Synopsis

The University of Kansas Field Station (KUFS) acquired climate data from a single location, known as the Nelson Environmental Study Area (NESA), from 1986-2008. The geographic coordinates for the site were 95°11'30" West longitude and 39°03'00" North latitude. The weather station at NESA was set to sample eight atmospheric parameters (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) using a battery-powered datalogger. The datalogger was set to sample parameters every 5 seconds and, on the hour, store a mean value of the previous hour's measurements. In addition to these hourly means the datalogger recorded daily (24 hour) minimum and maximum air and soil temperature and the time when they occurred. It also recorded the daily peak wind speed and the time at which it occurred. Eight semi-automated parameters were recorded:

Air Temperature (degrees Celsius)
Soil Temperature (degrees Celsius; probe 20 cm below the surface)
Relative Humidity (%)
Wind Speed (meters per second)
Wind Direction (vector direction in degrees)
Total Global Radiation (mean instantaneous solar radiation: kilowatts/meter²)
PAR Radiation (mean instantaneous flux density in micro Einsteins)
Precipitation (current amount in weighing bucket in millimeters)

In addition to the parameters above, weekly standard can measures were also recorded and total daily precipitation is provided in separate summaries.

Complete metadata and documentation for the operation of the KUFS Weather Station at NESA are available at http://www.ksr.ku.edu/libres/Weather_station/doc_metadata.pdf . Questions about the historic data archive may be directed to Galen L. Pittman at the Kansas Biological Survey (785-843-8573; gpittman@ku.edu).

In August 2008, a new NRCS SCAN network weather station was installed adjacent to the KSR weather station at NESA as its replacement. The old station was decommissioned on 31 December 2008. Publicly-accessible weather data from the NRCS SCAN site is available in real time at http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/scan/site.pl?sitenum=2147&state=ks

Data Archives

Data Documentation and Metadata
Consult the link above for all information on the operation of the station.

Raw Weather Data - Automated Station
The raw weather data from the NESA station are available in both daily and hourly summaries for 1989-2008. The data are presented in MS Excel format and organized by month.

Example of naming conventions for files of raw hourly data:
NESA0208.xls = hourly raw data for the month of August 2002

Example of naming conventions for files of raw daily data:
24HR0507.xls = daily raw data for the month of July 2005

Precipitation Data - Automated Station
Precipitation data from the automated NESA weather station are available as either daily or monthly summaries for 1989-2008. The data are presented in MS Excel format.

Precipitation Data - Standard Can
In addition to the precipitation data from the automated station, there is a tabulation of the weekly standard rain can readings that were recorded from 16 February 1987 - 2 January 2009. These data are available in MS Excel format in one large file, and include precipitation amounts in inches for the respective calendar and Julian dates.

Temperature - Monthly Summaries from Automated Station
There is a summary tabulation of monthly mean air temperature derived from data from the automated weather station. This tabulation includes a calculated monthly mean, the mimimum and maximum temperature for each month, as well as an annual mean and an overall annual maximum and minimum temperature. These data are tabulated for the period from 1989-2008 and are in MS Excel format.