Standardizing the quality assessment of data: partnership activities between NCDC and RCCs

Historically, climatic data have been collected, processed and stored by many different entities in many different ways. Lack of standardization has become a problem when trying to compare analytical results, as well as when serving the interests of the data users. Informally, several climate groups have, over the past several years, discussed the benefits of standardizing processes. A general agreement has been reached that 1) similar kinds of data (e.g., daily data observed at coop and first order) should be treated together with the same rules and algorithms in an integrated manner and 2) algorithms developed by the many entities assessing data should be linked into one unified system so that all basic climate data that are distributed to the public by various agencies are treated in the same manner.

The NCDC supports the long-range goal of standardizing the treatment of all basic data and has begun to actively participate with other groups so that standardization can eventually be achieved. This presentation describes two specific activities with Regional Climate Centers (RCC). The first is the partnership with the High Plains RCC and involves the transfer of spatial regression techniques from the RCC into the operational quality assessment of data received at NCDC. The second is the partnership with the Northeast RCC and involves the evaluation of decision making techniques developed by the Northeast RCC for assessing the quality of hourly and daily data.