5 Gage Owner, Gage Maintenance, Telemetry Owner and Telemetry Payor Tables
The
Gage Owner and
Telemetry Owner tables describe the entity ultimately responsible for a gage. The
gage owner is the entity that owns the sensor. The
telemetry owner is the entity that owns the telemetry (the equipment that communicates the data to the users). The
Gage Maintenance table describes who performs upkeep on the gage. There may be situations where these tables have 3 separate entities for the same site. The
Telemetry Payor table describes the group responsible for paying for the phone line to the site. Use the Name column for the correct entry. Entries are based on review of these tables for most of the WFOs in the country utilizing the NRLDB. The tables are single column 10-character fields with a combination of mixed case and upper case. Owners to add are in red. The team recommends that the names in this table be kept generic (Water Management District rather than South Florida Water Management District), and also that another field be added to the owner table. This field would contain the specific entity name (e.g.
name=”WMD”,
specname=”South Florida Water Management District”). This specific name should be viewable in the software also.
Name Description
Assoc Associate such as private companies, power plants, watershed districts
BasinCom Basin Commission
BIA Bureau of Indian Affairs
BLM Bureau of Land Management
BPA Bonneville Power Administration
CANADA-WS Water Survey of Canada
City City/town/village/municipality
COE U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Coll./Univ College or University
County County
CRREL Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab
DOD Department of Defense
FAA Federal Aviation Administration
FCD Flood Control District
PUD/MUD Public Utility District/Municipal Utility District
NCDC National
Climatic Data Center
NOS National Ocean Service
NPS National Park Service
NRCS Natural Resources Conservation Service
NWS National Weather Service
Obsvr Observer
PortAuth Port Authority
PrivUtil Private Utility
RA River authority
Name Description
State DEM State Department of Emergency Management (or equiv.)
State DNR State Department of Natural Resources (or equiv.)
State DOT State Department of Transportation (or equiv.)
State DWR State Division of Water Resources (or equiv.)
State EPA State Environmental Protection Agency (or equiv.)
State OGA State Other Government Agency
TVA Tennessee Valley Authority
USBR U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
USCG U.S. Coast Guard
USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture
USEPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
USFS U.S. Forest Service
USFWS U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
USGS U.S. Geological Survey
WMD Water Management District
Other other
Unk unknown/not defined
6 Gage Type Table
The
Gage Type table describes the kind of device that provides stream or precipitation measurements. Use either the Stream, Precipitation or Miscellaneous Type column for the correct input. Entries are based on review of gage type table for several WFOs. Also referenced USGS Water Supply Paper 2175
3 “Measurement and Computation of Streamflow: Volume 1. Measurement of Stage and Discharge” 1982. The table is a single column 10-character field in lower case and mixed case. Additions to this table are shown in red. The team recommends that only generic descriptions of gage types based on how they function should be choices in this table and that no manufacturer or model information be included.
Stream
Type Description
BailyMeter A flowmeter consisting of a helical quarter turn vane which operates a counter to record the total weight of granular material flowing through vertical or near-vertical ducts, spouts, or pipes
bristol Bristol is a brand name for a type of gage that was awarded a patent back in 1888. Pressure indicator and recorder… a circular chart recorder, which used a Bourdon tube sensing element. Used to measure stage back in the late 1880s thru early 1900s.
Type Description
bubbler The pressure of the water in an orifice tube is measured against a known pressure of gas. These gages have a non-submersible pressure transducer as an integral part of the system, and slowly release bubbles of either air, or an inert gas such as nitrogen from a tank. Manometer, Fluid, Accubar, PS-2 and Sta-com are included in this type.
bubble r/o Similar to a bubbler gage but with read out capability.
chain A marked chain is lowered down from a bridge until it reaches the water surface. This type of gage is rarely used today.
crest Only the crest of the stream is recorded, usually by depositing some sort of floating indicator on a measuring tube.
doppler The flow of a stream is determined by measuring the frequency or phase shift of reference sound wave in the stream.
elect tape A metal tape is lowered until the water surface is reached which is indicated by an electric sensor or meter.
float A float moves with the water surface inside of a well.
float r/o Similar to a float gage but with read out capability (often called a resistance gage).
flowmeter The flow of a stream is measured by recording the rotational velocity of spinning cups submerged in the stream.
laser A laser beam is bounced off of the water surface from a platform with a known elevation.
