Climate Database for the Long-Term Ecological Research Network (LTER)

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Long-Term Ecological Research
(LTER) program and many U. S. Forest Service Experimental Research
Stations collect and maintain extensive, long-term ecological
databases including streamflow and meteorological measurements. These
databases have been widely used in intersite comparisons, modeling
studies, and land management-related studies. To facilitate intersite
research among the network of LTER sites, information managers have
developed a prototype to provide climatic summaries dynamically over
the Internet ("http://www.fsl.orst.edu/climhy/climdb/"), and serves as
one model for improving access to data across sites (Baker et
al. 2000, Henshaw et al. 1998). Individual sites maintain local
climate data in local information systems while a centralized site
continually harvests, updates, and provides access to all sites' data
through a common database. Common distribution report formats and
graphical displays have been established to meet specific needs of
climate data users.

Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites have generally followed
established LTER Climate Committee guidelines (Greenland 1986) for
collecting baseline meteorological data. Standardized measurements
provide a basis for coordinating meteorological measurements at two or
more sites and enable intersite comparisons. However, access to
comparable datasets from multiple sites is problematic. While most
sites make climate data accessible via the World-Wide Web (WWW), the
data are displayed in a variety of formats, are aggregated using
different methods, and are often not easily located.

For more information, see:
"http://www.fsl.orst.edu/climhy/documents/climhydro_userguide.htm"