The Oklahoma Mesonet's quality-assurance (QA) consists of
four principal components:
1) laboratory calibration,
2) on-site
intercomparison,
3) automated QA, and
4) manual QA.
In the instrument laboratory, all sensors are calibrated to
validate or improve upon factory calibrations.
On an annual basis, the accuracy of several types of sensors
in the field is verified through comparison to calibrated reference
sensors housed in a portable system.
To make a first pass through the 640,000+ observations that
are received at the Mesonet each day, automated QA software includes
numerous algorithms to evaluate the data received from remote
stations.
Finally, the Mesonet’s QA meteorologists employ numerous
manual techniques to complement automated QA including analysis
of monthly statistics to detect sensor drift or bias (click on
a month and year to the left to download a PDF version of a Monthly
Report). In addition to detecting problematic sensors, the QA
meteorologists trace the true start time of each problem so that
appropriate data can be manually flagged as erroneous. The QA
meteorologists are responsible for communicating problems to,
and coordinating with, appropriate field technicians to ensure
proper resolution (see a list of the current outstanding tickets
below). |