microwave A gage based on radar or microwave technology.
pres trans A submerged pressure transducer measures the water pressure above. Most stream gages in ALERT and IFLOWS networks are this type.
profile A slope profile gage consists of a marker or series of markers anchored in the bank above the level that can be damaged by ice movement. Markers usually are rods driven into the bank with a brass cap bench mark attached to the top of the rod. The profile of the bank is surveyed to establish ground elevation corresponding to taped distance measurements from the markers. The surveying data are used to calculate water stages from the slope distances measured by the observer.
reference Not really a gage but stream heights are determined by the inundation of reference points of a known elevation. Stages between reference points are estimated.
slope Markings along the ground on a sloped surface, which are gradually submerged. Frequently, slope gages will measure stream heights at low flows while vertical staffs will be used for higher flows. Inclined staff gages are this type.
sonic A sound wave is bounced off of the water surface from a platform with a known elevation.
staff A vertical indicator, continuously marked, is manually read. The active portion of the staff is partially submerged. Staffs frequently are broken into several sections. Markings painted on a surface are this type.
tape A portable tape and weight are used to measure the distance from a known elevation on a structure, such as a reference point on a bridge rail, to the water surface. The stage above datum is either calculated, or a customized tape is reverse-wound and set to read stage directly.
vert rod A vertical rod is similar to a staff gauge but rather than looking like a large ruler it is a metal rod that is graduated.
wireweight A weight attached to a wire is manually lowered down until the weight reaches the water surface, which is sometimes indicated by an electrical sensor. Canfield and Type A gages are this type.
Precipitation
Type Description
htipping heated tipping bucket
manual Precipitation is caught in a container and measured manually. Standard precipitation gages are this type.
snowovrflw Snow overflow gage
snowpillow Precipitation gage which acts as a pressure transducer and determines a liquid equivalent.
tipping Precipitation is funneled into a two-sided bucket with known volume which tips over when full and sends an electric pulse which is accumulated.
Most ALERT, IFLOWS, and ASOS precipitation gages are this type.
weighing Precipitation is caught and weighed. The elapsed precipitation is determined by subtracting the current reading from the reading at the start of an event. Most of these must be manually emptied after a period of time. Fisher-Porter and Universal gages are this type.
optical These have a row of collection funnels. In an enclosed space below each is a laser diode and a photo transistor. When enough water is collected to make a single drop, it drops from the bottom, falling into the laser beam path. The sensor is set at right angles to the laser so that enough light is scattered to be detected as a sudden flash of light. The flashes from these photo detectors are then read and transmitted or recorded.
Miscellaneous Entries
Type Description
watertemp Any sensor that measures water temperature in a water body
waterqual Any sensor that measures water quality attributes of a water body other than water temperature
Other Any stream gage/precipitation gage which does not fit into the above categories (exception to lower case rule for this table)
Unk Unknown/not defined (exception to lower case rule for this table)
7 Telemetry Type Table
The Telemetry Type table describes the kind of device that transmits and may record gage data. Use the Device column for the correct entry. Entries are based on review of several WFOs telemetry type tables. Note that the letter following some of the devices has been eliminated for simplification. New entries are shown in red. Definitions that were changed are highlighted in blue. The table is a single column 10-character field all in lower case.
Device Description
ALERT Gage sends reports via radio across an ALERT network.
bdr301 Binary Digital Recorder (BDT) model 301
buoy Gage sends reports across buoy network.
cr10 Campbell Recorder model 10
cr21 Campbell Recorder model 21
cr500 Campbell Recorder model 500
dah21 Design Analysis model H21
dah350
|
Design Analysis model H350
|
dah522
|
Design Analysis model H522
|
dedicated
|
Gage reports across dedicated phone or the internet lines. Includes ASOS, RAMOS, AWOS, AMOS, RAWS,mesonets, etc.
|
ds2h
|
Datasonde model 2H
|
dardc
|
Digital Automated Recording Data Collector, a device that interfaces a sensor (river gage, temperature gage) to a telephone making it possible for a computer to interrogate the gage from a remote site.
