The data are provided courtesy of SSEC/AOSS UW-Madison. Clients causing issues due to size or quantity of queries may be blocked from further access until the issue is resolved
Currently, there are data from 2 instrument platforms accessible through this interface, the Mendota Buoy and AOSS Tower.
The base URL of a data query specifies the requested data return format:
http://metobs.ssec.wisc.edu/api/data.<fmt>
Valid values for fmt are:
csv
json
xml
The formats are documented below in the section Data Formats.
The query string will specify what specific data you would like to query for. The standard format for a HTTP GET query string can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/query_string. Essentially, separate the URL from the query string using a ? and the key=value parameters with a &. Depending on the client, you may need to use URL character encoding in the URL, such as a + in place of any spaces. For more information see Example queries.
The query string supports the following query parameters:
| symbols: | (Required) Colon separated list of data quantities to query for. These are specified as colon-separated list of '<site>.<instrument>.<symbol>'. Valid symbols for each site/instrument are listed below. If 'site' and 'inst' are specified, then the corresponding portion of the symbol identifier may be removed. Note that the resulting response will use the same symbol name specified in this parameter; shortened or full name. |
| site: | The name of the instrument's site. The tower's site is 'aoss' and the buoy's site is 'mendota'. The name is case sensitive. If inst is used, site is required. |
| inst: | The name of the instrument. There are only two instruments supported, the 'buoy' and the 'tower'. The name is case sensitive. If site is used, inst is required. |
| begin: | Start of the query interval in UTC as YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS or -HH:MM:SS. If the format -HH:MM:SS is used, begin is interpreted as a relative time starting from the current time. If begin is not specified, it defaults to the equivalent of -00:02:00 (the last two minutes). |
| end: | End of the query interval in UTC as YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS or -HH:MM:SS. If the format -HH:MM:SS is used, end is interpreted as a relative time starting from the current time. If end is not specified, it defaults to the current time. This time is exclusive meaning records exactly at this time will not be included in the results. |
| sep: | The separator to use between each data point. Works with CSV and XML formats. By default, the separator is a ','. |
| interval: | The interval for the requested data. The intervals supported are '1m' (1 minute), '5m' (5 minutes), '1h' (1 hour). By default, the interval is 1m. |
| callback: | (Creates a JSONP response) Name of the call back function to wrap the JSON response data. JSONP is a JSON structure wrapped in a javascript callback. This is one method if you want to use the data for display using Javascript or AJAX because it avoids the SOP issue. For the second method, look at the JSON Format Below. Note: it looks like 'mycallback(JSON);'. |
| epoch: | Only included in the query string if the user wants the returned timestamps in a Unix epoch format. So far, the supported formats are 'h' (hours since epoch), 'm' (minutes since epoch), 's' (seconds since epoch), 'ms' (milliseconds since epoch), 'u' (microseconds since epoch), 'ns' (nanoseconds since epoch). |
| order: | The format of the json return values as row-major or column-major. If specified as 'row', the results will be organized as a 2-d array. If specified as column the results are organized as <varname>:<list of value>. The 'order' is set as row by default. Only 'row' and 'column' are supported. |
| Field Name: | Symbol Name: | Units: | Notes: |
| Air Temperature | air_temp | °C | |
| Relative Humidity | rel_hum | % | |
| Dewpoint Temperature | dewpoint | °C | |
| Wind Speed | wind_speed | m/s | |
| Wind Direction | wind_direction | ° | |
| Accumulated Precipitation | accum_precip | in | |
| Pressure | pressure | hpa | |
| Altimeter | altimeter | inHg | |
| Solar Flux | solar_flux | W/M^2 | Solar radiation |
| Field Name: | Symbol Name: | Units: | Notes: |
| Air Temperature | air_temp | °C | |
| Relative Humidity | rel_hum | % | |
| Dewpoint Temperature | dewpoint | °C | |
| Wind Speed | wind_speed | m/s | |
| Wind Direction | wind_direction | ° | |
| Water Temperature | water_temp_NUMBER | °C | Water temperature based upon measurement number (°C). Valid values for NUMBER are 1-23. Numbers increase as water depth increases (further down). The number 1 represents the surface temperature (0m), 2 is 0.5m, 3 is 1.0m, 4 is 1.5m, 5 is 2m, followed by 1m increments up to number 23 which is at a depth of 20m below the surface. Starting in the 2019 season, a new sensor was added at a depth of 0.75m. It is available as "water_temp_2_5" (2.5, half way between index 2 and 3). |
