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<a name="1" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NcarResearchDataArchiveBlog/~3/HXcWUvyhvrw/the-data-starts-here.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">The data starts here</a>
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<span>Posted:</span> 18 May 2015 03:30 PM PDT</p>
<div style="margin:0;font-family:Georgia,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-Serif;line-height:140%;font-size:13px;color:#000000;">At the <a href="http://www.northernwater.org/WaterConservation/ConservationGardens.aspx">Water Conservation Gardens Fair</a> yesterday in Berthoud, Colorado (near NCAR's Boulder home), several vendors showed soil moisture monitoring systems. I took a picture to show where data comes from.<br /><br />The green-blue rectangle displayed at the top is the soil moisture sensor, which is buried in the ground.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IPGXZ1C0AR4/VVj9MLcYziI/AAAAAAAAAMA/Q2Kl_sJdU8Y/s1600/SoilMoistureSensor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="185" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IPGXZ1C0AR4/VVj9MLcYziI/AAAAAAAAAMA/Q2Kl_sJdU8Y/s320/SoilMoistureSensor.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Soil moisture monitor/data logger and one sensor.</td></tr></tbody></table>An irregularly-spaced network of calibrated soil moisture sensors (not necessarily this brand and model) send their data to <a href="http://www.ncep.noaa.gov/">National Center for Environmental Prediction</a> (NCEP) in College Park, Maryland. Other sensors, some in-situ like this one, others remotely sensed (usually from satellites), also send their data to NCEP. <br /><br />The data is ingested into <a href="http://ncarrda.blogspot.com/search/label/Analysis">an analysis model</a> to produce a gridded analysis field.<br /><br />Some of our data users may not be aware that NCEP and NCAR are different organizations. NCEP is part of the <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a> (NOAA), which is part of the <a href="http://www.commerce.gov/">Department of Commerce</a> (DoC). DoC headquarters are in Maryland, but they have a significant laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, home of <a href="http://ncar.ucar.edu/">NCAR</a>.<br /><br />Notice that we are several thousand miles and two timezones apart.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XzhvWnw3TzI/VVlryVupodI/AAAAAAAAAMg/3CLFk2tpmuc/s1600/Distance.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="253" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XzhvWnw3TzI/VVlryVupodI/AAAAAAAAAMg/3CLFk2tpmuc/s320/Distance.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NCEP and NCAR are quite far apart in distance, but the internet brings us closer.</td></tr></tbody></table>This is where NCEP processes the data.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SleCKEqHrN0/VVlryl0A6zI/AAAAAAAAAMY/l2MwN-YHPow/s1600/NOAA_10-16-12_3925_crop4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SleCKEqHrN0/VVlryl0A6zI/AAAAAAAAAMY/l2MwN-YHPow/s320/NOAA_10-16-12_3925_crop4.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NOAA NCEP Center for Weather and Climate Prediction, College Park, Md</td></tr></tbody></table><br />This is where we pull and archive data from NCEP and other sources.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8LVdCfd_y18/VVlryffkB9I/AAAAAAAAAMU/ehhvTE1_HG4/s1600/DI00221_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8LVdCfd_y18/VVlryffkB9I/AAAAAAAAAMU/ehhvTE1_HG4/s320/DI00221_0.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NCAR Mesa Lab, home of NCAR RDA</td></tr></tbody></table>Interested in learning about how data gets calibrated? Leave a comment with your name, organization or school, and what you'd like to read about on this blog.<br /><br />Today, I took a bike ride to collect qualitative (not quantitative) data about soil moisture<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BSgoqn5YW0U/VVlryxyVqRI/AAAAAAAAAMo/LhhSt9MurCM/s1600/SoilMoist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BSgoqn5YW0U/VVlryxyVqRI/AAAAAAAAAMo/LhhSt9MurCM/s320/SoilMoist.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>and stream flow. ;-)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ereF6w6Z5Bc/VVlryABfOvI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/vUosCROkGBs/s1600/HorseshoeFlow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="83" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ereF6w6Z5Bc/VVlryABfOvI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/vUosCROkGBs/s320/HorseshoeFlow.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The RDA's most popular dataset is <a href="http://rda.ucar.edu/datasets/ds083.2/">FNL, ds083.2</a>. It's popularity largely stems from its utility for initializing <a href="http://www.wrf-model.org/index.php">The Weather Research & Forecasting Model (WRF)</a>. Studies have proven that improved soil moisture estimates provide more accurate rainfall predictions.<br /><br />If you use (or want to learn how to use) FNL for WRF, please read the help document, <a href="http://rda.ucar.edu/datasets/ds083.2/docs/WRF_NCEP_new">Guidance for WRF users for new NCEP GFS and FNL GRIB2 files</a>. Notice that the <a href="http://www2.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/src/Vtable.GFS_new">Vtable</a> (variable table) includes several soil moisture parameters at different depth.<br /><br />Accurate soil moisture, soil type and land-use characterization help produce accurate numerical weather forecasts. It takes a huge amount of data, many people, much software, and vast computational resources to produce these analyses. So, when you use the data, take a minute to think about the thousands of people who made it possible.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NcarResearchDataArchiveBlog/~4/HXcWUvyhvrw?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email" height="1" width="1" alt=""/></div>
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