Rescuing old meteorological data

Open‐source tool for interactive digitisation of pluviograph strip charts

“…Digitisation, or ‘rescue’, of old meteorological data is of great importance to the meteorological community. Examples of digitisation projects include papers by Le Blancq () and Cornes (), who focused on old datasets in the form of logbooks. Our focus was on newer meteorological records – paper strip charts, which are still being produced today.…”

Review of errors in archived wind data

“…Le Blanc () reported finding three types of error in manually archived data: incorrect original entries, typographical errors in reports and keying‐in errors in digital archiving. The forms of such errors are, typically: Transpositions – All the right digits, but not necessarily in the right order. Substitutions – Where other digits within the SYNOP code are substituted for the correct digits, often imposing a pattern on the data that is not really there. Wrong digit – Where one digit is confused with another similar‐looking digit, or where the wrong key is pressed, typically a key immediately adjacent to the correct one on the keyboard. Duplications – where an obviously erroneous or missing observation has been replaced by a copy of the preceding, or succeeding, observation. …”

Diurnal pressure variation: the atmospheric tide

“…While recovering and digitizing old surface pressure data for Jersey Airport, a complete set of three-hourly surface pressure readings was compiled (Le Blancq, 2010). The database starts in 1961 when sea-level pressure was calculated using a mercury Kew pattern barometer, but the period used here covers 40 years from 1971 to 2010 when precision aneroid barometers (PAB) were in use.…”