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Monthly evaporation data from a NOAA evaporation pan at USDA Jornada Experimental Range headquarters, southern New Mexico USA, 1953 - 1979

General Information
Data Package:
Local Identifier:knb-lter-jrn.210379003.4
Title:Monthly evaporation data from a NOAA evaporation pan at USDA Jornada Experimental Range headquarters, southern New Mexico USA, 1953 - 1979
Alternate Identifier:DOI PLACE HOLDER
Abstract:

This data package contains monthly total pan evaporation data from a NOAA National Weather Service station located at the USDA Jornada Experimental Range headquarters in southern New Mexico, USA. The evaporation pan measurements commenced in 1953 and ended in 1979 when the instrument was decommissioned. Pan evaporation observations were made using standard U.S. climatological service instrumentation and procedures. The included data were transcribed directly from JER records and have undergone quality control and assurance procedures different than those in place at NOAA. These data therefore differ from those directly downloadable from NOAA servers. There is no further data from this decommissioned instrument, so this dataset is now complete and data will no longer be updated here.

All observations from this weather station have also undergone NOAA QA/QC procedures and those data are available by accessing the Jornada Experimental Range, NM US GHCN station through the National Climatic Data Center portal (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datasets/GHCND/stations/GHCND:USC00294426/detail - monthly pan evaporation data are available back to 1930, but there may be data issues prior to 1953).

Publication Date:2020-01-31

Time Period
Begin:
1953-01-01
End:
1979-09-01

People and Organizations
Contact:Anderson, John (Jornada Basin LTER) 
Contact:Data Manager(Jornada Basin LTER) [  email ]
Creator:Ares, Fred N (USDA Jornada Experimental Range)
Creator:National Weather Service(NOAA)
Creator:Thatcher, David (USDA Jornada Experimental Range)
Creator:Anderson, John (Jornada Basin LTER)

Data Entities
Data Table Name:
Monthly pan evaporation values in inches
Description:
Monthly pan evaporation values in inches
Other Name:
JER HQ NOAA weather station comments, corrections, and history
Description:
JER HQ NOAA weather station comments, corrections, and history
Other Name:
Summary figure comparing JER data records to NOAA data records.
Description:
Summary figure comparing JER data records to NOAA data records.
Detailed Metadata

Data Entities

Data Table

Data:https://pasta-s.lternet.edu/package/data/eml/knb-lter-jrn/210379003/4/38a215a590c71bf0bda0d6be4dd98c6d
Name:Monthly pan evaporation values in inches
Description:Monthly pan evaporation values in inches
Number of Records:315
Number of Columns:3

Table Structure
Object Name:JER_379003_jerHQ_noaa_evaporation_pan_monthly.csv
Size:5124 bytes
Authentication:4057b0d0c2b3f0079d44b1cee968db05 Calculated By MD5
Text Format:
Number of Header Lines:1
Record Delimiter:\n
Orientation:column
Simple Delimited:
Field Delimiter:,

Table Column Descriptions
 
Column Name:date  
evap_in  
days_evap_in  
Definition:Date of observation (year-month)Total evaporation for the month (inches)Number of days used in evaporation calculation
Storage Type:date  
float  
float  
Measurement Type:dateTimeratioratio
Measurement Values Domain:
FormatYYYY-MM
Precision
Unitinch
Typereal
Min0.53 
Max15.56 
Unitnumber
Typenatural
Min6 
Max31 
Missing Value Code:      
Accuracy Report:      
Accuracy Assessment:      
Coverage:      
Methods:      

Non-Categorized Data Resource

Name:JER HQ NOAA weather station comments, corrections, and history
Entity Type:unknown
Description:JER HQ NOAA weather station comments, corrections, and history
Physical Structure Description:
Object Name:nwsmoevp.his.txt
Size:648 bytes
Authentication:380052ca4bb2263b7ac15db8c0f72aaa Calculated By MD5
Externally Defined Format:
Format Name:unknown
Data:https://pasta-s.lternet.edu/package/data/eml/knb-lter-jrn/210379003/4/9e4fde1f50887059ed70c34a41699e95

Non-Categorized Data Resource

Name:Summary figure comparing JER data records to NOAA data records.
Entity Type:unknown
Description:Summary figure comparing JER data records to NOAA data records.
Physical Structure Description:
Object Name:jer_vs_noaa_cumulative_monthly_evap.png
Size:72058 bytes
Authentication:92a86182cba87886f3bf63a7196a2395 Calculated By MD5
Externally Defined Format:
Format Name:unknown
Data:https://pasta-s.lternet.edu/package/data/eml/knb-lter-jrn/210379003/4/5270190c4acf8358812afb509bcdaebd

Data Package Usage Rights

This information is released under the Creative Commons license - Attribution - CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The consumer of these data ("Data User" herein) has an ethical obligation to cite it appropriately in any publication that results from its use. The Data User should realize that these data may be actively used by others for ongoing research and that coordination may be necessary to prevent duplicate publication. The Data User is urged to contact the authors of these data if any questions about methodology or results occur. Where appropriate, the Data User is encouraged to consider collaboration or co-authorship with the authors. The Data User should realize that misinterpretation of data may occur if used out of context of the original study. While substantial efforts are made to ensure the accuracy of data and associated documentation, complete accuracy of data sets cannot be guaranteed. All data are made available "as is." The Data User should be aware, however, that data are updated periodically and it is the responsibility of the Data User to check for new versions of the data. The data authors and the repository where these data were obtained shall not be liable for damages resulting from any use or misinterpretation of the data. Thank you.

