STATION INVENTORY FILES

This subdirectory contains three station inventory files (*.statinv).  The
first (temp.statinv) provides a list of the 224 stations associated 
with the mean monthly temperature data set.  The second (precip.statinv) 
provides a list of the 482 stations associated with the total monthly 
precipitation data set. The third (press.statinv) provides a list of the
106 stations associated with the mean monthly station pressure data set.

Each file contains essential information about each station, including
country identification number, station identification number, station
name, latitude, longitude, elevation, first year of record, last year of
record, and percent of data missing.  The presence or absence of major
discontinuities in each time series is also noted.  The station inventory
files can be read using the following FORTRAN IV code:

      INTEGER COUNTRY, STATION, ELEV, FIRST, LAST, DISC
      REAL LAT, LON, MISSING
      CHARACTER * 25 NAME
      READ (1, 1, END=99) COUNTRY, STATION, NAME, LAT, LON, ELEV,
     *FIRST, LAST, MISSING, DISC
    1 FORMAT (I3, I7, 2X, A25, 1X, F6.2, 1X, F7.2, 1X, I4,
     *1X, I4, 1X, I4, 1X, F4.1, 1X, I1)

These files can also be read using the following SAS code:

INPUT COUNTRY 1-3 STATION 4-10 NAME $ 13-37 LAT 39-44 LON 46-52 ELEV 54-57
      FIRST 59-62 LAST 64-67 MISSING 69-72 DISC 74;

Stated in tabular form, the contents include the following:


                  Variable      Variable     Starting     Ending
Variable            type          width       column      column

COUNTRY            Numeric          3            1           3
STATION            Numeric          7            4          10
NAME             Character         25           13          37
LAT                Numeric          6           39          44
LON                Numeric          7           46          52
ELEV               Numeric          4           54          57
FIRST              Numeric          4           59          62
LAST               Numeric          4           64          67
MISSING            Numeric          4           69          72
DISC               Numeric          1           74          74


where

COUNTRY            is a three-digit country code (e.g., 404 = United States of
                   America, etc.).

STATION            is a seven-digit station identification number.  In most
                   cases, the last two digits of this variable are 00, and the
                   first five digits are the station's normal WMO number (e.g.,
                   1234500).  For some stations, no WMO number was currently in
                   use.  In these cases, the last two digits of STATION are
                   other than 00, and the first five digits are the WMO number
                   of the nearest active WMO station (e.g., 1234501).

NAME               is the name of the station.

LAT                is the latitude of the station in decimal degrees.  Stations
                   in the Southern Hemisphere have negative latitudes.

LON                is the longitude of the station in decimal degrees.  Stations
                   in the Western Hemisphere have negative longitudes.

ELEV               is the elevation of the station in meters.  Missing
                   elevations are coded as -999.

FIRST              is the first year for which data are available at this
                   station.

LAST               is the last year for which data are available at this
                   station.

MISSING            is the percent of the record with missing data.

DISC               is a code which can be used to identify a time series which
                   contains a "gross" discontinuity (i.e., one which was readily
                   identified when the time series was plotted and analyzed
                   visually).  If DISC is 1, then the station has a major
                   discontinuity.  If DISC is 0, then the station has no major
                   discontinuities.  However, it could still contain more subtle
                   discontinuities.