A flexible system to manage and query NOAA station history information

The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is the world's preeminent repository for weather data. The NCDC's vast data holdings are amassed from a variety of international sources, making station information management both essential and challenging. Archiving a new body of data may require acquiring and managing an entirely new network of stations. Station networks may assign different station identifiers and report different geographic locations for sites common to multiple networks. These and a variety of other factors contribute to the complexity of managing and presenting the station information.

The NCDC, as part of its Climate Database Modernization Program, is developing a replacement for its current station history management system. The new system will use a Web-based Java interface to a fully normalized Oracle database. The system will support a rich body of metadata, eventually including digital photographs and equipment calibration histories, and will link to digital images of supporting documents. It will also provide a variety of query and reporting options.

The new system offers a variety of benefits to climate researchers. Station information will be more consistent and accurate because it's drawn from a central source, and any corrections will be available to all users. More detailed information will be displayed for the stations. Climate researchers should benefit from the ability to identify all the stations in a particular geographic area, or all stations reporting on a particular phenomenon, regardless of the networks the stations belong to.

The paper focuses on the requirements, design, development environment and implementation of the new system. Database design diagrams and screen shots are included, and the presentation may include a live demonstration of the system. Some of the problems with the current station history management system, such as inadequate normalization and a lack of referential integrity enforcement, are common in systems development. The paper discusses some of these shortcomings and how the new system will address them. Future enhancements to the system are also discussed.