pvl_readISH

Read text file of Integrated Surface History (ISH) data.

Contents

Syntax

data = readISH(ISHname)

Description

Reads an ASCII file containing one year of from the Integrated Surface Database ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/noaa/ for a single station. Data are copied into a table with columns for each data field.

Requires Matlab 2013b or later.

Input

Output

Data columns are as follows (see [1] for definition of each field):

Label Type Description (units)
len int length of variable portion of the record
catno string AF Catalog Station Number
wban string WBAN number
date string Date of observation, in YYYYMMDD format
time string Time of observation, in HHMM format
source char Data source code
lat double Observation latitude (degrees North)
long double Observation longitude (degrees East)
type string Report type code
elev double Observation elevation (meters)
station string Station call letters
qc string Name of quality control process applied
winddir double Wind direction (degrees clockwise from N)
winddirq char Wind direction quality code
windtype char Wind observation type code
windspeed double Wind speed (meters/second)
windspeedq char Wind speed quality code
ceil double Cloud ceiling height (meters AGL)
ceilq char Cloud ceiling quality code
ceilmethod char Cloud ceiling measurement method code
CAVOK char Ceiling and Visibility OK code
visdist double Visibility distance (meters)
visdistq char Visibility distance quality code
visvar char Visibility variability code
visvarq char Visibility variability quality code
temp double Air temperature (degrees C)
tempq char Air temperature quality code
dewpt double Dew point temperature (degrees C)
dewptq char Dew point temperature quality code
pressure double Barometric pressure (hectopascals)
pressureq char Barometric pressure quality
remainder string Optional part of record (ADD + REM)

Example

archive = '..\Example Data';
fname = pvl_getISDdata(35.11,-106.61,2010,archive); % get weather data for Albuquerque, NM
dir([archive '\isd-history.csv'])  % index of all data in ISD
dir([archive '\' fname]) % data for 2010 for Albuquerque, NM
data = pvl_readISH([archive '\' fname]);
data(1,1:18)
isd-history.csv  


723650-23050-2010  


ans =

  1×18 table

    len     catno       wban         date        time     source     lat       long       type      elev    station      qc      winddir    winddirq    windtype    windspeed    windspeedq    ceil 
    ___    ________    _______    __________    ______    ______    ______    _______    _______    ____    _______    ______    _______    ________    ________    _________    __________    _____

    318    '723650'    '23050'    '20100101'    '0000'     '4'      35.033    -106.62    'SY-MT'    1618    'KABQ '    'V020'      30         '1'         'N'          4.6          '1'        22000

Reference

[1] National Climatic Data Center, Federal Climate Complex Data Documentation for Integrated Surface Data 21 May 2014, ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/noaa/ish-format-document.pdf, accessed 5 June 2014.

See Also

pvl_getISDdata

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