Mean minimum temperature of the coldest month - LENZ
Date
Date
Date
Edition Date
Date
2003-01-01
Cited Responsible Party
Responsible Party
Individual Name
Craig Briggs
Organisation Name
Landcare Research Ltd
Position Name
Spatial Analyst
Contact Info
Contact
Phone
Telephone
Voice
07 8593700
Facsimile
07 8593701
Address
Address
Delivery Point
Private Bag 3127
City
Hamilton
Administrative Area
Hamilton
Postal Code
3240
Country
nz
Electronic Mail Address
lenz@landcareresearch.co.nz
Role
Role Code
custodian
Presentation Form
Presentation Form Code
mapDigital
Abstract
Mean minimum temperature of the coldest month data layer used in the creation of Land Environments of New Zealand (LENZ) classification. Mean minimum temperature of the coldest month is recorded in °C. The climate station data used in the development of this climate surface were derived from summaries of climate observations published by the New Zealand Meteorological Service, using data collected over the period from 1950-1980. Estimates of the mean minimum temperature in July, the coldest month of winter, were derived from a surface fitted to monthly estimates of mean daily temperatures. The resulting data layer was created by coupling a 100 m DEM with a thin-plate spline surface fitted to an irregular network of 346 meteorological stations. The resulting 100 metre layer was then interpolated to 25 metres using bilinear interpolation. Additional details such as the climate station locations used in the creation of the layer and error maps are defined in the attached LENZ Technical Guide.
Resource Maintenance
Maintenance Information
Maintenance And Update Frequency
Maintenance Frequency Code
notPlanned
Descriptive Keywords
Keywords
Keyword
LENZ
Keyword
Minimum Temperature
Keyword
Temperature
Keyword
Climate
Keyword
Cold
Type
Keyword Type Code
theme
Descriptive Keywords
Keywords
Keyword
New Zealand
Type
Keyword Type Code
place
Descriptive Keywords
Keywords
Keyword
Downloadable Data
Spatial Representation Type Code
grid
Language
en
Topic Category Code
environment
Topic Category Code
climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere
Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.3.1.1850
All climate layers used in LENZ were derived either directly or indirectly from mathematical surfaces (thin-plate splines) that use information about the climate, location and elevation of a number of meteorological stations. Locations are described either in terms of their latitude and longitude or their coordinates on a map projection such as the New Zealand Map Grid (NZMG). Each surface is calculated using a process in which data values for each climate station are omitted in turn and its climate is predicted from the surrounding stations. This process is repeated until no further improvement can be made to the fit of the surface to the raw data. Surfaces can be simultaneously fitted to up to 12 variables, typically monthly data for various climate parameters, e.g., monthly estimates of temperature or rainfall. Additional details such as the climate station locations used in the creation of the layer and error maps for this layer are defined in the attached LENZ Technical Guide. Once the surface has been fitted, predictions can be made for any point of known location and elevation. For example, coupling the surface with a digital elevation model, a regular grid of elevation values, allows the generation of digital climate maps as used in the creation of LENZ. Finally, maps that show the standard errors of the predicted values can be derived using results from more sophisticated analyses of the errors associated with the climate surfaces. The majority of the climate station data used in the development of our climate surfaces were derived from summaries of climate observations published by the New Zealand Meteorological Service. Temperature and rainfall data were collected over the period from 1950 to 1980, while data describing humidity and solar radiation consisted of averages of all data collected up until 1980. Some additional short-duration records of rainfall, including information from storage rain gauges, were used to describe geographic variation in high-rainfall mountainous areas of the South Island.
