Digitalization and Data Rescue in Croatia

Janja Milković

Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Croatia

Historical review: observations and data

• Until the second half of the 19th century meteorological observations were carried out occasionally and periodically;

• The records can be found in historical chronicles, monastery and town annals, in reports on historic events, travel records, newspaper;

• These records are not in our data archives;• Continuously measurements were started in the

second part of 19th century in Dubrovnik (1851);

Historical review: observations and data

• In 1900, there were 146 operating stations, 58 of higher and 88 of lower order;

• From the 19th century till 1991 (Croatian independence) - two World Wars and war in Croatia (1991 – 1995);

• During that period Croatia was part of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and former Yugoslavia;

• Because of all these facts, a part of the historical data were irretrievably lost;

Spatial distribution of main and climatological stations

41 main meteorological stations

116 climatological stations

336 precipitation stations

some with more than 100 years of observations

2 radiosonde stations

8 radar stations

34 automatic stations

• There is a special meteorological network for climate monitoring (30 stations);

• Stations are situated all over Croatians territory and for all of them there are complete data series for the period 1961 – 1990;

• For climate monitoring two most important meteorological elements, air temperature and precipitation amounts, are analysed;

• On regularly basis there are such analyses for every month, season and year;

Network for climate monitoring

Network for climate monitoring

Digitalization, data rescue and data storage

• Computer data processing and storage were introduced in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, in 1968 and were situated there till 1980;

• At the beginning, of computer data processing, the data were stored as punch cards – technology was changed and part of data were lost;

• In 1981 computer data processing of climatological data (7, 14 and 21 local time) of the main and climatological stations were started in Zagreb;

• In 1991 computer data processing of all precipitation stations were started;

• In the same year data entry of the hourly values of different meteorological elements were carried out;

• The data of the radiosonde stations have been stored on magnetic media since 1971;

• In 1984 digitalization of the recording rain gauge charts by digitizer were started;

Digitalization, data rescue and data storage

• Since 2005 there have been introduced digitalization of different meteorological charts (thermograms, hygrograms and barograms) using a scanner;

• All requested software for data input, checking and processing data are made in our Service;

• Once the quality control is done the data are stored into the data base;

• Until 1999 all controlled and processed data have been stored into the Micro Vax computer and since 1999 the data have also been stored into the UNIX operational system;

Digitalization, data rescue and data storage

Digitalization, data rescue and data storage

• Data from main, automatic and radiosonde stations are received in digital form in real-time;

• Climatological and precipitations stations data are operationally digitized from paper observation forms on a monthly basis;

• Historical data (climatological data before 1981, and precipitation data before 1991) are digitized as much as we can or on request ;

• Historical meteorological data in different paper forms are stored in Zagreb and at main meteorological stations in Karlovac, Križevci and Gospić;

Data storage in Zagreb

Data storage in Križevci

Data access

Climatological data

Temperature data

Precipitation data

Recording rain gauge data

Hourly values of different meteorological elements

Data access for private or business purposes

Data access for private or business purposes

Inventory of the digitized and non digitized data

Plans for the future

• There are some plans for digitalization of historical meteorological data, as well as their rescue;

• But, digitalization is very complex and expensive process and it will not be an easy task;

• Realization, of course, depends on financial situation.

Thank you very much for your attention!

Headquarters of Meteorological and Hydrological Service in Zagreb

http://meteo.hr

Organizational structure of MHS