Raw Climatic Data

DAYMET data were produced from models and algorithms imposed onto daily outputs of ground weather stations throughout North America in order to produce a continuous surface dataset (Thornton et al. 2018; Thornton et al. 1997). Monthly values for minimum and maximum air temperatures and water vapor pressure were generated by averaging the daily DAYMET output values. Monthly precipitation totals were summed from daily DAYMET output values. The spatial resolution for all NASA DAYMET data is 1km x 1km.

Data was downloaded in GeoTIFF format for North America directly from The Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC) which serves as a data center for the NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). Downloaded rasters were multispectral GeoTIFF rasters comprised of 12 bands (one for each month). Each individual band contained monthly data for one of the environmental parameters: Average air temperature, Precipitation, Maximum air temperature, Minimum air temperature, Water vapor pressure. We conducted a batch download for a total of 68 multispectral GeoTIFF rasters containing more than 3.5 GB of environmental data.

Multispectral GeoTIFF rasters were then separated into single band rasters for each parameter and month; new monthly single band rasters were then generated including only data for Maricopa County, Arizona, utilizing ESRI ArcMAP version 10.6.0.8321.

References

Thornton, M.M., P.E. Thornton, Y. Wei, B.W. Mayer, R.B. Cook, and R.S. Vose. 2018. Daymet: Monthly Climate Summaries on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 3. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1345

Thornton, P.E., Running, S.W., White, M.A. 1997. Generating surfaces of daily meteorological variables over large regions of complex terrain. Journal of Hydrology 190: 214 - 251. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1694(96)03128-9