names for the data
"CellID" The EASE-GRID cell ID.
"Lat" Latitude in the range 0-90 where 0 is the equator and 90 is the north pole.
Decimal degrees with a minimum of 4 decimals is required.
"Long" Longitude in the range 0-360 where Long = 0 is Greenwich and Long = 180
is 180 degrees E or W. To convert to -180 to 180 deg Longitude you can use the
following line of C code:
if (Long > 180)
Long = Long-360;
Decimal degrees with a minimum of 4 decimals is required.
"01" Data values for the first day of the month. In most cases these data will
be floating point with an appropriate number of decimal places. Some data
such as vegetation type or rain/no rain will be integer.
"02" Data values for the second day of the month
...
...
"30" Data values for the 31st day of the month. If there is no 30th day in the
month then a NODATA value should be used.
"31" Data values for the 31st day of the month. If there is no 31st day in the
month then a NODATA value should be used.
NODATA value = -9999.0 for floating point values (should have same number of decimals
as rest of data file
= -9999 for integer values
Monthly Data
Filename: varname.YYYY.txt
where: varname is the name of the variable (standard names have not been discussed)
YYYY is the four digit year
example: monthly_prcp.1999.txt represents monthly precipitation data for year 1999.
File content:
line 1 YYYY free form comment which includes units
line 2 "CellID" "Lat" "Long" "01" "02" "03" "04" "05" "06" "07" "08" "09" "10" "11" "12"
line 3 (data lines here to end of file)
line 4 ...
line 5 ...
... ...
... ...
line 39927 ...
line 39928 ...
example file: monthly_prcp.1999.txt
The first two lines are reserved for header information. The first line should contain the year,
followed by a short description of the data (inluding units!). Line two is header as described below.
Surrounding each parameter in line two of the header with double quotes and a space would be most
Lines 3-39928 contain the data. Having at least one space between
each column is optimal.
RIMS members should record their data (eg., 12f8.1) to as many decimal places as needed.
All files should have 15 columns.
Line 1 Contains Two items:
YYYY The year in four digits
comment This is a free form comment line for information deemed appropriate.
Units are required here.
Line 2 Contains column names for the data
"CellID" The EASE-GRID cell ID.
"Lat" Latitude in the range 0-90 where 0 is the equator and 90 is the north pole.
Decimal degrees with a minimum of 4 decimals is required.
"Long" Longitude in the range 0-360 where Long = 0 is Greenwich and Long = 180
is 180 degrees E or W. To convert to -180 to 180 deg Longitude you can use the
following line of C code:
if (Long > 180)
Long = Long-360;
Decimal degrees with a minimum of 4 decimals is required.
"01" Data values for January. In most cases these data will
be floating point with an appropriate number of decimal places. Some data
such as vegetation type or rain/no rain will be integer.
"02" Data values for February
...
...
"12" Data values for December.
NODATA value = -9999.0 for floating point values (should have same number of decimals
as rest of data file
= -9999 for integer values
Coordinates
Return to
Pan-Arctic,
ArcticRIMS,
R-ArcticNet,
Global Hydrology Group,
or the
Complex Systems
Home Page.
Richard Lammers