Optimal design of a climatological network: beyond practical considerations

Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems

K. A.Bumbaco¹  G. S.Mauger¹  G. J.Hakim¹  P. W.Mote¹ 

DOI  :  10.5194/gi-2-199-2013

学科分类：天文学(综合)

来源: Copernicus Publications

【 摘 要 】

Station locations in existing environmental networks are typically chosenbased on practical constraints such as cost and accessibility, whileunintentionally overlooking the geographical and statistical properties ofthe information to be measured. Ideally, such considerations should not takeprecedence over the intended monitoring goal of the network: the focus ofnetwork design should be to adequately sample the quantity to be observed.

Here we describe an optimal network design technique, based on ensemblesensitivity, that objectively locates the most valuable stations for a givenfield. The method is computationally inexpensive and can take practicalconstraints into account. We describe the method, along with the details ofour implementation, and present-example results for the US Pacific Northwest,based on the goal of monitoring regional annual-mean climate. The findingsindicate that optimal placement of observing stations can often be highlycounterintuitive, thus emphasizing the importance of objective approaches.Although at coarse scales the results are generally consistent, sensitivitytests show important differences, especially at smaller spatial scales. Theseuncertainties could be reduced with improvements in datasets and improvedestimates of the measurement error. We conclude that the method is bestsuited for identifying general areas within which observations should befocused, and suggest that the approach could serve as a valuable complementto land surveys and expert input in designing new environmental observingnetworks.

【 授权许可】

Unknown