Get the SCAR READER data in GHCN-M v3 format. SCAR READER is a collection of meteorological data from Antarctica (SCAR is the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research). GHCN-M, Global Historical Climatology Network Monthly, is a collection of meteorological data covering the globe. It is well known and well used; there are likely to be many programs that understand the GHCN-M data format, hence there is some value in providing other datasets, SCAR READER, in this format.

inv.py fetches the list of SCAR READER stations and generates a scar.inv file (and a scar.url file which is a list of places for dat.py to look).

dat.py fetches monthly average temperature data for each station and produces a single scar.dat file.

GHCN-M uses an 11-digit station identifier scheme of the form:

CCCWWWWWNNN

Where CCC is a 3 digit "country" code (not always a country, for example, 700 is Antarctica); WWWWW is a 5 digit WMO station identifier (of the station or its nearest WMO station); and NNN is a arbitrary small number (which is 000 for a WMO station itself).

This package assigns identifiers of the form:

799WWWWW000

Note that all of the stations in SCAR have WMO identifiers. 799 is a "country" code chosen not to clash with an code already used by GHCN-M. Also note that some stations in SCAR may also have data in GHCN-M (with the same WMO identifier).