Effects of undetected data quality issues on climatological analyses
Systematic data quality issues may occur at various stages of the data generation process. They may affect large fractions of observational datasets and remain largely undetected with standard data quality control. This study investigates the effects of such undetected data quality issues on the res...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2018-01-01
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| Series: | Climate of the Past |
| Online Access: | https://www.clim-past.net/14/1/2018/cp-14-1-2018.pdf |
| _version_ | 1818522282381803520 |
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| author | S. Hunziker S. Hunziker S. Brönnimann S. Brönnimann J. Calle I. Moreno M. Andrade L. Ticona A. Huerta W. Lavado-Casimiro |
| author_facet | S. Hunziker S. Hunziker S. Brönnimann S. Brönnimann J. Calle I. Moreno M. Andrade L. Ticona A. Huerta W. Lavado-Casimiro |
| author_sort | S. Hunziker |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Systematic data quality issues may occur at various stages of the data generation process. They may affect large fractions of observational datasets and remain largely undetected with standard data quality control. This study investigates the effects of such undetected data quality issues on the results of climatological analyses. For this purpose, we quality controlled daily observations of manned weather stations from the Central Andean area with a standard and an enhanced approach. The climate variables analysed are minimum and maximum temperature and precipitation. About 40 % of the observations are inappropriate for the calculation of monthly temperature means and precipitation sums due to data quality issues. These quality problems undetected with the standard quality control approach strongly affect climatological analyses, since they reduce the correlation coefficients of station pairs, deteriorate the performance of data homogenization methods, increase the spread of individual station trends, and significantly bias regional temperature trends. Our findings indicate that undetected data quality issues are included in important and frequently used observational datasets and hence may affect a high number of climatological studies. It is of utmost importance to apply comprehensive and adequate data quality control approaches on manned weather station records in order to avoid biased results and large uncertainties. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T05:31:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5f64649e9ebe48dca45277cc486f250f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1814-9324 1814-9332 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T05:31:12Z |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Climate of the Past |
| spelling | doaj.art-5f64649e9ebe48dca45277cc486f250f2022-12-22T01:19:25ZengCopernicus PublicationsClimate of the Past1814-93241814-93322018-01-011412010.5194/cp-14-1-2018Effects of undetected data quality issues on climatological analysesS. Hunziker0S. Hunziker1S. Brönnimann2S. Brönnimann3J. Calle4I. Moreno5M. Andrade6L. Ticona7A. Huerta8W. Lavado-Casimiro9Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandOeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandInstitute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandOeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandLaboratorio de Física de la Atmósfera, Instituto de Investigaciones Físicas, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, BoliviaLaboratorio de Física de la Atmósfera, Instituto de Investigaciones Físicas, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, BoliviaLaboratorio de Física de la Atmósfera, Instituto de Investigaciones Físicas, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, BoliviaLaboratorio de Física de la Atmósfera, Instituto de Investigaciones Físicas, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, BoliviaServicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología del Perú (SENAMHI), Lima, PeruServicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología del Perú (SENAMHI), Lima, PeruSystematic data quality issues may occur at various stages of the data generation process. They may affect large fractions of observational datasets and remain largely undetected with standard data quality control. This study investigates the effects of such undetected data quality issues on the results of climatological analyses. For this purpose, we quality controlled daily observations of manned weather stations from the Central Andean area with a standard and an enhanced approach. The climate variables analysed are minimum and maximum temperature and precipitation. About 40 % of the observations are inappropriate for the calculation of monthly temperature means and precipitation sums due to data quality issues. These quality problems undetected with the standard quality control approach strongly affect climatological analyses, since they reduce the correlation coefficients of station pairs, deteriorate the performance of data homogenization methods, increase the spread of individual station trends, and significantly bias regional temperature trends. Our findings indicate that undetected data quality issues are included in important and frequently used observational datasets and hence may affect a high number of climatological studies. It is of utmost importance to apply comprehensive and adequate data quality control approaches on manned weather station records in order to avoid biased results and large uncertainties.https://www.clim-past.net/14/1/2018/cp-14-1-2018.pdf |
| spellingShingle | S. Hunziker S. Hunziker S. Brönnimann S. Brönnimann J. Calle I. Moreno M. Andrade L. Ticona A. Huerta W. Lavado-Casimiro Effects of undetected data quality issues on climatological analyses Climate of the Past |
| title | Effects of undetected data quality issues on climatological analyses |
| title_full | Effects of undetected data quality issues on climatological analyses |
| title_fullStr | Effects of undetected data quality issues on climatological analyses |
| title_full_unstemmed | Effects of undetected data quality issues on climatological analyses |
| title_short | Effects of undetected data quality issues on climatological analyses |
| title_sort | effects of undetected data quality issues on climatological analyses |
| url | https://www.clim-past.net/14/1/2018/cp-14-1-2018.pdf |
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