AUTHORSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT OF
DRAFT STANDARDS FOR OBSERVATION AND ARCHIVING OF LTER CLIMATE DATA

This document is the result of the cooperative effort of many LTER groups and individuals.

The document primarily results from a meeting held at Sevilleta LTER, NM Oct. 2-5, 1997 called

LTER Climate Observations and Format Standards Meeting (CLIMSTAN)

The participants at the meeting are listed here .

The original (1986) meteorological observation standards document was developed by the individuals and 1986 Climate Committee who are listed at the front of the document itself.

The revised (1997) version of the observation standards is mainly the work of Karen Baker, David Greenland, Jordan Hastings, Lloyd Swift Jr., and Les Viereck (listed alphabetically). (Greenland - Editor)

The Intersite Climate Data Base section of the document was mainly the work of Barbara Benson, Caroline Bledsoe, Darrell Blogett, Doug Goodin, Don Henshaw, Bill Lauenroth, Doug Moore, Robin Stubbs, and Lloyd Swift Jr. (listed alphabetically). (Goodin and Henshaw - Co - editors).

The Glossary was mainly the work of Doug Goodin.

All parts of the document were reviewed by the full membership of the 1997 Climate Committee and 1997 Data Managers Committee.

Climate Committee 1997
AND Arthur McKee and David Greenland
ARC John Hobbie
BNZ Les Viereck and Phyllis Adams
CDR Johannes Knops
CWT Lloyd Swift Jr.
HFR Emery Boose
HBR Amy Bailey
JRN Vince Gutschick
KBS James Crum and Stuart Gage
KNZ John Briggs and Doug Goodin
LUQ Robert Waide and Doug Schaefer
NWT Mark Losleben and Tim Seastedt
NTL John Magnuson, Dale Robertson and John Lenters
MCM Robert Wharton
PAL Ray Smith, Karen Baker and Robin Ross
SEV Doug Moore, Cliff Dahm and Jim Gosz
SGS Timothy Kittel and Bill Parton
VCR Bruce Hayden
Data Managers Committee 1997
(dman email group)

AND Susan Stafford,Don Henshaw, Gody Spycher
ARC James Laundre, John Hobbie
BAL Christopher Steele, Timothy Foresman
BNZ Darrell Blodgett
CAP Peter McCartney
CDR Clarence Lehman
CWT Avram Rouhani
HFR Emery Boose
HBR Amy Bailey
JRN Ken Ramsey, John Anderson, Barbara Nolen
KBS Kay Baergen, Sandy Halstead
KNZ John Briggs
LUQ Eda Melendez-Colom
MCM Denise Steigerwald
NET James Brunt
NWT Michael Hartman
NTL Barbara Benson, Robin Stubbs
PAL Karen Baker
SEV Gregg MacKeigan
SGS Chris Wasser
VCR John Porter

ClimDB+ Mailing List Members

Barbara Benson (NTL) established an extended group list for persons who will be testing and contributing to the ClimDB system and are interested in issues related to intersite climate database development. The mailing list is called ClimDB+ and as of November, 1997 included the following persons:

AND Arthur McKee, David Greenland, Susan Stafford,Don Henshaw, Gody Spycher
ARC John Hobbie, James Laundre
BAL Christopher Steele, Timothy Foresman
BNZ Les Viereck, Phyllis Adams, Darrell Blodgett
CAP Peter McCartney
CDR Johannes Knops, Clarence Lehman
CWT Lloyd Swift Jr., Avram Rouhani, Alan Yeakley
HBR Amy Bailey
HFR Emery Boose
JRN Vince Gutschick, Ken Ramsey, John Anderson, Barbara Nolen
KBS Phil Robertson, Stuart Gage, Kay Baergen, SHalstead
KNZ John Briggs, Doug Goodin
LUQ Robert Waide, Doug Schaefer, Eda Melendez-Colom
MCM Berry Lyons, Denise Steigerwald
NET James Brunt, Caroline Bledsoe
NTL John Lenters, Barbara Benson, Robin Stubbs
NWT Mark Losleben,Tim Seastedt, Michael Hartman
PAL Ray Smith, Karen Baker
SEV Doug Moore, Jim Gosz, Gregg MacKeigan
SGS Bill Lauenroth, Chris Wasser
VCR Bruce Hayden, John Porter

Prefaces to Editions of the Observation Standards

Following the initial establishment of the Long Term Ecological Program (LTER) a Meteorological Committee was organized under the cochairpersonship of Dr. Harvey L. Ragsdale and Dr. Lloyd W. Swift of the Coweeta LTER site. The other committee members were Drs D. Bark (Konza), D. Greenland (Niwot), B.J. Kjerfve (North Inlet), and A. McKee (Andrews). Using some of the original planning documents of the LTER program (TIE, 1979), site specific material (e.g. Waring et al., 1978), National Weather Service and World Meteorological Organization documentation (WMO, 1970,1971, USDC, 1970), and the experience of the committee, the first part of a document outlining the standardization of LTER meteorological measurements was completed. The majority of the work was performed by Drs. Ragsdale and Swift and the first three sections of the present document is largely due to their efforts. Drs. Swift and Ragsdale subsequently described the status of meteorology within LTER in an overview document (Swift and Ragsdale, 1985). In 1985, the committee was reestablished by the central coordinating committee of LTER as a climate committee whose tasks are to complete the present document and to prepare a climatic description of the LTER sites. This manual has been reviewed by all members of the LTER Climate Committee and represents the approved procedures for the operation of the the LTER climatology program at the time of writing. Changes and additions to the contents of this manual will be supplied to site principal investigators when appropriate. It should be noted that the reference USDC 1970 supplied with hardbound versions of the manual is currently under revision by the National Weather Service and a new version of this will be available from the NWS within the next two years.

David Greenland.
Niwot Ridge/Green Lakes Valley Site
University of Colorado.
June 1986

Expansion of the LTER Network, advances in technology, the need for greater specification of climate data format, and members of the LTER Coordinating Committee demanded a revised version of the Meterological Standards Document. The LTER Network Office funded a meeting where much of the work on revision and data format standardization was accomplished. The meeting was held at the Sevilleta site between October 2 -5, 1997. At the meeting were representatives of the Climate Committee, the Data Managers Committee, and LTER climate data users. A list of persons who contributed at the meeting is given here . Following the meeting a draft of the revision was reviewed by members of the full Climate Committee after which the document was submitted for approval by the LTER Coordinating Committtee.

David Greenland.
Andrews and Niwot Ridge/Green Lakes Valley Site
University of North Carolina.
October 1997.