The automatic weather stations NOANN network of the National Observatory of Athens: operation and database

Abstract

During the last 10 years, the Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development of the National Observatory of Athens has developed and operates a network of automated weather stations across Greece. The motivation behind the network development is the monitoring of weather conditions in Greece with the aim to support not only the research needs (weather monitoring and analysis, weather forecast skill evaluation) but also the needs of various communities of the production sector (agriculture, constructions, leisure and tourism, etc.). By the end of 2016, 335 weather stations are in operation, providing real‐time data at 10‐min intervals. This paper provides information about the logistics of this network, including real‐time applications of the collected data as well as information on the quality control protocols, the construction of the station data and metadata repository and the means through which the data are made available to users.

Integrating Urban Form, Function, and Energy Fluxes in a Heat Exposure Indicator in View of Intra-Urban Heat Island Assessment and Climate Change Adaptation

“…MODIS calibrated radiances product (MOD/MYD021KM) and precipitable water product (MOD/MYD05-L2) were accessed from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). Above rooftop level meteorological data-T α , barometric pressure (P), wind speed (W), relative humidity (RH), and downward solar radiation (K↓)-were provided from the network of urban AWSs of the National Observatory of Athens via its online interface ( [69]; http://stratus.meteo.noa.gr/front; Figure 1). These data were subsequently interpolated in the study area using regression kriging with elevation as an auxiliary variable [70] (K↓ was considered constant for the whole study area).…”

Performance Evaluation of an Explicit Lightning Forecasting System

“…The first goal of this study is to evaluate the model skill in forecasting the observed convection for the selected 10 cases by analyzing accumulated precipitation fields (as no radar data are yet available over Greece). The 24-hr simulated accumulated precipitation (APCP) for each case study are verified against observations derived from a network of 110-140 rain gauges (Figure 2), which is operated by the National Observatory of Athens (NOA; Lagouvardos et al, 2017). The six model grid points surrounding each rain gauge were considered for the computation of standard qualitative statistical measures including the probability of detection (POD) and the false alarm ratio (FAR; i.e., contingency tables).…”

FLIRE DSS: A web tool for the management of floods and wildfires in urban and periurban areas

“…[21]). Meteorological datasets are complemented by measurements from the dense meteorological network operated in the greater area by the National Observatory of Athens (NOA), as well as weather forecasts for the area, also provided by NOA [19]. Extended fieldwork has been done to collect field data for the preparation of the base data like the updated landcover dataset [22].…”

“…From 51 prefectures of Greece, Attica was among the more often influenced areas, mostly from flash floods. Regarding the seasonality of flash floods, autumn in Greece is actually the season with the higher frequency of rainfall and the highest accumulated rainfall, particularly in the mainland [16][17][18][19]. As well, economic damages resulting from wildfires (i.e., the reduced ability of a burnt forest to offer recreation opportunities) are also significant, especially in Mediterranean regions, where their frequency is considerably high.…”