# pvl_getISDdata

Fetch one year of data from the Integrated Surface Database.

## Contents

- Syntax
- Inputs
- Output
- Description
- Example
- References
- See Also

## Syntax

`fname = getISDdata(latitude,longitude,year,archive)`

## Inputs

- `latitude` - latitude of location of interest.
- `longitude` - longitude of location of interest (negative for west of prime meridian).
- `year` - desired year.
- `archive` - string specifying path to local ISD archive. The current directory is used if archive is not specified.

## Output

- `fname` - name of the file containing returned data.

## Description

This function copies two files from NOAA's ftp site 'ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/noaa/ to the current directory. The file `isd-history.csv` is a listing of all sites in the database. The second file contains one year of data from the station closest to the requested location.

These two files can be re-directed to an archive folder by supplying the path to the archive as `archive`. If the files already exist in the location pointed to by `archive`, the local files are used. Use `pvl_readISH` to read the ISD data files.

Requires Matlab 2013b or later.

## 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

## References

[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_readISH`

Copyright 2015 Sandia National Laboratories