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This section provides an overview of the file formats supported by Source. Table 1 lists the supported time-series data file formats. Raster data file formats are listed in Table 2. Several GIS, graphics and other formats that are also recognised by Source are listed in Table 3 but are not otherwise described in this guide. Click on the link associated with each file extension to go directly to information about that time series.

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TimeseriesDataFormats TimeseriesDataFormats

Table 1. Text-based time-series data file formats

Table 2. Text-based raster data file formats

Table 3. Other supported file formats

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Annual stochastic time series Annual stochastic time series

Annual stochastic time series

The .AR1 format contains replicates of annual time-series data generated using the AR(1) stochastic method. The file format is shown in Table 4. This format is not the same as the AR(1) format (.GEN) generated and exported by the Stochastic Climate Library.

Table 4. AR1 data file format

where:

desc is a title describing the collection site

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Arcinfo grid coverages can be converted to .ASC files using ESRI’s GRIDASCII command. ASC files can be imported into ArcGIS using the ASCIIGRID command.

Table 5. .ASC data file format

where:

nc is the number of columns

nr is the number of rows

xref is either XLLCENTER (centre of the grid) or XLLCORNER (lower left corner of grid)

yref is either YLLCENTER (centre of the grid) or YLLCORNER (lower left corner of grid)

(x,y) are the coordinates of the origin (by centre or lower left corner of the grid)

size is the cell side length

sentinel is a null data string (eg -9999)

value is a data point. There should be nc × nr data points.

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AWBM daily time series AWBM daily time series

AWBM daily time series

An AWBM daily time series format file (.AWB) is an ASCII text file containing daily time series data formatted as shown in Table 6. Dates (the year and month) were optional in the original AWBM file format, but are not optional in the format used in Source.

Table 6. AWB data file format

where:

ndays is the number of days in the month (28..31)

value is the data point corresponding with a given day in the month (ie. ndays columns)

year is the year of observation (four digits)

month is the month of observation (one or two digits).

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SWAT BSB time series SWAT BSB time series

SWAT BSB time series

A .BSB is a line-based fixed-format file, typically used by applications written in FORTRAN. The header line gives the fields for the file with subsequent lines providing data for each basin to be used for each time-stepSWAT BSB subbasin output file contains summary information for each of the subbasins in a watershed. The reported values for the variables are the total amount or weighted average of all hydrological response units (HRUs) within the subbasin. The format is shown in Table 7. For   For more details, refer to the SWAT 2012 input/output manual (Arnold et al., 2012).

The .BSB file format specifies data time step numbers, but not dates. When imported into Source via File Data Sources, the user has the opportunity to manually set the correct data start date.

Table 7. .BSB data file format (first 7 data columns only). The .BSB format also includes an 8 line header, which is not shown.

where:

id is the basin identifier (both SUB and the id are text4-digit integer, left -alignedaligned, e.g. "1")

gis is the GIS value (8-digit integer, right-aligned, eg. "1")

month is the month (or day of year for daily data) of observation (4-digit integer, right-aligned, eg. "0")

area is the basin area in square kilometers (real, right aligned, eg "1.14170E+02")

precip is the basin precipitation in millimetres (real, right aligned, eg "1.2000")..2000").

snomelt is the basin snow melt in millimetires (real, right aligned, eg "0.111E+01")

pet is the basin potential evapotranspiration (PET) in millimetres (real, right aligned, eg "0.900E+01")

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BOM 6 minute time series BOM 6 minute time series

BOM 6 minute time series

A .BSM (also .PLUV) is a fixed-format file, typically supplied by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology for 6 minute pluviograph data. The file has two header lines (record types 1 and 2) followed by an arbitrary number of records of type 3. The formats of record types 1..3 are shown in Table 8 , and Table 9 and Table 10, respectively.

All fields in .BSM files use fixed spacing when supplied, but Source can also read spaced-separated values.

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Table 8. .BSM data file format (record type 1)

where:

snum is the station number

blank ASCII space characters

Table 9. .BSM data file format (record type 2)

where:

snum is the station number

year is the year of the observation (four digits)

month is the month of the observation (one or two digits, right-aligned, space padded)

day is the date of the observation (one or two digits, right-aligned, space padded)

rain_i is a rainfall data point as explained below.

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Comma delimited time series Comma delimited time series

Comma delimited time series

A .CDT comma delimited time-series format file is an ASCII text file that contains regular (periodic) time-series data. The file type commonly has no header line but, if required, it can support a single line header of "Date,Time series 1".

