Differences in Location Information from various Data Sources

This website gathers data from a number of different data sources for the locations of the METAR stations. Not suprisingly, there are a number of differences in the data, but what is suprising (to me at least) is the scale of the problem. This page does not attempt to analyze elevation errors. However, the links to the pjsg_*_location.txt files below do have the best estimate of elevation for each location. It is important to note that the positions and elevations in these files are taken from one or other source. There is no averaging of data.

The logic on this website imports data from the following sources:
NameLocationEntries Differences > 3 miles Differences > 1 mile
Ant-DEAntarctica (Germany)1HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
Ant-ITAntarctica (Italy)7HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
Ant-USAntarctica (USA)48HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
ASOSasos-stations.txt877HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
AWOSawos-stations.txt652HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
BoMAustralia BOM913HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
CWOPCWOP7738HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
DafifDAFIF ARPT10054HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
FAAFAA Airport Database19925HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
FlickrFlickr294HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
GHCNGHCN3688HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
ISHISH26843HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
MetarMETARTable9471HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
MetstatCA climate2039HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
MTRMTR.goodness2489HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
OverrideOverride51HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
PersonalPersonal Comms222HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RadarRadar141HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RAOBRAOB1406HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RAPRAP stations12599HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RusARusAir447HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
UASCUASC1627HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
UpdateUpdate350HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
VedurIceland36HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
WMOWMO11653HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File

The best estimate as to the locations of all sites above can be found in the fixed format file pjsg_all_location.txt, pjsg_all_location.xml and pjsg_all_location.csv.

The table above includes all the records imported from the various sources. However, data is only available for a subset of these stations (both METAR reports and Synoptic reports), and the table below is filtered by that criteria. This also reduces (dramatically) the number of stations in error.

NameLocationEntries Differences > 3 miles Differences > 1 mile
Ant-DEAntarctica (Germany)1HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
Ant-ITAntarctica (Italy)6HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
Ant-USAntarctica (USA)27HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
ASOSasos-stations.txt861HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
AWOSawos-stations.txt578HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
BoMAustralia BOM766HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
CWOPCWOP5300HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
DafifDAFIF ARPT4014HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
FAAFAA Airport Database1906HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
FlickrFlickr258HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
GHCNGHCN942HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
ISHISH9828HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
MetarMETARTable4736HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
MetstatCA climate874HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
MTRMTR.goodness2237HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
OverrideOverride30HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
PersonalPersonal Comms122HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RadarRadar50HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RAOBRAOB703HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RAPRAP stations5267HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RusARusAir150HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
UASCUASC235HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
UpdateUpdate242HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
VedurIceland5HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
WMOWMO3266HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File

The best estimate as to the locations of all the active sites above can be found in the fixed format file pjsg_active_location.txt, pjsg_active_location.xml and pjsg_active_location.csv.

You can also compare the data sources in a pairwise manner. This table is for > 3 miles. It is divided into two sections -- those sites with Data, and All sites. The format in both cases is HTML;
Ant-DEAnt-ITAnt-USASOSAWOSBoMDafifFAAFlickrGHCNISHMetarMetstatMTROverridePersonalRadarRAOBRAPRusAUASCUpdateVedurWMO
Ant-DE--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
Ant-ITAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
Ant-USAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
ASOSAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
AWOSAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
BoMAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
DafifAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
FAAAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
FlickrAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
GHCNAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
ISHAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
MetarAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
MetstatAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
MTRAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
OverrideAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
PersonalAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
RadarAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataData
RAOBAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataData
RAPAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataData
RusAAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataData
UASCAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataData
UpdateAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataData
VedurAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--Data
WMOAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--

The HTML files above contain a number of columns:
DistanceThe distance in miles to the chosen point
NameThe station name (ICAO code)
LatitudeThe chosen station Latitude (in decimal degrees). This is what this website has determined is the best guess as to the location.
LongitudeThe chosen station Longitude (in decimal degrees). This is what this website has determined is the best guess as to the location.
ElevationThe chosen station Elevation (in meters). This is what this website has determined is the best guess as to the location.
AltLatitudeThe station Latitude from the comparison source.
AltLongitudeThe station Longitude from the comparison source.
AltElevationThe station Elevation from the comparison source.
SourceThe URL (or other) of the chosen source for the location data.

The TXT and CSV files that contain the complete database have the following columns:

  1. Site code
  2. WMO Id (if available)
  3. Place name
  4. State
  5. Country code
  6. Latitude
  7. Longitude
  8. Elevation in meters

Website comments, problems etc to
Philip Gladstone

Last modified Saturday, 21 June 2008