Standard operating procedure updates 2017: Central Alaska Network (CAKN) climate monitoring protocol

Sousanes, Pamela; Hill, Ken; Bower, Michael; Johnson, William; Miller, Scott

Details of the 2017 Central Alaska Network Climate Monitoring Protocol Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) update are provided in this document. There have been technology changes and instrument updates, as well as minor changes in the field collection methods and reporting. The data have not changed, but the methods for quality assurance and control have been updated and the methods for organizing, storing, archiving, and disseminating the data have improved. The Alaska Region Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program is monitoring climate on a large spatial scale within the four Alaska Networks, which include the Arctic (ARCN), Central Alaska (CAKN), Southeast Alaska (SEAN), and Southwest Alaska (SWAN) Networks. In 2006, when the climate monitoring protocols and SOPs were first drafted for CAKN there were twelve NPS climate stations in three parks, there are now more than fifty stations in thirteen Alaska parks. The ARCN, CAKN, and SEAN climate and data management staff worked collectively to update the CAKN climate monitoring Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), which integrated programmatic aspects of the ARCN and SEAN networks. The updated SOPs now include information that apply to all three networks. Consistency among the four networks is now critical as we accumulate more data with each passing year. It is imperative that the public, other scientists and researchers, and future NPS staff have a comprehensive perspective of the climate monitoring program and can easily identify the products that are available. The SOPs describe the annual work flow that is required to measure, record, process, and publish the best quality climate data and to make sure that data are available in a common format that is useful for the larger research community. The SOPS are organized into three main sections 1) field methods, 2) data acquisition and management, and 3) data analysis and reporting. This is the first major update to the SOPs. There are now thirteen SOPs that will be published individually to allow for more effective and efficient versioning in the future. They will be discoverable under the ARCN, CAKN, and SEAN programs.

Standard operating procedure updates 2017: Central Alaska Network (CAKN) climate monitoring protocol

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