| Dissolved Oxygen | doptoppm | ppm | |
| Dissolved Oxygen Saturation | doptosat | % | |
| Chlorophyll | chlorophyll | RFU | |
| Phycocynanin | phycocyanin | RFU | |
| Wind Gust | gust | m/s | Max wind speed over the past 2 minutes. |
| Average Wind Speed | run_wind_speed | m/s | Average wind speed over the past 2 minutes. |
| Dissolved CO2 | pco2ppm_avg | ppm | |
| Photosynthetically Active Radiation (above water) | par_above_avg | micromols/m^2/s | Radiation above the water at about 2m above the water. |
| Photosynthetically Active Radiation (below water) | par_below_avg | micromols/m^2/s | Radiation below the water at about 1m below the water. |
| pco2 raw voltage | pco2volt_avg | millivolts | New in 2019 season. Raw pco2 sensor voltage. |
| Specific conductivity of the water | spcond | microSiemens/cm | New in 2019 season. |
| pH of water | ph | 1 | New in 2019 season. |
| Dissolved Oxygen 2 | do_raw2 | mg/L | New in 2019 season. Replaces "doptoppm" as preferred dissolved oxygen measurement. |
| Dissolved Oxygen Saturation 2 | do_sat2 | % | New in 2019 season. Replaces "doptosat" as preferred dissolved oxygen saturation measurement. |
| Chlorophyll (YSI) | chlorophyll_ysi | RFU | New in 2019 season. Replacement for "chlorophyll" field. Sensor from YSI Inc. |
| Phycocyanin (YSI) | phycocyanin_ysi | RFU | New in 2019 season. Replacement for "chlorophyll" field. Sensor from YSI Inc. |
| Turbidity | turbidity | FNU | New in 2019 season. |
| Fluorescent dissolved organic matter | fdom | RFU | New in 2019 season. |
| Limno Battery | limno_battery | volts | New in 2019 season. Battery level of new 2019 sensor suite. |
# status: success
# code: 200
# message:
# num_results: 2
# fields: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ,aoss.tower.air_temp,aoss.tower.rel_hum
2016-07-13T18:25:00Z,28.5,66.0
2016-07-13T18:26:00Z,28.6,66.0
For displaying data using javascript or AJAX, there are two methods the API uses. The user could set the callback parameter to return a JSONP format which avoids the SOP issue, or use a JSON format without a callback parameter, which the api automatically returns as a CORS HTTP request; this particular CORS request allows cross origin get requests.
{
"code":200,
"message":"",
"num_results":"4",
"results":
{
"data": [[28.6,65.0,21.7,8.2,13.0,0.0,970.8,29.8,193.9],
[28.5,65.0,21.5,8.3,8.0,0.0,970.7,29.8,239.6],
[28.5,65.0,21.5,5.3,8.0,0.0,970.8,29.8,268.2],
[28.5,65.0,21.5,6.6,20.0,0.0,970.7,29.8,237.1]],
"symbols":["aoss.tower.air_temp","aoss.tower.rel_hum","aoss.tower.dewpoint","aoss.tower.wind_speed","aoss.tower.wind_direction","aoss.tower.accum_precip","aoss.tower.pressure","aoss.tower.altimeter","aoss.tower.solar_flux"],
"timestamps":["2016-07-13T18:32:00Z","2016-07-13T18:33:00Z","2016-07-13T18:34:00Z","2016-07-13T18:35:00Z"]
},
"status":"success"
}
{
"code":200,
"message":"",
"num_results":"4",
"results":
{
"data": {
"aoss.tower.accum_precip":[0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0],
"aoss.tower.air_temp":[28.5,28.5,28.5,28.6],
"aoss.tower.altimeter":[29.8,29.8,29.8,29.8],
"aoss.tower.dewpoint":[21.5,21.4,21.3,21.5],
"aoss.tower.pressure":[970.7,970.7,970.8,970.8],
"aoss.tower.rel_hum":[65.0,65.0,65.0,65.0],
"aoss.tower.solar_flux":[237.1,387.5,711.4,725.0],
"aoss.tower.wind_direction":[20.0,12.0,348.0,357.0],
"aoss.tower.wind_speed":[6.6,7.9,5.9,4.2]
},
"timestamps": ["2016-07-13T18:35:00Z","2016-07-13T18:36:00Z","2016-07-13T18:37:00Z","2016-07-13T18:38:00Z"]
},
"status":"success"
}
mycallback({
"code":200,
"message":"",
"num_results":"4",
"results":
{
"data": {
"aoss.tower.accum_precip":[0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0],
"aoss.tower.air_temp":[28.5,28.5,28.5,28.6],
"aoss.tower.altimeter":[29.8,29.8,29.8,29.8],
"aoss.tower.dewpoint":[21.5,21.4,21.3,21.5],
"aoss.tower.pressure":[970.7,970.7,970.8,970.8],
"aoss.tower.rel_hum":[65.0,65.0,65.0,65.0],
"aoss.tower.solar_flux":[237.1,387.5,711.4,725.0],
"aoss.tower.wind_direction":[20.0,12.0,348.0,357.0],
"aoss.tower.wind_speed":[6.6,7.9,5.9,4.2]
},
"timestamps": ["2016-07-13T18:35:00Z","2016-07-13T18:36:00Z","2016-07-13T18:37:00Z","2016-07-13T18:38:00Z"]
},
"status":"success"
});
<metobs code="200" message="" num_results="2" seperator="," status="success">
<symbols>
<symbol format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ" name="time" short_name="time"/>
<symbol inst="tower" name="aoss.tower.air_temp" short_name="air_temp" site="aoss"/>
</symbols>
<data>
<row id="0">2016-07-11T23:58:00Z 29.5</row>
<row id="1">2016-07-11T23:59:00Z 29.5</row>
</data>
</metobs>
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