Overview of Automated QA - September 1995

Below is an overview by Mark Shafer of the automated qa of the September
1995 Oklahoma Mesonet Data:
We didn't do very well with the leaf wetness sensors.
As I recall, this is a time when we were behind on production (we make
them ourselves), so we could not replace them very quickly.  In any
event, it was a busy month for QA...

PROBLEM SITES:
--------------

KETC  TB05      1-7 and 27th - suspect and failure flags.  It looks like
                it drifted.  It was repaired on August 8, 1995, but it
                appears that the sensor which was installed had some 
                problems of it's own.

KING  TS30      1-7 and 20th - supect and failure flags.  It was set to
                warning (2) in the badparm file on 10/02/95.  Probably
                should be careful even with unflagged obs for this month.

KING  TS10      13-16th - high scores on the spatial checks; trouble-ticket
                issued on 09/16.

HOLL  TS30      20-25th - suspect and warning flags, became failures.
                Apparent sensor drift toward failure.  No flag in the
                badparm table, but likely repaired quickly (25th).

BYAR  TB05      26-30th - similar problem, probable sensor drift.  No
                flag in badparm table.

ALTU  LEAF      8-9th - several failures.  Not bad, but problems re-occured
                in October.

BESS  LEAF      10-30th - sporadic failures, no flag in badparm.

CLAY  LEAF      9-28th - sporadic failures, flagged failure in badparm on
                04/22/96.

FTCB  LEAF      18-23rd - sporadic failures, no flag in badparm.

GOOD  LEAF      11-19th, 29th - sporadic failures, continued until November
                1st.  No flag in badparm.

IDAB  LEAF      23-24th - sporadic failures, no flag in badparm.

• -180.0 - +180.0(alt)
• accumulated rainfall since 00GMT except at 00 GMT, the number given is the total
  accumulation for the past 24 hours(prec_amt)
• vector average wind magnitude(wvec_10m)
• Time offset from base_time(time_offset)
• Retrieved pressure profile(pres)
• standard deviation of wind speed(wspd_sigma)
• average wind run (arithmetic average speed) at 10m(wspd_10m)
• vector average of wind direction measured at 10m(wdir_10m)
• air temperature at 1.5m(tdry_1_5m)
• base time in epoch(base_time)
• lon(lon)
• maximum 3-second wind speed within the 5-minute averaging period(wspd_max)
• average wind speed at 2m(wspd_2m)
• Relative Humidity (hybrid-b grid)(rh)
• air temperature at 9m(tdry_9m)
• solar radiation(srad)
• standard deviation of wind direction(wdir_sigma)
• North Latitude(lat)

• leaf wetness index, measurement of dew ranging from 0 (dry) to 100(wet)(leaf_ind)
• -180.0 - +180.0(alt)
• soil temperature at 5 cm beneath natural sod cover(tsoil5)
• 10 cm soil temp(tsoil10)
• soil temperature at 5 cm beneath bare soil(tbare5)
• Average battery voltage(vbat)
• base time in epoch(base_time)
• lon(lon)
• soil temperature at 10cm beneath bare soil(tbare10)
• soil temperature at 30 cm beneath bare soil(tbare30)
• Time offset from base_time(time_offset)
• North Latitude(lat)