How to create your own time series for use on the WRIT seasonal correlation web page

The file format is: 

  iyearstart  iyearend
iyearstart  xm1 xm2 xm3 xm4 xm5 xm6 xm7 xm8 xm9 xm10 xm11 xm12
.
.
.
iyearend    xm1 xm2 xm3 xm4 xm5 xm6 xm7 xm8 xm9 xm10 xm11 xm12
xmiss

The first row contains the starting and ending years. The starting year should be 1700 or after. The ending year can be anything up through the current year. The next set of rows is yearstart through yearend in which the first column of each row contains an integer year and the next 12 columns contain the 12 monthly values for that year. They should be separated by spaces! You must have a missing value at the end of the file followed by a return (even if there is no missing data). You also must have lines for all the years. Choose a missing value not in the range of your timeseries. Using 0 is generally not a good idea. Be sure you have values for all columns and rows even if you don't plan on using them.

The time series can be used by specifying the FULL path in the box after "custom" (you must check custom). You must use a full (not relative) pathname.

You can (currently) anonymous ftp to:

ftp2.psl.noaa.gov
cd Public/incoming/timeseries
put yourfile
You will not be able to see the list of files there though you can do a pwd to see you are in the correct directory. Make your filename unique. For example, something of the format initials.date.description would be good. For example, cas.033199.tempeof1. Then, when typing in the pathname, use the filename /Public/incoming/timeseries/yourfilename (the exact spelling of this is important. Use the / in front of Public and use a capital P.) The code won't work if you haven't formatted your data correctly so if you get no plot, look at the example timeseries carefully. Try some test correlations first where you have a pretty good idea of the results before doing more esoteric calculations (e.g. if you have a temperature index file, correlate with temperature and plot the region where the temperature is from).

FTP Problems: If you run into any problems, see FTP common problems and solutions

The index files will be purged every 2 days so you will need to re-FTP the data.
Click here for sample timeseries.

WRIT is supported in part by NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory, the NOAA Climate Program Office, and the US Department of Energy's Office of Science (BER). WRIT contributes to the Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) Initiative.