[Babase] Min_max conf call outcome - for Susan

Susan Alberts alberts at duke.edu
Thu Jan 22 15:23:53 EST 2009


Thanks Tabby, I've commented on each below.

On Jan 22, 2009, at 11:31 AM, kfenn wrote:

> Hi Susan,
>
> I wanted to catch you up on our call with Karl yesterday.  We made  
> the following decisions, pending your approval:
>
> 1)  Do away with the Babase 2.0 raw Farenheit weather data column/ 
> records collected for the min_max records.  These records have  
> already been converted to Celsius and exist in our excel sheet as  
> such.  Precision and accuracy documentation on them is sketchy so we  
> gain little by converting the current C records back to F, storing  
> the raw F records in the database, and then having Babase run a  
> program to read everything as C.

GOOD
>
>
> 2)  Do away with the "Baboon Camp A: lower gauge" records that were  
> kept for ~6 months to compare the upper and lower thermometers.  I  
> will keep these comparison files in a separate excel sheet, but  
> Babase will hold only records for the Baboon Camp B upper gauge.   
> (see further notes on the station abbreviations below).

OK with me.
>
>
> 3)  Using an aerial photograph, Jeanne showed me the 4 approximate  
> locations that temp gauge has had within the current camp.  The  
> naming of these station is confusing but here is the rough outline  
> of a support table we propose to incorporate into Babase (the first  
> 5 rows).  The view people should use to browse the data will only  
> show the station abbreviations.  We chose the alphanumeric  
> combination to show that the min_max gauge has moved 4 times within  
> the current Baboon Camp.  Can we get your input on the names and the  
> proposed deletion/renaming of the upper and lower gauge values (see  
> notes below)?
>
> abbreviation
> station name
> notes
> OT
> Ol Tukai
>
> BC1
> Group Ranch Campsite A
> located just S of the current (2008) kitchen cabin within the Baboon  
> Camp
> BC2
> Group Ranch Campsite B
> located just N of the current (2008) kitchen cabin within the Baboon  
> Camp
> BC3
> Baboon Camp A
> located about halfway between the current (2008) kitchen cabin and  
> the current (2008) weatherhawk station within the Baboon Camp
> BC4
> Baboon Camp B
> Located ~10 m S/SW from the current (2008) weatherhawk station  
> within the Baboon Camp
>
> Baboon Camp B: upper gauge
> this station distinction will be eliminated and the station will  
> simply be "Baboon Camp B"
>
> Baboon Camp B: lower gauge
> These records will be removed from the min_max table in Babase but  
> kept in a separate file if someone wants to compare.

These all make sense to me. Is it the case that we recover the time  
periods for each of these simply by querying for the first and last  
dates that they were used?
>
> 4)  For sporatic missing times, Karl will run a little program to  
> calculate the average time of reading for that month and use this to  
> populate the empty field.

OK

> Where there are months or year of missing times ('71-'76), Jeanne  
> proposed to fill the empty fields with 07:00.

OK

> We will have a new column in the weather tables to indicate that  
> these are estimated times.  It will be called "est. time" and be  
> filled in as Y or N.

OK
>
>
> 5)  The current weather tables have a rg_span column that does a  
> calculation to tell the span of time between rain gauge readings.   
> Using an estimated time will created an estimated values in this  
> column so we need another column to indicate where these estimates  
> occur.  This new column will be "est rg_span".

OK
>
>
> 6)  We need to build a "Users Guide to the Min_Max_Rain data"  
> because there is a good deal of support documentation that users  
> need to read, but it doesn't fit into the scope of Karl's technical  
> documents, current field protocols, or data management protocols.   
> Any ideas about where to keep this (the wiki perhaps?)

This is the same type of documentation that we will have for a range  
of data sets. We've talked about having a document that we keep  
available on the wiki, and I think this makes a lot of sense at least  
as a place to start.

Thanks again for the work on this, great to see if moving forward.
Susan

>
>
>
>
> I think that's all for now.
> Many thanks,
> Tabby
> -- 
> Tabby Fenn
> Research Assistant
>
> Dept of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
> 401 Guyot Hall
> Princeton University
> Princeton, NJ  08544
>
> 609 258-6898 (Ph)
> 609 258-2712 (Fx)
> _______________________________________________
> Babase mailing list
> Babase at www.eco.princeton.edu
> http://www.eco.princeton.edu/mailman/listinfo/babase

--------------------------------------------------------
Susan Alberts, Dept of Biology, Duke University, Box 90338, Durham NC  
27708, 919-660-7272 (Ph), 919-660-7293 (Fax)






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