# pvl_readISH

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

## Contents

- Syntax
- Description
- Input
- Output
- Example
- Reference
- See Also

## 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

- `ISHname` - string specifying the file (including path) containing the ISH data.

## Output

- `data` - table containing ISH data, one row per observation, one column for each mandatory data element. The last column in the table contains a string with the additional data and remarks.

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 =

        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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