|
handr524
|
Handar model 524
|
handr540
|
Handar model 540 or model 540a NWS Automatic Remote Collector (ARC)
|
handr550
|
Handar model 550 or model 550a, NWS Limited Automatic Remote Collector (LARC)
|
handr555
|
Handar model 555 or model 555es, replacement for NWS LARC
|
handr560
|
Handar model 560
|
handr570
|
Handar model 570 or model 570a
|
IFLOWS
|
Gage sends reports via radio across an IFLOWS network
|
labrgc
|
Labarge model C
|
ls8901
|
Leopold Stevens model 8901
|
lsgs93
|
Leopold Stevens model GS93
|
metburst
|
VHF radio signals are reflected at a steep angle off the ever present band of ionized meteorites existing from about 50 to 75 miles above the earth. Satellites are not involved; NRCS operates and control the entire system.
|
stvx1100
|
Stevens VX1100
|
stvx1004
|
Stevens VX1004
|
stvaxsys
|
Stevens AxSys
|
stvdot
|
Stevens DOT logger
|
sutrn8200
|
Sutron model 8200
|
sutrn8210
|
Sutron model 8210
|
sutrn8400
|
Sutron model 8400
|
sutrn-sl2
|
Sutron sat link2
|
syngt3400
|
Synergetics model 3400
|
vitel1004
|
Vitel model 1004
|
talkamark
|
A telemark that talks
|
telemark
|
An almost obsolete device that makes a series of beeps.
|
Other
|
Any type of telemetry which does not fit into the above types (exception to lower case rule for this table).
|
Unk
|
unknown/not defined(exception to lower case rule for this table)
|
8 Horizontal and Vertical Reference Datums
In the past, location information and location accuracy have not been sufficiently explained to those responsible for populating the IHFS database using the application Hydrobase. The rapid increase in the use of tools like Google Maps and ArcGIS to display hydrologic data make proper documentation of horizontal and vertical location accuracy a much higher priority. A query of the entry for horizontal reference datum (hdatum) from the
location table was performed on the data collected from various WFOs and the query returned 423 unique entries. Most of those entries (349) appeared to be a numeric elevation rather than a reference datum. Of the rest, there was obviously a lot of confusion as to what this field should contain. A similar issue was found with the “vdatum”
entry for the riverstat table with 371 unique entries harvested from
NRLDB. The team proposes to place two entries on the first page of the location window which would be called “Horizontal Reference Datum” and “Vertical Reference Datum” with pull-down choices for what should go in those fields. The team feels that for the location of gages, a horizontal position accuracy of 1-5 m is acceptable. Given this assumption, NAD83 and WGS84 become interchangeable and also work as the horizontal reference datum for Canada and Mexico. The team also proposes that for locations where a Fisher-Porter rain gage and a river gage share the same location identifier, but are separated by some distance, the current vertical datum located in the
riverstat table and accessed through the river/additional information page in Hydrobase should be maintained, but only populated for this circumstance. All other situations using the value of “Vertical Reference Datum” should be entered on the front location page. A suggestion to avoid confusion might be to label this entry as “
Vertical Reference Datum of River Gage (if different from Vertical Reference Datum in Location table)”. Valid entries for hdatum and vdatum are listed below, with recommendations for 4 unique entries for “Horizontal Reference Datum,” 12 unique entries for “Vertical Reference Datum,” and 4 entries describing tidal datums which are also Vertical Reference Datums. This change would require the addition of 2 new reference tables, one for hdatum and one for vdatum.
In addition, , the team recommends some additional web documentation be placed on the WHFS support website. Some of the information that the team suggests be included are: 1) copy of the 2003 CR team report, 2) copy of this document, and 3) documents that describes some of these fields and tables in more detail.
AWIPS LAD Snoopy Application
The team recommends that the support programmer for the Snoopy application be contacted and that this team coordinate with the programmer to make whatever changes are needed in the Snoopy GUI repair menu option and its data files be modified/updated to the new guidelines and standards as described in this document.
11 Configuration Management proposal
Recommendations to facilitate compliance with new standards and address how updates will occur
-
When complete, the standard baseline reference table entries will be stored at OHD.
-
A tool similar to the “Snoopy” tool that was developed when the Central region developed standards must be developed to provide a simple means for each office to clean up their IHFS database and bring it into compliance with the national standards. It may be fairly simple to modify the current version of Snoopy to accommodate the new reference standards.
-
The National River Location Database (NRLDB) should be used to examine reference fields from each WFO and compare them against the current standards. A report will be generated and sorted by WFO for any fields out of compliance with the current standards. This report will be sent to the Regional Headquarters of that office and from there the Region will encourage that office to use the available tools to change the reference fields.
