There are three ways to locate data within the Data Library: 1) a listing of some of the datasets by category; 2) a complete list of datasets according to their source; and 3) a keyword search powered by Google.
Let us look at each one of these individually.
Select the "Data by Category" link.
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This data discovery option provides a sorted listing of a few of the datasets in the Data Library based on the type of data they contain. A summary of each dataset, including a brief description, spatial and temporal resolutions, and spatial and temporal limits, is also offered. Feel free to browse the data categories. Note that the dataset names are also links to the datasets themselves.
Select the "Data by Source" link on the first page.
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This is a complete list of the datasets in the Data Library organized by their source. This method of finding datasets is typically utilized by users who are more familiar with climatic data and the providers that make it available. Below the "Datasets and variables" heading you see the list of sources and either a brief description of the source or a list of the subsections of data from that source. For example, let us take a closer look at an important contributor of data to the Data Library: the Zambia Meteorological Department.
Scroll down to the "ZMD" link.
You can see that there are subsection(s) of data from ZMD. These include ENACTS.
Select the "ZMD" link.
You can now see these same subsection(s) as links to more data. We can get to the same ZMD ENACTS temperature ALL monthly dataset main page that we looked at before by selecting the proper source links here.
Select the ENACTS link.
Select the temperature link.
Select the ALL link.
Select the monthly link.
Select the temperature link.
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We are now back at the ZMD ENACTS temperature ALL monthly dataset main page. Again, note the source bar. It has the same series of links that we saw before and represents the same steps we took from the Data by Source page to get here.
Go to the "Data Library" home page. CHECK There is a search box at the top of the page.
This is a popular option for those who know exactly what dataset they want, but do not know where it is in the Data Library, as well as for those who are not sure what they are looking for at all. The hints listed on this page are valuable and worthy of a bit more discussion.
1. If you are looking for data from weather station reports, then include the word "station" as one of your keywords.
The Data Library includes data from weather stations as well as gridded data. While searching with the word "station" often locates station data, including the word "grid" in a search will not effectively locate gridded datasets as it is commonly used on the pages of both types of datasets.
Entering the specific name of your desired station as a keyword will not help your search either. For example, suppose you want to find precipitation data for a station in Seattle.
Enter the keywords "precipitation Seattle".
There are no matches for that search. However, this does not mean that the Data Library does not contain any datasets with precipitation data for Seattle.
Enter the keywords "precipitation station".
You have now found a handful of datasets that contain station-reported precipitation data. Data from specific stations (e.g., Seattle) can be located after a dataset is selected and we will discuss how to do that in Part II.
2. If you are looking for a particular variable, then include the variable name as one of your keywords.
As in the example above, we included "precipitation" as a keyword in our search for precipitation data.
You may also find it valuable to use your desired temporal resolution as a keyword as well. For example, suppose you want to find daily data of maximum temperature.
Enter the keywords "maximum temperature monthly".
This search yields a list primarily consisting of datasets that contain monthly data of maximum temperature. Note the difference compared to the search results if you are looking for daily temperature data.
Enter the keywords "maximum temperature daily".
This technique will have different results for different variables, but it may be worth a try if you know your desired temporal resolution. Because this is not a fool-proof method, you should always confirm the temporal resolution of any dataset you find in this manner by noting its time grid. A more descriptive discussion of grids is in a subsequent section.
Select this link in the search results or you can reach it by clicking
here*.
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Select the "temperature" link in the source bar.
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You are now on the ZMD ENACTS temperature ALL daily main page. Note how the source bar on this page is different from the one on the dataset variable page. Here, on the dataset main page, no variable has been selected so the lowest level link on the source bar is the dataset itself.
There are other types of pages that may be included in search results, such as dataset help, outline, and documentation pages. You can always find your way back to the associated dataset main page with the source bar links or by using the blue navigation banner in the upper left corner. This banner appears on all of the Data Library pages. The specific links on the banner will change as you move through the Data Library and will always be dictated by the hierarchy of the current page. Simply click on the link that says "dataset" in white. Sometimes there may be a link that says "documention" in white instead, like it does on the current ZMD ENACTS temperature ALL daily page. That link will take to the dataset documentation and then a white "dataset" link will appear.