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NWISWeb News

All Data Times In MD-DE-DC Are Eastern Standard Time

December 2008 - Updates to waterdata.usgs.gov web system

• New Features
  • New Site Types are now implemented in all searching and data outputs
  • Help Text Updates
  • More real-time parameters available
  • Added navigation support for US Territories including American Samoa, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands
• Site Type Changes
  • We have removed the station_type_cd field from our site file information. This field contained a string of Y and N characters to denote the station type and was cryptic to understand.
  • A new field, site_tp_cd is now available and it contains a 2-7 character abbreviation of the site type which will contain a primary site type and possibly a secondary site type. The site types available can be found here
  • When searching for site type, uses new site types instead of older YN character string
  • When outputting Site Information, new site types are used instead of older YN character string.
• Navigation changes
  • Link for the Annual Data Report (ADR) on “Available data for this site” pulldown menu now points to most recent data sheet
  • Improved error messages for USA level retrievals of water quality data to request users perform queries at state level
  • Links on AVAILABLE DATA table now stay at the state level on a site Home Page
• Help text updates
  • Updated automated retrieval information document to emphasize that the UTC data element currently only works when retrieving water quality data.
• New real-time parameters available
  • Parameter code lookup page
  • Parameter code 99401 - Residue, dissolved, water, filtered, estimated by regression equation, milligrams per liter
  • Parameter code 72149 - Stream velocity, meters per second
  • Parameter code 72126 - Standard deviation of wind direction, degrees
  • Parameter code 75969 - Barometric pressure, not corrected to sea level, millibars
  • Parameter code 63675 - Turbidity, water, unfiltered, broad band light source (400-680 nm), detection angle 90 +/- 30 degrees to incident light, nephelometric turbidity units (NTU)
  • Parameter code 72174 - Longwave radiation, upwelling intensity, watts per square meter
  • Parameter code 72175 - Longwave radiation, downwelling intensity, watts per square meter
  • Parameter code 72176 - Temperature of sensor, degrees Celsius
• Misc
  • Sites with multiple data parameters of 00045 and 99772 (precipitation and metric precipitation) will now display both locations in all tables and graphs.
  • Corrected display of measurement data related to shift_applied_va

NWISWeb has recently updated their User Interface and listed below are some of the significant features and bug fixes.

July 2008

• Removal of width, area, and velocity from Streamflow Measurements on NWISWeb

As part of the July 2008 update to NWISWeb, the properties of stream width, area, and velocity were removed from the streamflow measurements (surface-water field measurements) available on NWISWeb for the following reasons:

The streamflow measurements provided on NWISWeb are primarily made in support of continuous stream gaging stations. For this use, it is critical that the measured streamflow is representative of the gaging station at which the measurement was made. Other properties such as width, area, and velocity, however, are not representative of any one location on the stream. In most cases the exact location of the measurement will vary from year to year or measurement to measurement as channel geomorphology or flow conditions change. The measured streamflow is always representative of the stream gaging station, but the other properties are not. In addition, for many measurements the total flow is the sum of several different channels of a stream, each with a width, area, and velocity. It can be misleading to attempt to represent these multichannel measurements because of the overly simplistic display of these complex data and the potential for misuse with a single width, area, and velocity.

The decision to remove width, area, and velocity from NWISWeb was predicated by a major expansion in the internal NWIS database to store a much more complete and accurate representation of a discharge measurement, including the location of each measurement and the potential for multiple channels. We do not feel it appropriate to simplify the new internal design into the old NWISWeb display due to the problems noted above. We intend to incorporate the new details of discharge measurements into NWISWeb as soon as possible. Because of the complexity of the new database design, an updated NWISWeb display of measurements to include these data will inherently be more complex and require careful consideration. In the mean time, we have chosen to limit display to those measurement properties most associated with support of continuous stream gaging stations.

We are aware of the importance of providing width, area, and velocity on NWISWeb for use in geomorphologic, water-quality, or other studies. Until we can provide an accurate portrayal of these data from the new database design on NWISWeb, interested users should request these data directly from USGS Water Science Centers, where the data and its limitations can be adequately explained on a site-by-site basis as necessary.

We regret any inconvenience and will work toward the restoration and clearer presentation of these data as soon as possible.

• More streamflow measurements are now available (No longer limited to only active gaging stations)
• Modified measurement outputs for new improvements (html and rdb)
• Modified measurement symbol on graphs (from X to *) for greater visibility
• Improved Station Name Searching ability (Use quotes for exact matching, allows apostrophes, multiple spaces, and period)
• Peak formats should now be more consistent with qualification codes in all outputs
• Changed peak watstore format name to peakfq
• Implemented new three-character medium codes for water-quality data
• Added links to Instantaneous Data Archive to allow access to long term data
• Added links to Annual Data Report
• Added additional geographic regions: American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam
• Format Changes
  • Measurements (html, and rdb)
  • Peaks (peakfq, html, rdb)
  • Discrete water-quality data (html, rdb)