You can use the .CDT format to associate observations with a variety of time interval specifications. Table 10 shows how to structure annual data, Table 11 how to specify daily data aggregated at the monthly level, and Table 12 the more traditional daily time series (one date, one observation). Table 13 explains how to supply data in six-minute format.

Table 10. .CDT data file format (annual time series)

where:

year is the year of observation (four digits, eg. 2011)

value is the observed value (eg. 9876).

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11 is about the more traditional daily time series (one date, one observation). Table 12 explains how to supply data in six-minute format. The Source will displays and exports the date in the full ISO datetime format.

Table 10. .CDT data file format (time series with monthly data)

where:

mm is the month of observation (two digits, eg. 09)

yyyy is the year of observation (four digits, eg. 2011)

value is the observed value (eg. 2600).

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Although mm/yyyy format is used in the cdt file, Source displays and exports the date in yyyy-mm-01 format.

Table 11. .CDT data file format (daily time series with daily data)

where:

date is the date of observation in ISO format (eg. 2000-12-31)

value is the observed value (eg. 2600).

Table

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12. .CDT data file format (six-minute time series)

where:

date is the date of observation in ISO format (eg. 2000-12-31)

time is the time of observation in hours and minutes (eg 23eg 23:48)

date time looks like 2000-12-31 23:48).

value is the observed value (eg. 10). 

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Comma-separated value Comma-separated value

Comma-separated value

A comma separated value or .CSV file is an ASCII text file that contains data in a variety of representations. When a .CSV contains regular (periodic) time-series data, there are at least two columns of data. The first contains a time-stamp and the remaining columns contain data points associated with the time-stamp. The format is shown in Table 1413. All columns are separated using commas. Annual data can be entered using the notation 01/yyyy, where yyyy is a year. Header lines in .CSV files are usually optional.

Table

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13. .CSV data file format

where:

desc is a title for the column (header rows are often optional)

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A .DAT is a two-column daily time-series file with the fixed format shown in Table 1514. Note that the first two characters in each line are always spaces with the data starting at the third character position.

Table

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14. .DAT data file format

where:

blank is ASCII space characters

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An .IQQM time-series format file is an ASCII text file that contains daily, monthly or annual time-series data. The file has a five line header formatted as shown in Table 2115. The header is followed by as many tables as are needed to describe the range delimited by fdate..ldate. The format of each table is shown in Table 1716.

Each value is right-justified in 7 character positions with one leading space and one trailing quality indicator. In other words, there are five character positions for digits which are space-filled and right-aligned. The first value in each row (ie the observation for the first day of the month) occupies character positions 5..11. The second value occupies character positions 12..18, the third value positions 19..25, and so on across the row. In months with 31 days, the final value occupies character positions 215..221. The character positions corresponding with non-existent days in a given month are entirely blank. The mtotal and ytotal fields can support up to 8 digits. Both are space-filled, right-aligned in character positions 223..230.

The quality indicators defined by IQQM are summarised in Table 2317. At present, Source does not act on these quality indicators.

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Title: Meaningful title     Date:06/08/2001 Time:11:38:25.51

Site : Dead Politically Correct Person's Creek

Type : Flow

Units: ML/d

Date : 01/01/1898 to 30/06/1998      Interval : Daily

Year:1898

     ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------

       01    02    03    04   05    06  ...  28    29    30    31     Total

     ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------

Jan    3     4     3     4    3      4        2    3     2     3       224

Feb    2     3     2     3    2      3        2                        134

Mar    3     22    4     2    2      2        1    2     1     2       84

Apr    1     2     1     2    1      2        1    1     1             37

May    1     1     4     3    53     33       1    1     1     1       143

Jun    1     1     0     1   -1?     7        63   58    52            816

Jul    48    43    40    36   33     30       77   70    63    59      1389

Aug    54    49    46    41   39     35       30   28    26    420     2433

Sep    880   362   282     256   245    215      241   39   36            4414

Oct    35    33    31    31   29     28       22   28    20    17      783

Nov    15    16    15    18   16     15       11   12    11            415

Dec    12    11    11    11   11     10       9     8    9     8       422

----------------------------------------- ------------------------------------

                                                                  11294

Table

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15. IQQM data file format (header)

where:

title is a string describing the file’s contents

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interval is a string defining the collection interval (eg. daily, monthly)

Table

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16. IQQM data file format (table)

where:

year defines the year implied for the following table (yyyy)

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ytotal is the sum of the monthly values in the year.

