Skip to contents

Download and crop the Global Historical Climate Network-Daily data.

Source: R/GHCN_FUNCTIONS.R
get_ghcn_daily.Rd

get_ghcn_daily returns a named list of length 2:

  1. 'spatial': A Simple Feature of the locations of GHCN weather stations in the template, and

  2. 'tabular': A named list of type data.frame() with the daily weather data for each station. The name of each list item is the station ID.

Usage

get_ghcn_daily(
  template = NULL,
  label = NULL,
  elements = NULL,
  years = NULL,
  raw.dir = file.path(tempdir(), "FedData", "raw", "ghcn"),
  extraction.dir = file.path(tempdir(), "FedData", "extractions", "ned", label),
  standardize = F,
  force.redo = F
)

Arguments

template

An Simple Feature or SpatRaster object to serve as a template for cropping. Alternatively, a character vector providing GHCN station IDs. If missing, all stations will be downloaded!

label

A character string naming the study area.

elements

A character vector of elements to extract.
The five core elements are:
PRCP = Precipitation (tenths of mm)
SNOW = Snowfall (mm)
SNWD = Snow depth (mm)
TMAX = Maximum temperature (tenths of degrees C)
TMIN = Minimum temperature (tenths of degrees C)

The other elements are:

ACMC = Average cloudiness midnight to midnight from 30-second ceilometer data (percent)
ACMH = Average cloudiness midnight to midnight from manual observations (percent)
ACSC = Average cloudiness sunrise to sunset from 30-second ceilometer data (percent)
ACSH = Average cloudiness sunrise to sunset from manual observations (percent)
AWDR = Average daily wind direction (degrees)
AWND = Average daily wind speed (tenths of meters per second)
DAEV = Number of days included in the multiday evaporation total (MDEV)
DAPR = Number of days included in the multiday precipitation total (MDPR)
DASF = Number of days included in the multiday snowfall total (MDSF)
DATN = Number of days included in the multiday minimum temperature (MDTN)
DATX = Number of days included in the multiday maximum temperature (MDTX)
DAWM = Number of days included in the multiday wind movement (MDWM)
DWPR = Number of days with non-zero precipitation included in multiday precipitation total (MDPR)
EVAP = Evaporation of water from evaporation pan (tenths of mm)
FMTM = Time of fastest mile or fastest 1-minute wind (hours and minutes, i.e., HHMM)
FRGB = Base of frozen ground layer (cm)
FRGT = Top of frozen ground layer (cm)
FRTH = Thickness of frozen ground layer (cm)
GAHT = Difference between river and gauge height (cm)
MDEV = Multiday evaporation total (tenths of mm; use with DAEV)
MDPR = Multiday precipitation total (tenths of mm; use with DAPR and DWPR, if available)
MDSF = Multiday snowfall total
MDTN = Multiday minimum temperature (tenths of degrees C; use with DATN)
MDTX = Multiday maximum temperature (tenths of degrees C; use with DATX)
MDWM = Multiday wind movement (km)
MNPN = Daily minimum temperature of water in an evaporation pan (tenths of degrees C)
MXPN = Daily maximum temperature of water in an evaporation pan (tenths of degrees C)
PGTM = Peak gust time (hours and minutes, i.e., HHMM)
PSUN = Daily percent of possible sunshine (percent)
SN*# = Minimum soil temperature (tenths of degrees C) where * corresponds to a code for ground cover and # corresponds to a code for soil depth.

Ground cover codes include the following:
0 = unknown
1 = grass
2 = fallow
3 = bare ground
4 = brome grass
5 = sod
6 = straw multch
7 = grass muck
8 = bare muck

Depth codes include the following:
1 = 5 cm
2 = 10 cm
3 = 20 cm
4 = 50 cm
5 = 100 cm
6 = 150 cm
7 = 180 cm