Feb 2008

• Water-quality data now updated nightly if changes occur in the USGS Water Science Centers' NWIS Database.
• Updated Automated Retrievals web page to show how to do water-quality retrievals.
• It is now possible to search for water-quality data at the national level using data attributes.
• Monthly statistics now calculated over user specified time period instead of limited by USGS defined statistical summary period.
• Date format now output in user selected sequence for measurements and daily values.
• Now displays graphs of today's data for sites on other side of international dateline.
• "Site Home Page" from pulldown menu has now been renamed to "SUMMARY OF ALL AVAILABLE DATA".
• Instantaneous value tab-separated data outputs now have masking periods applied correctly.
• Latitude/Longitude searching for sites on other side of international dateline should now work correctly (negative longitudinal values).
• Added new real-time parameter codes:
• 00048 Total partial pressure of dissolved gases, water, unfiltered, percent of saturation
• 00197 Evaporation, accumulated, inches
• 72036 Reservoir storage, thousand acre feet
• 72125 Atmospheric water vapor pressure, calculated, kilopascals
• Surface water measurements are now redirected to the nwis.waterdata system.
• Precipitation accumulation periods are now calculated based upon current date and time rather then the result date of the data for the first site on the page.
• Added documentation for current_rating_nu in the Surface Water help section.
• Fixed issue where groundwater level graphs were not being created.
• Updated water quality method code documentation.
• Improved Taxonomic units documentation.
• Updated rdb header text for water-quality tab separated data outputs.
• Period of record is now used if no begin date is specified but an end date is specified for water-quality searching.
• Multiple masking periods are now correctly being applied for Daily Value data.
• Removed GW tutorial Link.
• Parameter code searching will now match regardless of case for parameter name and group name.
• Calendar/water year properly displayed in annual statistic tab-separated (rdb) outputs.
• Sites with a mean value of .0 should now display that value correctly.
• Enabled Visual Identity Standards

Past news of relevance

Users of NWISWeb now have the enhanced ability to retrieve recently collected provisional water-quality sample data. Previously, data were shown on NWISWeb only after an annual quality-assurance review period had passed. Because of this more timely release of the water-quality sample data, provisional data may be subsequently revised after initial release, and data users are cautioned to consider carefully the provisional nature of the information before using it for decisions that concern personal or public safety or the conduct of business that involves substantial monetary or operational consequences.

• New descriptive attributes were added to the presentation of water-quality data, and some less useful, previously supplied attributes were removed. Users are given an option of selecting an expanded set of data attributes or a "default" (smaller) set of attributes. When retrieving tab-delimited data, users also have a layout option to represent each row as a sample or each row as a single measurement result. Not all attributes are available in each retrieval layout. The attributes are listed in the table 1.
• Table 1.--Availability of water-quality attributes in tab-delimited files presented in sample and result layouts and default and expanded sets of attributes.
  

  ["-" indicates the attribute is not presented in this format.
   "X" indicates the attribute is presented in both default and expanded sets,
   "/" indicates the attribute is presented only in the expanded set.
   "\" indicates the attribute is presented in the expanded attribute set or
   concatenated with the value unless the value is separated from the remark code.
   New attributes in this release are annotated with an asterisk.
  

  See also, descriptions of coded attributes

  _______________________________________________________________________________
  
                                                          ---- File ----   Table
  Attribute information           Column name             Result  Sample  
  _______________________________________________________________________________
  
  Agency Code		        agency_cd                  X       X       X
  USGS site number	        site_no                    X       X       X
  Begin date		        sample_dt                  X       X       X
  Begin time		        sample_tm                  X       X       X
  End date*		        sample_end_dt              X       X       X
  End time*		        sample_end_tm              X       X       X
  Time datum*		        sample_start_time_datum_cd X       X       X
  Time datum reliability code*    tm_datum_rlbty_cd          X       X       X
  Agency collecting sample code   coll_ent_cd                X       X       X
  Sample medium code	        medium_cd                  X       X       X
  Project identifier*	        project_cd                 /       /       /
  Geologic unit code*	        aqfr_cd                    /       /       /
  Taxonomic unit code*	        tu_id                      X       X       X
  Body-part code*		        body_part_id               X       X       X
  Analysis-source code	        anl_src_cd                 /       /       /
  Hydrologic-condition code       hyd_cond_cd                /       /       /
  Sample-type code		samp_type_cd               /       /       /
  Hydrologic-event code	        hyd_event_cd               /       /       /
  Message from lab*		sample_lab_cm_tx           /       /       /
  Parameter code		        parm_cd                    X       X       X
  Remark code		        remark_cd                  X       X       X
  Parameter value		        result_va                  X       X       X
  Result value qualifier codes*   val_qual_tx                X       \       /
  Method code		        meth_cd                    X       -       -
  Data-quality indicator code*    dqi_cd                     X       -       -
  Reporting level*	        rpt_lev_va                 X       -       -
  Reporting-level type code*      rpt_lev_cd                 X       -       -
  Lab standard deviation*	        lab_std_va                 X       -       -
  Preparation set identifier*	prep_set_no                /       -       -
  Result preparation date*	prep_dt                    /       -       -
  Analysis set number*	        anl_set_no                 /       -       -
  Result analysis date*	        anl_dt                     /       -       -
  Lab result comment*	        result_lab_cm_tx           /       -       -
  Analyzing entity code           anl_ent_cd                 X       -       -
  ______________________________________________________________________________
  

• Other new retrieval options include the ability to retrieve sampling date and time in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) or in the time zone used by the sampling personnel. When all results for a sample are retrieved on each output row, the user has the option to segregate remark codes from numeric values in separate columns, facilitating ease of use of the retrieved data with other software.

Are you looking to regularly retrieve information from the NWISWeb system? If so, then this new FAQ can help lead you in the right direction to effectively obtaining your information with minimal disruption of web services for everyone.