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
AOOSAOOS40641HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
ASOSasos-stations.txt877HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
AWOSawos-stations.txt646HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
BoMAustralia BOM913HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
CWOPCWOP6785HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
DafifDAFIF ARPT10054HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
FAAFAA Airport Database20259HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
FlickrFlickr227HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
GADGlobal Airport Database2390HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
ISHISH26843HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
MetarMETARTable9200HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
MetstatCA climate2034HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
MTRMTR.goodness2448HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
NCEPNCEP METAR5964HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
OverrideOverride49HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
PersonalPersonal Comms222HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RadarRadar141HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RAOBRAOB1406HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RAPRAP stations12348HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RusARusAir447HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
UASCUASC1558HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
UpdateUpdate187HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
VedurIceland36HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
WMOWMO11525HTML 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)32HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
AOOSAOOS7903HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
ASOSasos-stations.txt859HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
AWOSawos-stations.txt568HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
BoMAustralia BOM771HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
CWOPCWOP5523HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
DafifDAFIF ARPT4017HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
FAAFAA Airport Database1851HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
FlickrFlickr196HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
GADGlobal Airport Database1236HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
ISHISH9936HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
MetarMETARTable4615HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
MetstatCA climate857HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
MTRMTR.goodness2195HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
NCEPNCEP METAR4646HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
OverrideOverride30HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
PersonalPersonal Comms128HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RadarRadar50HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RAOBRAOB714HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RAPRAP stations5235HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
RusARusAir147HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
UASCUASC212HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
UpdateUpdate138HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
VedurIceland5HTML FileCSV FileHTML FileCSV File
WMOWMO3315HTML 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-USAOOSASOSAWOSBoMDafifFAAFlickrGADISHMetarMetstatMTRNCEPOverridePersonalRadarRAOBRAPRusAUASCUpdateVedurWMO
Ant-DE--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
Ant-ITAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
Ant-USAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
AOOSAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
ASOSAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
AWOSAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
BoMAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
DafifAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
FAAAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
FlickrAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
GADAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
ISHAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
MetarAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
MetstatAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
MTRAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
NCEPAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
OverrideAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
PersonalAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataDataData
RadarAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataDataData
RAOBAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataDataData
RAPAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataDataData
RusAAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataDataData
UASCAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataDataData
UpdateAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--DataData
VedurAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--Data
WMOAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAllAll--

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 Sunday, 03 February 2008