Locating Met Sites

library(worldmet)

Show all sites

The function to use to find which sites are available is getMeta(). While this function can be run using different options, it can be easiest to run it without any options. This produces a map of all the available sites, which can be quickly accessed.

Click to expand the markers until you find the site of interest (shown by a blue marker). This reveals some site information including the site name and the start and end date of available data. The most important information revealed in the marker is the code, which is used to access the data.

getMeta()
#> # A tibble: 12,811 × 12
#>    usaf   wban  station     ctry  st    call  latit…¹ longi…² elev(…³ begin     
#>    <chr>  <chr> <chr>       <chr> <chr> <chr>   <dbl>   <dbl>   <dbl> <date>    
#>  1 010060 99999 EDGEOYA     NO    <NA>  <NA>     78.2    22.8    14   1973-01-01
#>  2 010070 99999 NY-ALESUND  SV    <NA>  <NA>     78.9    11.9     7.7 1973-01-06
#>  3 010080 99999 LONGYEAR    SV    <NA>  ENSB     78.2    15.5    26.8 1975-09-29
#>  4 010090 99999 KARL XII O… SV    <NA>  <NA>     80.6    25       5   1955-01-01
#>  5 010100 99999 ANDOYA      NO    <NA>  ENAN     69.3    16.1    13.1 1931-01-03
#>  6 010110 99999 KVITOYA     SV    <NA>  <NA>     80.1    31.5    10   1986-11-18
#>  7 010150 99999 HEKKINGEN … NO    <NA>  <NA>     69.6    17.8    14   1980-03-14
#>  8 010160 99999 KONGSOYA    NO    <NA>  <NA>     78.9    28.9    20   1993-05-01
#>  9 010170 99999 AKSELOYA    SV    <NA>  <NA>     77.7    14.8     6   1973-01-01
#> 10 010200 99999 SORKAPPOYA  SV    <NA>  <NA>     76.5    16.6    10   2010-10-08
#> # … with 12,801 more rows, 2 more variables: end <date>, code <chr>, and
#> #   abbreviated variable names ¹​latitude, ²​longitude, ³​`elev(m)`

When using getMeta() it will probably be useful to read the information into a data frame. Note that plot = FALSE stops the function from providing the map.

met_info <- getMeta(plot = FALSE)

Search based on latitude and longitude

Often, one has an idea of the region in which a site is of interest. For example, if the interest was in sites close to London, the latitude and longitude can be supplied and a search is carried out of the 10 nearest sites to that location. There is also an option n that can be used in change the number of nearest sites shown. If a lat/lon is provided, clicking on the blue marker will show the approximate distance between the site and the search coordinates.

getMeta(lat = 51.5, lon = 0)
#> # A tibble: 10 × 15
#>    usaf   wban  station     ctry  st    call  latit…¹ longi…² elev(…³ begin     
#>    <chr>  <chr> <chr>       <chr> <chr> <chr>   <dbl>   <dbl>   <dbl> <date>    
#>  1 037683 99999 CITY        UK    <NA>  EGLC     51.5   0.055     5.8 1988-01-29
#>  2 037700 99999 ST JAMES P… UK    <NA>  <NA>     51.5  -0.117     5   2009-12-18
#>  3 037663 99999 BIGGIN HILL UK    <NA>  EGKB     51.3   0.033   182.  1988-01-05
#>  4 037810 99999 KENLEY AIR… UK    <NA>  <NA>     51.3  -0.083   170   1988-02-01
#>  5 036720 99999 NORTHOLT    UK    <NA>  EGWU     51.6  -0.418    37.8 1973-01-01
#>  6 037720 99999 HEATHROW    UK    <NA>  EGLL     51.5  -0.461    25.3 1948-12-01
#>  7 037760 99999 GATWICK     UK    <NA>  EGKK     51.1  -0.19     61.6 1973-01-01
#>  8 036800 99999 ROTHAMSTED  UK    <NA>  <NA>     51.8  -0.358   128   2013-08-20
#>  9 037690 99999 CHARLWOOD   UK    <NA>  <NA>     51.1  -0.229    68   1992-03-01
#> 10 036830 99999 STANSTED    UK    <NA>  EGSS     51.9   0.235   106.  1973-01-01
#> # … with 5 more variables: end <date>, code <chr>, longr <dbl>, latr <dbl>,
#> #   dist <dbl>, and abbreviated variable names ¹​latitude, ²​longitude,
#> #   ³​`elev(m)`