New York State Mesonet: From Data Quality to Scientific Highlights

The New York State Mesonet (NYSM) will consist of 125 stations across the state with an average spacing of 19 miles when completed. All stations will make measurements of standard meteorological variables plus soil moisture and temperature at three levels. In addition, the NYS Mesonet will have three sub-networks (“Enhanced”, “Flux”, and “Snow”) comprised of 17, 17, and 20 sites to provide atmospheric vertical profiles, the surface energy budget, and snow depth and snow water equivalent, respectively. With about one-quarter of the network now operational, the entire network is expected to be completed by December 2016.

High-quality data require high-quality, well-calibrated and well-maintained sensors, and careful data quality control and assurance (QC/QA). State-of-the-art, high-quality, automated sensors are selected for NYSM and will sample conditions every 3-60 seconds. Each sensor will be evaluated and calibrated independently and regularly. The data will be quality-controlled by many procedures automatically in real-time and manually by QA meteorologists regularly. In addition, the data will be assessed through comparison with other redundant measurements and model products. The final QCed data will be at 5-min resolution and disseminated and ingested in real-time into weather prediction models and decision tools for users across New York State and beyond. In this talk, an overview of NYSM data processing, QC/QA procedures, and scientific highlights of the data and products will be presented.