Colorado Monthly Meteorological Data package:fields R Documentation

_M_o_n_t_h_l_y _s_u_r_f_a_c_e _m_e_t_e_r_o_l_o_g_y _f_o_r _C_o_l_o_r_a_d_o _1_8_9_5-_1_9_9_7

_D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n:

     Source:

     These is a group of R data sets for monthly min/max temperatures
     and precipitation over the period 1895-1997. It is a subset
     extracted from the more extensive US data record described in at
     <URL: http://www.image.ucar.edu/Data/US.monthly.met>. Observed
     monthly precipitation, min and max temperatures for the
     conterminous US 1895-1997. See also <URL:
     http://www.image.ucar.edu/Data/US.monthly.met/CO.shtml> for an on
     line document of this Colorado subset. Temperature is in degrees C
     and precipitation is total monthly accumulation in millimeters.
     Note that minimum (maximum) monthly tempertuare is the mean of the
     daily minimum (maximum) temperatures. 

     Data domain:

     A rectagular lon/lat region [-109.5,-101]x [36.5,41.5] larger than
     the boundary of Colorado comprises approximately 400 stations.
     Although there are additional stations reported in this domain,
     stations that only report preicipitation or only report
     temperatures have been excluded. In addition stations that have
     mismatches between locations and elevations from the two meta data
     files have also been excluded. The net result is 367 stations that
     have colocated temperatures and precipitation.

_F_o_r_m_a_t:

     This group of data sets is organized with the following  objects:

     _C_O._i_n_f_o A data frame with columns: station id, elev, lon, lat,
          station name

     _C_O._e_l_e_v elevation in meters

     _C_O._i_d alphanumeric station id codes

     _C_O._l_o_c locations in lon/lat

     _C_O._p_p_t _C_O._t_m_a_x _C_O._t_m_i_n Monthly means as three dimensional arrays (
          Year, Month, Station). Temperature is in degrees C and
          precipitation in total monthly accumulation in millimeters.

     _C_O._M_A_M._p_p_t _C_O._M_A_M._t_m_a_x _C_O._M_A_M._t_m_i_n Spring seasonal means  (March,
          April,May) as two dimensional arrays (Year, Station).

_E_x_a_m_p_l_e_s:

     data(COmonthlyMet)

     #Spatial plot of 1997 Spring average daily maximum temps
      quilt.plot( CO.loc,CO.tmax.MAM[103,]  )
      US( add=TRUE)
      title( "Recorded MAM max temperatures (1997)")

     # min and max temperatures against elevation

     matplot( CO.elev, cbind( CO.tmax.MAM[103,], CO.tmin.MAM[103,]),
       pch="o", type="p",
       col=c("red", "blue"), xlab="Elevation (m)", ylab="Temperature (C)")
     title("Recorded MAM max (red) and min (blue) temperatures 1997")

