Identification and digitization of instrumental climate data from Catalan documentary sources (18th - 21th centuries) Marc Prohom, Mònica Herrero and Anna.

Identification and digitization of instrumental climate data from Identification and digitization of instrumental climate data from Catalan documentary sources (18th - 21th centuries)Catalan documentary sources (18th - 21th centuries)

Marc Prohom, Mònica Herrero and Anna RiusMarc Prohom, Mònica Herrero and Anna RiusArea of Climatology – Meteorological Service of CataloniaArea of Climatology – Meteorological Service of Catalonia

Introduction: what is the SMC?Introduction: what is the SMC?

The Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC) was established in 2001 as a public entity of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Autonomous Government), thus recovering the former SMC that had been very active during the period 1921-1939. Nowadays it is organized into five different areas:

Applied Researchand Modelitzation

Forecasting

Climatology Info. Technologyand Communications

Administration

Among the main functions of the Area of Climatology the law of meteorology quotes:

• To maintain the meteorological data base of Catalonia.

• To promote investigational activities with regards to meteorology and climatology and to support the development of related products and services.

The projectThe project

Keeping in mind the main objectives of the area, during the last two years a project of Identification, cataloguing and digitization of instrumental climate data from Catalan documentary sources, encompassing the period between 18th century and the present, has been initiated.

The climatic information available is already incomplete due to two main reasons:

• at the end of the 19th century and during the first decades of the 20th century, the meteorological observation in Catalonia was not regulated by a unique meteorological office but by a wide range of public and private institutions or, even, individual observers, and,

• as a result of the dramatic political circumstances that our country suffered during the 20th century (especially the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939), many of the climatic information generated since then was destroyed, lost or scattered all over the territory.

MethodologyMethodology

1. To analyze the climatic documentary sources, identifying as many as possible meteorological stations or observatories, and the meteorological series associated to these sites.

2. To create a database of the metadata for each of the sites detected: METADEM.

3. To construct a database of the series associated to each one of the meteorological sites (temperature and precipitation): BDSCLIM.

4. Quality control and homogeneity analysis of the series.At present the SMC is involved in the COST Action ES0601: Advances in Homogenisation Methods of Climate Series: An integrated Approach (HOME)

To identify new

sources

To cataloguethose sources

Climatic dataBDSCLIM

MetadataMETADEM

Analysis of homogeneity

Qualitycontrol

To extract the climatic

information

Sources of climatic information Sources of climatic information analysedanalysed

Until now (2007) four different sources have been analysed:

Source 1: The National Database from the Spanish Meteorological Office

Source 2: The database of the former Meteorological Service of Catalonia

Source 3: The Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona (RACAB) and the Royal Academy of Medicine (RAM)

Source 4: A set of bibliographic sources: bulletins of different institutions and climatic atlas.

Source 1Source 1: : The National database of the The National database of the Spanish Meteorological officeSpanish Meteorological office

• This source consists of two great datasets:

• Digitized data:

Evolution of the number of precipitation series over Catalonia

(each colour is a geographical region)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1895

1900

1905

1910

1915

1920

1925

1930

1935

1940

1945

1950

1955

1960

1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

Pir+prep Occ Pir+prep Ori Ponent Prelit i lit sud

Prelit i lit nord Prelit i lit central Cat. Central

836 precipitation series484 thermometric seriesMainly for the period (1910-2006)Daily resolution

• Scanned precipitation cards:

An example of a rainfall card (1922)

Source 2Source 2: : The former Meteorological The former Meteorological Service of Catalonia (1921-1939)Service of Catalonia (1921-1939)

This source not only contains climatic information of the period in which the former SMC was active, but material provided by previous institutions (1895-1921). This material is now digitized thanks to this project:

The first Meteorological Network of Catalonia and the Balearics (1895-1905, aprox). The rainfall network of Catalonia coordinated by the Catalan Observatory (1905-1911,

aprox.) The Astronomical Society of Barcelona (1910-1921) The first Catalan Meteorological Service (1921-1939)

Observation diary of Mataró (April 1899)Rainfall stations network (1914)

Source 3Source 3: : The Academies of Medicine The Academies of Medicine and the Sciences and Artsand the Sciences and Arts

Identification and catalogue of that entries with

climatic value (RACAB)

Royal Academyof Sciences and

Arts of Barcelona

Royal Academy of Medicine

Great scientific activity (from 18th

century)

Important

archivesScanning and digitization of

the meteorological observations

made in Barcelona by

Dr. Salvà (1780-1826)

Source 3Source 3: : The Academies of Medicine The Academies of Medicine and the Sciences and Artsand the Sciences and Arts

First page of the meteorological observations made by Dr.

Salvà.

January 1780

The METADEMThe METADEM

The metadata information of each site detected and extracted from these sources is introduced in the METADEM (Database of Metadata)

Observers Locationdescription

Geographicalinformation

Who is/was in charge?

Temperatureobservations:

period covered,screens used,instruments,

units,documentary

sources,...

Precipitationobservations:

instruments used, documentary

sources

Additionalinformation

First improvements of the projectFirst improvements of the project

a. New data has been detected and incorporated to the database.

Temporal coverage has been improved: for the period previous the Spanish Civil War, 150 new thermopluviometric series have been identified and 200 series has now a wider temporal coverage.

Number of series per decade before the project (in grey) and after the project (in green). Period 1860-2004.

PRECIPITATION

Daily Monthly

TEMPERATURE

Daily

First improvements of the projectFirst improvements of the project

• Evolution of the spatial coverage

Meteorological sites previous to the project New meteorological sites detected (blue) Meteorological sites that has a wider temporal coverage (green)

Quality control and homogeneity Quality control and homogeneity testingtesting

A quality control process has been defined, according to the bibliography. Every series is analysed looking for erroneous or doubtful data.

Results of the quality control for the maximum and minimum temperature series of the Ebre

Observatory.

The final homogeneity testing process will be defined following the conclusions of the COST action HOME.

Work in progress...Work in progress...

During the next years we will focus on the following items:

• Quality control and homogeneity testing of the series.

• Incorporation of the rest of meteorological variables.

• Finishing with the analysis of the documentary batches from the former SMC, paying attention to photographic material and correspondence to complete with our metadata knowledge.

• Carrying on with the identification of new sources (local and county archives).

• Analysis of a likely useful source: the written press.

“La Cruz” newspaper. Tarragona, 13th March 1903