Abstract:
The Belgium, Europe, and Northeast Atlantic data resides in 160 books, 'Bulletin Quotidien Du Temps' (Oversize Foreign Met. Data) written in French. In these summaries, definitions are:
1. Daily/monthly/seasonal/annual data - values determined for each consecutive period, e.g., monthly temperature data: Jan 1900, Feb 1900 etc.
2. Long-term data - values determined over a period of years, e.g., ... long-term monthly temperature data using Jan 1900, Jan 1901, etc.
The data contained in these books are tables of hourly surface and upper-level weather data for Belgium and maps for Europe and the Northeastern Atlantic Ocean. These data are for the period 1877 to 1969. The tables contain the following data: hourly pressure, wind, temperature, dew point, cloud cover, and rainfall; and hourly upper level pressure, height, temperature, and winds. The daily weather maps before 1963 display isobars and fronts, but after this date, consist of station plots of pressure, winds, temperature, dew point, cloud cover and weather as well as isobars and fronts.
The Brussels data resides in 7 books, 'Climat de la Belgique-Bruxelles' (C/dd L244 ) written in French. The data contained in these books are tables of monthly climate data and graphs displaying the daily record of pressure and temperature for Brussels, Belgium. These are for each month of the period 1886 to 1899. The monthly normals for each of the parameters are also tabulated. The tables contain the following data: monthly mean pressure, temperature, wind speed, evaporation, cloudiness, and humidity; mean maximum and minimum temperature; monthly absolute maximum and minimum pressure, temperature, and 24 hour rainfall; monthly total evaporation, sunshine, rainfall, snowfall; monthly per cent of possible sunshine hours; monthly wind direction frequency; monthly number of days of temperature above or below a particular rain, snow, hail, fog, thunder, lightning, calm, cloudy skies, and clear skies. In addition, there is total rainfall data between certain time periods (ex. 23 Sept.- Oct. 13).
Additional Brussels data resides in 20 books, 'Observatoire Royal de Bruxelles' (C/dd AO-a). In these summaries, definitions are as in the above. The data contained in these books are tables of hourly, daily, and monthly surface weather for Brussels, Belgium. These tables cover the period 1863 to 1907. The tables contain the following data: hourly pressure, temperature, winds, clouds, humidity, vapor tension, vertical magnetic intensity, horizontal magnetic intensity, and magnetic declination; daily evaporation, rainfall, and snowfall; monthly mean pressure, temperature, wind speed, cloud cover, and cloud type; monthly mean maximum and minimum pressure and temperature; monthly absolute maximum and minimum pressure, and temperature; monthly 24 hour maximum rainfall; monthly total rainfall and snowfall; monthly number of days of precipitation, rain, hail, snow, frost, thunder, fog, clear skies, and cloudy skies; monthly wind and cloud direction frequency; monthly cloud type frequency; monthly strong and calm wind frequency for each wind direction; monthly amount of precipitation for different wind directions; monthly storm track observations; monthly observations of electricity; monthly wind speed for thunderstorms; monthly days of weak or violent thunderstorms; monthly barometric gradient; monthly direction frequency in general and for thunderstorms; and monthly number of thunderstorm days for different pressure ranges.
These books are part of the foreign meteorological data collection held by the NOAA Central Library in Washington, DC. Information in this collection dates back to the 18th century for daily, monthly, seasonal, and annual tabular summaries, and the 19th century for weather maps. These data are the result of foreign exchange agreements, but the collection has not been updated since 1983.
Quality
Field mapping was conducted across the region during the 2003-04 season. Distances between traverse lines varied averaged about ~2km, but vary from 1km to 10km. These areas are specified in the data.
Mapping was performed on a rectified SPOT-5 2.5m resolution image taken in January 2004, with 1974 and 1995 stereo colour aerial photography used as supplement where SPOT data ... were snow covered or ambiguous. Air photo runs include: Film CAS/C 8574 run 23, 24 and 27; CAS/C 8575 run 26; CAS/C 8572 run 25 and ANT 1059 run 7-10.
Features were digitised on the SPOT image using ARCGIS 9, and are accurate to within 20-50m. Relative age for the features is constrained by surface weathering parameters and stratigraphic relationships. Absolute ages for mid-late pleistocene (less than 1Ma) features are derived from cosmogenic exposure age dating to within ~10-20%. Ages prior to this period are constrained by reference to the Pagodroma Group, dated using diatom stratigraphy. Dating reliability is specified for each feature within the attribute tables.
Access Constraints
The map is currently in production as part of Duanne White's PhD thesis. It will be freely available in electronic format through the AADC when finalised in late 2005. Access to the provisional map is possible by contacting Duanne directly.