Keywords

By Thesaurus:
LTER Controlled Vocabularyevaporation, evapotranspiration, water balance, deserts, hydrology, atmospheric processes, hydrologic processes, meteorology, climate, long term
Jornada Project Namesstudy 379
JRN Dataset KeywordsHydrology, USDA, long-term, LTAR
Jornada Place NamesJER, HQ
LTER Core AreaDisturbance
(No thesaurus)weather station, NOAA, NWS, monthly

Methods and Protocols

These methods, instrumentation and/or protocols apply to all data in this dataset:

Methods and protocols used in the collection of this data package
Description:

History and description

This data package contains monthly evaporation observations collected at an evaporation pan instrument located at USDA Jornada Experimental Range (JER) Headquarters. The evaporation pan was a National Weather Service (NWS) instrument and is part of the NOAA Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN). Monthly observations of evaporation in inches of water were collected by USDA JER staff and sent to the local National Weather Service office from around 1953 until the instrument was decommissioned in 1979. These observations were made using standard U.S. climatological service instrumentation and recording procedures. The data sent to the local NWS office was subsequently quality controlled and assured and made available on NOAA servers.

Data here are monthly evaporation data that are based on observations stored in the JER database, which was ultimately derived from floppy disks obtained from a NOAA office in Maryland. Since this time, these JER data have undergone quality control and assurance procedures different than those in place at NOAA (see below), and the data therefore differ from what is available currently from NOAA servers. There are far fewer missing observations in this dataset than the NOAA dataset (see "Additional documents" below).

All data from this evaporation pan that have undergone NOAA QA/QC procedures are available by accessing the Jornada Experimental Range, NM US GHCN station through the National Climatic Data Center portal (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datasets/GHCND/stations/GHCND:USC00294426/detail). Evaporation data going back to 1930 is retrievable from NOAA servers, but there appear to be data issues prior to 1953.

Data evaluation by USDA and LTER staff

Discrepancies between this data set and data now available from NOAA suggest that data entry errors or additional data filtering has occurred at NOAA. This resulted in a higher frequency of missing data in the data directly downloadable from NOAA servers. This data package remains to document those discrepancies, but is now considered complete and will not be updated in the future.

Additional documents

The attached history text file "nwsmoevp.his.txt" describes the procedures for identifying discrepancies between NOAA data and JER headquarters data and the subsequent changes made in the included data file.

The summary figure "jer_vs_noaa_cumulative_monthly_evap.png" plots the discrepancies between JER data and NOAA server data (most recent data request).

Related datasets

Daily temperature and precipitation observations from the JER headquarters NOAA weather station (which the evaporation pan was co-located with) are found in EDI package knb-lter-jrn.210379001.

Monthly temperature and precipitation summary data from this weather station is found on EDI in package knb-lter-jrn.210379002.

People and Organizations

Creators:
Individual: Fred N Ares
Organization:USDA Jornada Experimental Range
Individual: National Weather Service
Organization:NOAA
Individual: David Thatcher
Organization:USDA Jornada Experimental Range
Individual: John Anderson
Organization:Jornada Basin LTER
Id:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6417-8022
Contacts:
Individual: John Anderson
Organization:Jornada Basin LTER
Id:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6417-8022
Individual: Data Manager
Organization:Jornada Basin LTER
Email Address:
datamanager.jrn.lter@gmail.com

Temporal, Geographic and Taxonomic Coverage

Temporal, Geographic and/or Taxonomic information that applies to all data in this dataset:

Time Period
Begin:
1953-01-01
End:
1979-09-01
Sampling Site: 
Description:The evaporation pan was located at USDA JER Headquarters.
Site Coordinates:
Longitude (degree): -106.7404Latitude (degree): 32.6161

Project

Parent Project Information:

Title:USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range
Personnel:
Individual: Kris Havstad
Organization:USDA Jornada Experimental Range
Id:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0133-8519
Role:Principal Investigator
Funding: USDA

Maintenance

Maintenance:
Description:Monthly data. Dataset is complete and will not be updated because the instrument was decomissioned.
Frequency:

Additional Info

Additional Information:
 

USDA Jornada Experimental Range Headquarters

Latitude: 32 37 00

Longitude: 106 44 26

UTM: 336698E 3609961N (Zone 13N)

Elevation: 1320 meters, 4330 feet

Other Metadata

Copyright 2025 Environmental Data Initiative. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants #2223103 and #2223104. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Please contact us with questions, comments, or for technical assistance regarding this web site or the Environmental Data Initiative. Please read our privacy policy to know what information we collect about you and to understand your privacy rights.

EDI is a collaboration between the University of New Mexico and the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Center for Limnology:

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