Climate Monitoring and Data Management for the Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network
Simeral D and Wasser M. 2021. Climate Monitoring and Data Management for the Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Network
The Desert Research Institute (DRI) and the National Park Service (NPS) Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Network have worked collaboratively for nearly a decade to maintain a network of eight long-term climate monitoring stations within NPS Units across the Hawaiian Islands and U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands. This document is a continuation of that partnership and represents the final report for the most recent project award period spanning from 8/29/2016 through 8/15/2021. The purpose of the climate monitoring network is to provide high-quality, baseline climate data necessary to draw insights not only into the long-term climatic patterns and more recent trends, but also to provide critical spatial coverage and data necessary to gain insights on the sharp gradients which are an important driver in ecological and biological processes within NPS Units in the Pacific Islands. The two entities have worked in partnership since the inception of the network and initial station deployment from 2012 through 2014. Responsibilities for the day-to-day operations and maintenance of the network have been conducted collaboratively between the NPS and DRI, while data management activities and web-based data access and tools have been the responsibility of DRI. The intent of this report is to provide an overview of the station-based climate data from the network, and to produce a synopsis of other supplementary climate information that could be used as a reference for resource staff. NPS and DRI have agreed upon this scope of reporting as the most appropriate to deliver relevant, concise, and clearly summarized information to interested stakeholders. The additional climate information includes summaries of important climate components of the region including ENSO, tropical cyclones, and drought. Supplementary data was also provided on climate trends from key reference monitoring stations in the Hawaiian Islands as well as information on the new climate normals that were recently updated by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) to reflect with latest 30-year normals period (1991-2020). Finally, station data from the network was utilized to verify gridded climate data from the Hawaii Rainfall Atlas.