Abstract:
DATSAV3 will no longer be active beginning in 2008. It will be superseded by the AFCCC Historical Surface Weather Observation Database (DSI-9966) (C00676). The new database (DSI-9966) will be fully integrated into the Integrated Surface Database (ISD). DATSAV3 has been fully integrated into the ISD. The DATSAV3 Surface Database is composed of worldwide surface weather observations from about
... 10,000 currently active stations, collected and stored from sources such as the Automated Weather Network (AWN) and the Global Telecommunications System (GTS). Most collected observations are decoded at the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, and then sent electronically to the USAF Combat Climatology Center (AFCCC). AFCCC builds the final database through decode, validation, and quality control software. All data are stored in a single ASCII format. The database is used in climatological applications by numerous DOD and civilian customers. DATSAV3 refers to the digital tape format in which decoded weather observations are stored. (Two older, discontinued formats were DATSAV and DATSAV2.) The DATSAV3 format conforms to Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). The DATSAV3 database includes data originating from various codes such as synoptic, airways, METAR (Meteorological Routine Weather Report), and SMARS (SupplementaryMarine Reporting Station), as well as observations from automatic weather stations. The users handbook provides complete documentation for the database and its format. AFCCC sorts the observations into station-date-time order, validates each station number against the Air Weather Service Master Station Catalog (AWSMSC), runs several quality control programs, and then merges and sorts the data further into monthly and yearly station-ordered files. AFCCC then provides the data to the co-located National Climatic Data Center(NCDC). 