Table

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17. IQQM data file format (quality indicators)

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MFM monthly rainfall files MFM monthly rainfall files

MFM monthly rainfall files

A .MRF text file format contains a header line followed by a line giving the number of years of data. Data are formatted in lines with year given first, followed by 12 monthly values, all space separated. The format is shown in Table 1918.

Table

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18. .MRF data file format

where:

desc is a string describing the file’s contents (eg "Swiftflow River @ Wooden Bridge")

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The .MWASC ASCII grid is similar to .ASC except that the coordinates are offset by 1/2 cell size and the header rows do not have titles. Thus there are six header rows with parameters only, followed by the gridded data. The format is shown in Table 2019.

Table

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19. MWASC data file format

where:

nc is the number of columns

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A SWAT daily rainfall time-series format file (.PCP) is an ASCII text file that contains daily time-series rainfall data. The file has a four line header followed by daily data values as shown in Table 2120. For more details, refer to the SWAT 2012 input/output manual (Arnold et al., 2012).

Table

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20. .PCP data file format

where:

desc is a string describing the file’s contents (eg. "Precipitation Input File")

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vvv.v is the data value expressed as four digits with one decimal place. Missing data is written as "-99.0"

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Space delimited time series Space delimited time series

Space delimited time series

A space- or tab-delimited (.SDT) column time-series format file is an ASCII text file that contains time-series data. There is no header line in the file. The format is shown in Table 2221. Monthly and annual data can be entered using month and/or day number as 01. These files can be created in a spreadsheet application by saving correctly formatted columns to a text (.TXT) format.

Table

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21. .SDT data file format

where:

year is the year of observation (four digits)

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A QDNR .SILO5 daily time-series format file is an ASCII text file that contains daily time-series data. The format is shown in Table 2322. This format sometimes uses the .TXT file extension.

Table

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22. SILO 5 data file format

where:

year is the year of observation (four digits)

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The .SILO8 format contains the full 8 column daily data set from the SILO data base. The file can have multiple header lines, enclosed in inverted commas. The format of data rows is shown in Table 2423.

Table

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23. SILO 8 data file format

where:

maxt is the maximum temperature

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A .TAPESG file is a three column raster data format, with space separated values. Each line consists of the X coordinate, Y coordinate, and value. The format is shown in Table 2524.

Table

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24. .TAPESG data file format

where:

(x,y) are coordinates

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The Tarsier daily time-series format file (.TTS) is an ASCII text file that contains daily time-series data. The file has a 21-line header (Table 2725) followed by daily data values in the format shown in Table 26.

Table

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25. Tarsier daily time series

Table

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26. TTS data file format

where:

header is a 21-line header. Refer to Table 3225

year is the year of observation (four digits)

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The Climate data import tool will import any grids that follow the ESRI ASCIIGrid format and are in latitude-longitude projection. Therefore, it replaces the need to use a large set of Data Drills (eg. 10,000) by importing ASCIIGrid files of the catchment directly. The main benefits of ASCIIGrids are that the files are smaller and easier to manage, and Silo can usually supply them more easily than thousands of Data Drills.

Table 28 27 shows what type of gridded data file format can be used for input data in the Climate data import tool.

Table

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27. Climate data import tool (gridded data file formats)

File format	Rainfall	PET
ASCIIGrids
Climate Atlas of Australia
QDNR Silo

 

Silo 2006 standard
Silo comma delimited

 

Silo Morton

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CentralMeridian, FirstParallel, SecondParallel, OriginLatDD, OrginLongDD, EastFalseOrigin and NorthFalseOrigin are parameters to transform the Albers or Lambert projections of the scenario data into latitude and longitude co-ordinates of the climate ASCII grid data. They have been set to defaults for all of Australia and can be altered to better represent your modelling location. It is recommended that the Australian standard be adopted. Table 2928 specifies the Albers projection parameter values for Australia and Queensland.

Table

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28. Albers projection parameter values (Australia & QLD)

For importing all other file formats, only the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone needs to be defined. The UTM is a geographic coordinate system that provides locations on the Earth’s surface. It divides the Earth into 60 zones, from West to East. Australia falls into zones 49-56. Refer to the Geosceience Australia website (www.ga.gov.au) for details about the UTM zones in Australia.

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Figure 2. Importing ASCIIGrid files (case 2)

References

Arnold, J.G., J.R. Kiniry, R. Srinivasan, J.R. Williams, E.B. Haney, S.L. Neitsch (2012) Soil & Water Assessment Tool: Input/Output Documentation Version 2012. Texas Water Resources Institute. TR-439.