Getting Started

[Kaylajillian]

I am just starting my research project and I need some professional help. I am researching the effects that golf courses have on the Coachella Valley and I was wondering who to go to to get humidity records dating back to at least 20 years and how to get golf course records as well. I am willing to travel 2-3 hours to talk to people so if there is anyone you know might be able to help me (like city council or libraries or something else) please let me know.

[MelissaB]

You can find weather data from the North American Regional Reanalysis model (which is what atmospheric scientists use to predict the weather) from 1979-2007 at this website: http://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ncd ... d_name=221 . It is not very user friendly, but if you know the latitude and longitude of the location you want to study you can get data from it.

You first specify the years of data you want and what times you want those data at. Times are in UTC and in military format (0000=midnight, 0300=3AM, 0600=6AM, etc.), so you'll want to calculate the time change between Greenwich meridian time (UTC) and time at your location. You then click 'build order' and it will take you to the next page, where you need to select 'plot data' (do NOT click 'download', because that will take forever--you are downloading data from every three hours all around the world for many years!).

Scroll down and click the time series option, then hit next page.

Choose your variable--you probably want relative humidity at 2m--and input your ranges of latitude and longitude (note that in the US the longitude will be negative).

Once you've done all that, hit 'create plot' and you will see a plot of your data. In order to get the numbers from that, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and select 'download data file for RH2m'. You will then be presented with the actual values.

You probably don't want the humidity every three hours every day for 20 years, so consider what it is you do want and then post back and I can help you get it.

As for the golf course data, you will need to actually talk to the golf courses--I doubt that their records are going to be online.

Hope that helps!

[ChrisG]

Hi,

Can you tell us more about your project? Do you have a hypothesis about the effects of golf courses on measured humidity?

I work often with atmospheric and hydrologic data for California. An excellent source is the California Irrigation Managment Information System (CIMIS). There are several stations in and around the Coachella Valley

http://www.cimis.water.ca.gov/cimis/infoStnMapSouth.jsp

What sort of golf course records do you want?

[Kaylajillian]

Thanks for Responding!

Here's my hypothesis, Mr.ChrisG: If the number of golf courses increases, then the humidity rates will increase.

As for the golf course records, I need to compare the number of them built to the rates of humidity, dating back to at least 1985.

Hope that helps.
If not just type back and I will try to be more specific.

[ChrisG]

Studying the effects of land use on the hydrologic cycle will be a very interesting and original project for a science fair project. On the other hand, I'd caution you that it might be difficult or impossible to show a significant effect of golf course development on atmospheric humidity. There are many other factors such as other land use changes (e.g. irrigated agriculture) and natural variability of atmospheric conditions that can affect the hydrologic cycle. You might need to 'tweak' your topic if you find that the data aren't appropriate to address your hypothesis. I'd be glad to discuss more if you have questions.

[Kaylajillian]

My teacher also said what you said. Though it may be tricky, I am willing to work around it and tweak my project. It should be interesting.

I will ask you quetions if I need to. So thank you again. I will talk to you later.

[ChrisG]

OK. Good luck!