Climate Data Definitions

FCE LTER Climate Data: The Florida Coastal Everglades LTER Program collects climate data, such as temperature and precipitation, from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) for five meteorological stations that bound the FCE’s study area. These data are archived in the FCE research database and are made available for download through the FCE Data Table of Contents or FCE Related Data Section. These same data are submitted to a centralized common LTER Network database called ClimDB.

LTER Climatological & Hydrological Data Access (ClimDB/HydroDB): The National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program and many U.S. Forest Service Experimental Research Stations collect and maintain extensive, long-term ecological databases including streamflow and meteorological measurements. These databases have been widely used in intersite comparisons, modeling studies, and land management-related studies. To facilitate intersite research among the network of LTER sites, individual sites maintain local climate data in local information systems while a centralized site continually harvests, updates, and provides access to all sites' data through a common database. Common distribution report formats and graphical displays have been established to meet specific needs of climate data users. Funding from the U.S. Forest Service has allowed the climate data prototype (ClimDB) to be improved and expanded to include hydrologic variables (HydroDB).

Florida International University (FIU) Weather Station: The FIU Weather Station is located on the rooftop of the Primera Casa building at Florida International University, Miami, Florida and is maintained by Dr. Rene Price. Weather observations are uploaded to this site in 10 minute intervals. Data are stored in 30 minute intervals and can be downloaded in monthly, tab delimited files from August 2004.

National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) (NOAA): NCDC is the world's largest active archive of weather data. NCDC produces numerous climate publications and responds to data requests from all over the world. NCDC operates the World Data Center for Meteorology which is co-located at NCDC in Asheville, North Carolina, and the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology which is located in Boulder, Colorado. NCDC supports a three tier national climate services support program - the partners include: NCDC, Regional Climate Centers, and State Climatologists.

NOAA Tides and Currents: NOAA Tides and Currents, managed by the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), is the portal to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's vast collection of oceanographic and meteorological data (historical and real-time), predictions, and nowcasts and forecasts.

Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), Hurricane Research Division (HRD) Hurricane Data: NOAA's Hurricane Research Division has a variety of data sets that have been collected during their annual Hurricane Field Program. This consists mostly of data collected by NOAA aircraft flying into and around hurricanes, but also includes wind field analyses, land based radar loops, and data archived from U.S. Air Force reconnaissance flights.