Download
Monthly QA Report

Quality Assurance

The Oklahoma Mesonet’s quality-assurance (QA) consists of four principal components:
1) laboratory calibration,
2) on-site intercomparison,
3) automated QA, and
4) manual QA.

In the instrument laboratory, all sensors are calibrated to validate or improve upon factory calibrations.

On an annual basis, the accuracy of several types of sensors in the field is verified through comparison to calibrated reference sensors housed in a portable system.

To make a first pass through the 640,000+ observations that are received at the Mesonet each day, automated QA software includes numerous algorithms to evaluate the data received from remote stations.

Finally, the Mesonet’s QA meteorologists employ numerous manual techniques to complement automated QA including analysis of monthly statistics to detect sensor drift or bias (click on a month and year to the left to download a PDF version of a Monthly Report). In addition to detecting problematic sensors, the QA meteorologists trace the true start time of each problem so that appropriate data can be manually flagged as erroneous. The QA meteorologists are responsible for communicating problems to, and coordinating with, appropriate field technicians to ensure proper resolution (see a list of the current outstanding tickets below).

Current Trouble Tickets in the Oklahoma Mesonet
(For questions regarding these tickets, contact )

Station Variable Date Reported Problem Description
PUTN Station Battery Voltage 2024-03-15 13:07:52 Battery voltage sometimes drops to a low voltage for 1 or several obs and then returns to normal. This sometimes happens overnight when a sudden increase in actual battery voltage would be unexpected. Does not appear to affect data at this time.
IDAB 229L Delta Temperature at 10cm under Bare Soils 2024-03-14 19:37:30 Starting and final temperatures report -7999. Both soil temperature and moisture return missing.
SALL 229L Delta Temperature at 25 cm 2024-02-27 22:37:09 Starting and final temperature becoming closer to each other with time, resulting in increasingly, errantly high soil moisture values. Soil temperature seemingly unaffected. Suspect failing heater.
JAYX Soil Temperature at 10 cm under Bare Soil 2024-02-21 14:32:35 TB10 more responsive to air temperature than expected. Peaks before its own TS05 and neighboring TB10 data and has much more diurnal fluctuation compared with neighbors. Please rebury sensor.
IDAB Rain since midnight UTC at 0.6m 2024-01-24 21:21:53 Primary rain gauge completely missed multiple rain events.