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Archival (short interval) data files

Archival files contain processed and edited data. The file format is tab-separated ASCII, so data may easily be imported into a spreadsheet program. Currently, these short interval files are in month blocks, with the data from the first time interval in the month occurring on the first (non-header) data line. Time intervals are consistent within a given file. Intervals occurring in our archival data files are: five, ten, fifteen, or sixty minutes long.

The first line is a header that contains the monitoring station ID code, the year in which the data were obtained, and a series of element numbers that describe the data in each column. Since each data value is followed by a data quality flag, element numbers are followed by a zero, which acts as a placeholder so element numbers line up with appropriate data columns.

Data begins on the second line. The first number is the day of the year. For example, January 1 is year-day 1, while February 1 is year-day 32.

The next column indicates the ending time of the measurement in military time format. For example, 105 would be 1:05 a.m. and 1535 would be 3:35 p.m. Data values on a given line are understood to "occur" during the interval extending from the ending time on the previous line to the ending time on the line in which they are listed. Please note only local standard time is used—never daylight savings time.

Following the year-day and time is a data value for the first element number. Then, immediately following this is a quality control flag. The pattern of data value followed by data quality flag continues across the line until all element numbers are represented by value/flag pairs. Note that data values are interpreted in accordance with the element numbers below which they are listed. As a result, some data values may be averages over the time interval in which they occur, but others may be totals over the same interval.

Example

    94169 1997  1000  0     2010  0     1002  0

    1     100   0     12    0     12    0     12

    1     200   0     12    0     12    0     12

    1     300   0     12    0     12    0     12

    1     400   0     12    0     12    0     12

    1     500   0     12    0     12    0     12

    1     600   0     12    0     12    0     12

    1     700   0     12    0     12    0     12

    1     800   1     12    0     12    2     12

    1     900   31    12    0     12    30    12

    1     1000  79    12    1     12    73    12

    1     1100  125   12    0     12    120   12

    1     1200  132   12    1     12    125   12

This example is from HEHR9701.txt. The first line gives the location ("94169" is Hermiston), the year ("1997"), and the element numbers: "1000" is global irradiance, "2010" is direct normal or beam irradiance, and "1002" is a second instrument measuring global irradiance.
The first data line provides the year-day ("1" is January 1), time of day ("100" is 1:00 a.m.), and an alternating sequence of data values and flags. The first data value is the global irradiance: 0 watt hours per square meter per hour, and its associated flag is "12", which stands for processed data. Next is the direct normal irradiance value followed by its flag, and then the second global value and its flag. The file contains hourly data for all 31 days of the month.

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© 2022, UO Solar Radiation Monitoring Laboratory.
Last revised: March 4, 2022.


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