-
As new entries for the static database tables are needed/requested, offices will follow a simple configuration management process which will allow for the updating of reference tables. This process will consist of an ad-hoc team that will review requests for additional reference entries on a quarterly basis. If the new entry is denied, an appropriate entry would be suggested to use. If the new entry is approved, the WHFS support group would coordinate with the WFO to immediately add the new entry. We propose that the new entries in reference tables be updated via builds. The baseline tables at OHD will be updated to include the changes/additions.
All documentation will be updated to ensure that all possible reference entries for the IHFS database are well-explained and understandable. This may involve creating a description field in some of the reference tables so that the acronyms and abbreviations involved can be used correctly.
12 RAX DB
Part of the goal of this team is to ensure common elements between the IHFS DB and RAX DB use the same guidelines and standards whenever possible. The RAX DB was designed during the period 2001-2003. This overlapped with the original effort to set guidelines and standards for selected tables of the IHFS DB. The RAX DB design team took advantage of this endeavor and used the CR report as a starting point. The guidelines and standards for the RAX DB include the information from the CR report and additionally covers a variety of reference tables that do not exist in the IHFS DB. In addition, guidelines were established for some of the meta-data tables of the RAX DB. Information about the RAX DB can be found on the RAX website
4. Specifics can be found in section E-1 “adbinit suite”, section E-2 “run_raxdb_sync (IHFS DB -> RAX DB Synchronization)”, and Appendix B “Selected Reference Tables in the Archive Database”.
Acronyms
AR Alaskan Region
ASOS Automated Surface Observing System
AWOS Automated Weather Observing System
AWIPS Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System
COOP Cooperative Observer Program
CSSA Cooperative Station Service Accountability
CR Central Region
DB Database
DCP Data Collection Platform
ER Eastern Region
GUI Graphical User Interface
Ham amateur radio service
HADS Hydrometeorological Automated Data System
HSD Hydrologic Services Division
HSEB Hydrologic Software Engineering Branch
HOSIP Hydrologic Operations & Service Improvement Process
IHFS Integrated Hydrologic Forecast System
IV-ROCS Interactive Voice – Remote Observation Collection System
LAD Local Applications Database
LARC Limited Automatic Remote (Data) Collector
NESDIS National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service
NRLDB National River Location Database
NWS National Weather Service
OCWWS Office of Climate, Water and Weather Services
OHD Office of Hydrologic Development
OSIP Operations & Services Improvement Process
RAX RFC Archive System
RFC River Forecast Center
ROSA Remote Observation System Automation
SR Southern Region
WFO Weather Forecast Office
WHFS WFO Hydrologic Forecast System
WR Western Region
WxCoder Weather Coder, a web-based entry System for NWS Cooperative Observers
Appendix A -Team Charter
Charter
Database Reference Information Standardization Team
9/4/2008
Vision:
IHFS and RAX databases populated consistently to facilitate the transfer of data and information between and among field offices and headquarters
Mission:
Develop a defined set of standard formats and content for all reference information in the IHFS and RAX databases.
The team will:
-
Identify all appropriate information in the IHFS and RAX databases for which standardized content and formats are to be developed
-
Define and document the standard content and format
-
If necessary, identify any software changes which would be required to implement the standardized content and format
-
Develop recommendations for a process which facilitates compliance with the standards and their routine update.
The team leader will present the recommendations to the Regional Hydrology Chiefs, OCWWS HSD and OHD during an HSD Conference Call or at an in-person semi-annual HSD meeting. Upon acceptance of the team’s recommendations, OCWWS HSD will a) if necessary, coordinate and implement policy changes and b) lead the development of the necessary HOSIP/OSIP documentation to assure operational implementation.
Scope of authority and limitations:
-
Team business will be conducted via conference call and email
-
The team will determine the degree of consensus required for making decisions
-
The team will use the output of the Central Region-led IHFS Reference Table Standardization team as input
Deliverable Due Date:
March 27, 2009
Success Criteria:
-
Documentation and delivery of a set of national standards for content and format of identified tables and attributes in the IHFS and RAX databases
-
Documentation and delivery, if necessary, of requirements for data base or software changes necessary to implement the standards
-
Documentation and delivery of recommendations related to compliance with, and modification of, these standards
Team Membership: