LTER Site Byte

LTER Site: Niwot Ridge LTER

Contributor: Todd M. Ackerman (Aug 02, 2005)

Site Byte:

This past year we have continued to hammer out the conversion of our metadata into the EML format. A few different tactics were attempted and we decided to use 'home cooked' perl scripts. Perl DBI scripts have been developed to allow the text metadata headers of the Niwot datafiles to be updated following the existing protocols at Niwot, then these changes are then loaded into a MSSQL Server database. A cgi script then allows the EML to be harvested from the database (much thanks to Inigo for the harvesting help). Currently the content is somewhere between level 2 and level 3, and some minor additions to the database should allow level 3 content shortly. Our spatial data metadata is the next project to tackle, as well as determining the easiest method of getting the initial metadata into the database.

We have added a few more sites to ClimDB/HydroDB this year, those sites are C1 (sub-alpine, 3022m), D1 (alpine tundra, 3739m), and the hydrological site at Albion (3259m). Success with our wireless program (much thanks to our Climatologist Mark Losleben) has allowed us to now have eight field sites downloading near-real-time data, which has permitted us to add a few more real-time graphs to our website. This has proved very useful in error detection, allowing us to fix problems which previously would have gone unnoticed and lead to months of useless data.

The website received a MUCH needed facelift, bringing our web representation out of the early 90's and into the 2000's (http://culter.colorado.edu/NWT/). The focus was on increased usability and content, and of course appearance.

We have continued development on our Data Entry Form System (DEFS) which has been designed in VB .NET to greatly improve data entry of our field data sheets. This is a great improvement over our previous DOS-based key/re-key entry system, where data entry forms are designed to mimic the data collection forms.

Web design by Wade Sheldon, Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER