What constitutes a GRUAN quality observation data record?
• Data must be preserved in both processed and raw forms, accompanied by sufficient metadata so future researchers can understand and re-process the data long after the observers are gone. The key here is to provide sufficient documentation about what corrections were made, and what processing was done to arrive at the final data output. • For radiosondes, pre-flight cal/val data must be retained to validate the accuracy of the sounding. • There may be no black boxes used to calibrate, smooth, correct or otherwise manipulate the raw data. All processing algorithms must be documented, tested and publicly available to researchers. This is particularly important for radiation corrections applied to temperature and humidity observations. • Data quality indicators should be included where available. Interpolations should not be used to fill in for missing data. • Data file version numbers will be necessary for traceability. • Only complete, processed, quality checked and error-barred data w
