User's Manual for TMY2s
Table of Contents
Section 1 Overview
SECTION 2
Stations
There are 239 TMY2 stations for the United States and its territories. These are
the same stations as for the NSRDB, from which the TMY2 data sets were derived.
The stations are National Weather Service stations that collected meteorological
data for the period of 1961-1990. Table 2-1 lists the
stations by state or territory and provides information describing the station
location and the NSRDB and TMY2 classifications.
Compared to the SOLMET/ERSATZ TMYs, there is a net gain of five stations, and some
of the station locations have changed. The TMY2 data sets include 37 new stations,
but 32 previous SOLMET/ERSATZ TMY stations were not included because these stations
were not included in the NSRDB.
Locations
The station locations are described in Table 2-1 by the
city and state name, the station Weather Bureau Army Navy (WBAN) identification
number, the latitude and longitude in degrees and minutes, and the elevation in
meters.
NSRDB Classification
Stations are classified with respect to being NSRDB primary (P) or secondary (S)
stations. The 56 primary stations measured solar radiation for a part (from 1 to
27 years) of the 30-year period of 1961-1990. The remaining 183 secondary stations
made no solar radiation measurements and therefore use modeled solar radiation
data that are derived from meteorological data such as cloud cover.
TMY2 Classification
This classification pertains to the amount of measured meteorological data
available for a station to select typical months to form the typical meteorological
year. Class A stations, of which there are 216, had a minimum of 15 candidate
months without more than 2 consecutive hours of missing data. For the 23 Class B
stations to achieve a minimum of 15 candidate months, data filling for periods of
up to 47 hours were required. For some elements not required for the selection of
the typical meteorological months, the data are unfilled in the TMY2 data files.
The elements horizontal visibility, ceiling height, and present weather may be
missing for up to 2 consecutive hours for Class A stations and for up to 47 hours
for Class B stations. No data are missing for more than 47 hours, except for snow
depth and days since last snowfall for Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Section 3 Data and Format
Table of Contents
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