PROMICE Automated Weather Station (AWS) terminology and file naming conventions
Within the PROMICE and GC-Net monitoring programmes, we have a lot of different terminology when referring to our data processing and products. Here is an outline of this terminology.
Level 0 (L0) to Level 3 (L3) data
L0: Level 0 data, the original data that is collected from a given weather station. This means that all observation are unmodified.
L1: Level 1 data, the output of the first processing step from L0, including conversion of observations from engineering to physical units and basic corrections
L2: Level 2 data, the output of the second processing step from L1, including cross-sensor corrections
L3: Level 3 data, the output of the third and final processing step from L2, including the calculation of derived variables such as sensible and latent heat flux
Raw data vs. transmitted (tx) data
raw: 10-minute data stored on the weather station CF-card (an external module on the station logger). This data can only be collected in the field during a station visit
STM: Hourly-averaged slim table data stored on the internal logger memory of the weather station. This data can only be collected in the field during a station visit
tx: Hourly- and/or daily-averaged data transmitted via Iridium. The frequency of data transmission depends on the station type and the day of year. This data can be accessed remotely
The level (L0 L1 L2 L3) and type (raw STM tx) can be combined to form a detailed description of the data being referred to. For example, L3 tx is transmitted data processed to a Level 3 product.
Static vs. near-real-time data
static: A static L3 data product, where data has been collected and processed up til a given point in time. This data does not change over time. For example, our Dataverse weather station data products are static
nrt: A near-real-time L3 data product, where data is collected and processed on an hourly basis. This data changes over time as new data (mainly tx data) is available
One-boom and two-boom stations
one-boom: A tripod station design with most sensors attached to one boom, mainly found on the peripheral of the ice sheet and associated with PROMICE
two-boom: A mast station design with sensors attached to two booms, mainly used for monitoring the in-land ice sheet conditions and associated with GC-Net
Processing components
config or toml file: A TOML-formatted file associated with a given weather station, containing processing parameters for processing its L0 data to a L3 data product. These parameters include instrument calibration coefficients, logger type and observation column names
imei: The modem number of a given weather station, needed to identify and read transmission messages containing L0 tx data
last_aws_uid or uid: The ID of the last transmission received from any weather station
pypromice: The Python package that contains all of the processing steps and workflows for weather station data processing and handling
Further reading
Fausto et al. (2021) documents the PROMICE one-boom weateher station design and data products in more detail
GEUS resumes responsibility of GC-Net press release