Supported Rainfall File Formats
- Mukta Sapkota
The following provides a summary of the rainfall file formats that are supported by MUSICX.
BoM 6 minute Rainfall File (*.txt)
A fixed format file type, typically supplied by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology foe 6 minute pluviograph data. The file contains two header lines:
- Line 1 contains the station identified and an integer (1);
- Line 2 contains the station number and name.
Data lines start with the station number, followed by date (yyyymmdd), then 240 values of 6 minute data for that day. All values are on a fixed spacing. A sample file is provided below:
9741 1 9741 2 ALBANY AIRPORT 9741 1965 1 1-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999 9741 1965 1 2-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999 9741 1965 1 2-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999 9741 1965 1 3-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999 9741 1965 1 4-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999 9741 1965 1 5-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999.0-9999 .... 9741 1965 413 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.1 1.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 9741 1965 414-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888 9741 1965 415 0.7 4.4 4.1 1.6 4.3 4.3 0.2 2.7 2.9 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.0 1.9 0.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.7 1.4 9741 1965 416 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.3 0.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.9 1.9 0.0 0.0 9741 1965 419 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 9741 1965 420-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888 9741 1965 421-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888.0-8888 9741 1965 422 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 |
CDT Comma Separated (.cdt)
A comma delimited column time series format file that contains regular (periodic) time series data. The file commonly has no header line, but can support a single line header specifying “Date, Time series 1” if required.
There are two columns of data, with the first column being a date string, followed by the time series value. The date string should be specified using the ISO date-time string format (e.g. 2010-01-24 00:06). The second column contains the rainfall value. The columns are separated by a comma.
Note: We strongly recommend using zero padding when defining dates, e.g. use “01/01/1996” for 1st January 1996, not 1/1/1996.
Below is an example of a suitably formatted 6 minute CDT file:
Date,Time series 1 2000-01-01,0.727869398 2000-01-02,0.569338308 2000-01-03,1.934807009 2000-01-04,0.944831487 2000-01-05,3.547859312 |
CSV Comma Separated (.csv)
A comma separated variable file is an ASCII text file that contains regular time series data (i.e., missing periods of data cannot be accommodated). There are two columns of data, with the first column being a time-date string (e.g. 01/01/2003 12:06:00), followed by the time series value. The two values are separated by a comma and the time should be in 24-hour format.
The file may have a header line with a title for each column. The first column header is usually “Date-Time” followed by a relevant data column header (e.g. rainfall_mm).
The following is an example of a correctly formatted CSV file:
Date, Timeseries 1 2000-01-01,0.727869398 2000-01-02,0.569338308 2000-01-03,1.934807009 2000-01-04,0.944831487 2000-01-05,3.547859312 2000-01-06,0.94145698 |