SX*# = Maximum soil temperature (tenths of degrees C) where * corresponds to a code for ground cover and # corresponds to a code for soil depth.
See SN*# for ground cover and depth codes.
TAVG = Average temperature (tenths of degrees C) (Note that TAVG from source 'S' corresponds to an average for the period ending at 2400 UTC rather than local midnight)
THIC = Thickness of ice on water (tenths of mm)
TOBS = Temperature at the time of observation (tenths of degrees C)
TSUN = Daily total sunshine (minutes)
WDF1 = Direction of fastest 1-minute wind (degrees)
WDF2 = Direction of fastest 2-minute wind (degrees)
WDF5 = Direction of fastest 5-second wind (degrees)
WDFG = Direction of peak wind gust (degrees)
WDFI = Direction of highest instantaneous wind (degrees)
WDFM = Fastest mile wind direction (degrees)
WDMV = 24-hour wind movement (km)
WESD = Water equivalent of snow on the ground (tenths of mm)
WESF = Water equivalent of snowfall (tenths of mm)
WSF1 = Fastest 1-minute wind speed (tenths of meters per second)
WSF2 = Fastest 2-minute wind speed (tenths of meters per second)
WSF5 = Fastest 5-second wind speed (tenths of meters per second)
WSFG = Peak gust wind speed (tenths of meters per second)
WSFI = Highest instantaneous wind speed (tenths of meters per second)
WSFM = Fastest mile wind speed (tenths of meters per second)
WT** = Weather Type where ** has one of the following values:

01 = Fog, ice fog, or freezing fog (may include heavy fog)
02 = Heavy fog or heaving freezing fog (not always distinguished from fog)
03 = Thunder
04 = Ice pellets, sleet, snow pellets, or small hail
05 = Hail (may include small hail)
06 = Glaze or rime
07 = Dust, volcanic ash, blowing dust, blowing sand, or blowing obstruction
08 = Smoke or haze
09 = Blowing or drifting snow
10 = Tornado, waterspout, or funnel cloud
11 = High or damaging winds
12 = Blowing spray
13 = Mist
14 = Drizzle
15 = Freezing drizzle
16 = Rain (may include freezing rain, drizzle, and freezing drizzle)
17 = Freezing rain
18 = Snow, snow pellets, snow grains, or ice crystals
19 = Unknown source of precipitation
21 = Ground fog
22 = Ice fog or freezing fog

WV** = Weather in the Vicinity where ** has one of the following values:
01 = Fog, ice fog, or freezing fog (may include heavy fog)
03 = Thunder
07 = Ash, dust, sand, or other blowing obstruction
18 = Snow or ice crystals
20 = Rain or snow shower

years

A numeric vector indicating which years to get.

raw.dir

A character string indicating where raw downloaded files should be put. The directory will be created if missing. Defaults to './RAW/GHCN/'.

extraction.dir

A character string indicating where the extracted and cropped GHCN shapefiles should be put. The directory will be created if missing. Defaults to './EXTRACTIONS/GHCN/'.

standardize

Select only common year/month/day? Defaults to FALSE.

force.redo

If an extraction for this template and label already exists, should a new one be created? Defaults to FALSE.

Value

A named list containing the 'spatial' and 'tabular' data.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Get the daily GHCN data (GLOBAL)
# Returns a list: the first element is the spatial locations of stations,
# and the second is a list of the stations and their daily data
GHCN.prcp <-
  get_ghcn_daily(
    template = FedData::meve,
    label = "meve",
    elements = c("prcp")
  )

# Plot the VEP polygon
plot(meve$geometry)

# Plot the spatial locations
plot(GHCN.prcp$spatial, pch = 1, add = T)
legend("bottomleft", pch = 1, legend = "GHCN Precipitation Records")

# Elements for which you require the same data
# (i.e., minimum and maximum temperature for the same days)
# can be standardized using standardize==T
GHCN.temp <- get_ghcn_daily(
  template = FedData::meve,
  label = "meve",
  elements = c("tmin", "tmax"),
  standardize = T
)

# Plot the VEP polygon
plot(meve$geometry)

# Plot the spatial locations
plot(GHCN.temp$spatial, pch = 1, add = T)
legend("bottomleft", pch = 1, legend = "GHCN Temperature Records")
} # }