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NovaStar Program Reference / Data Analysis / Overview

Data analysis programs may run on the scheduler (cron) or interactively and analyze data in the system, create reports, and display data. The analysis results in data products that are more complex than simple data exports.

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Summary

The NovaStar data collection programs run continuously for even-drive data and on a schedule for polling, data imports, and calculations. Once data are loaded in the database, it is useful to view and further analyze data into information products, for example, time series reports. The programs listed below process the data records into useful forms.

The output from many of the reporting programs is being implemented in data web services to allow remote "pull" access to data without having to configure database processes

Computing Programs

The following programs can be used to (re)compute secondary data values from data reports. This is necessary if historical data have been edited and need to be reprocessed.

Programs to Compute Derived Data Values

Program Description
nscomputerainfall Computes and files incremental rainfall data.
nscomputerating Computes and files rated value data.
nscomputewindspeed Computes wind speed from ALERT wind run and direction.

Display Programs - Time Series Data

The following programs are used to output time series data as data records (not formatted reports), for example for tabular data displays. Time series data can be irregular interval (no pre-defined spacing) and regular interval (regular spacing). Irregular interval data can be converted to regular interval using a statistic (e.g., average, maximum).

Programs to Output Time Series

Program             Formats Interval Description
datadisp Text Irregular, regular Output time series data values as original values or data processed for an interval using a statistic.
disprpts Delimited, HTML Irregular, regular Output time series data values as delimited or HTML table, analyzing interval data using a statistic.
dispsers Delimited, HTML Irregular, regular Output time series data values as delimited or HTML table, analyzing interval data using a statistic.
dispshef SHEF Irregular (original) Output time series data values in SHEF format.
dispsteps Text, HTML Irregular, regular Output time series data values as formatted text or HTML table, analyzing interval data using a statistic.
reportgen Text Regular General time series analysis and formatting program.
statreport Text Regular Create a statistical analysis report.
tstool Many Irregular, regular Process time series and other data into useful data products using a workflow language.

Report Programs - Precipitation Data

Programs are available to provide standard reports for precipitation data. In the following:

  • "period" is the overall period of the analysis
  • "interval" is the timestep of output

Precipitation Report Programs

Program               Period Interval Description
day_ccc Year Day, month, year Creates a yearly report of daily precipitation, with daily, monthly, and annual totals.
day_report Year Day, month, year Creates a yearly report of daily precipitation, with daily, monthly, and annual totals. The report is more flexible than day_ccc, for example it supports water year and the historical year can be selected.
hour_ccc Month Hour, day, month Creates a monthly report of hourly precipitation, with hourly, daily, and monthly totals. Also includes rainfall intensities.
hour_report Month Hour, day, month Creates a monthly report of hourly precipitation, with hourly, daily, and monthly totals. Also includes rainfall intensities. The program is a generalized version of hour_ccc.
maxrain_ccc Season Event, season Creates a report of maximum rainfall for a season (year), with rainfall intensity totals, dates, and times.
month_average Season (year) Month, season (year) Creates a report of monthly and season precipitation averages.
month_report Year Month, year Creates a report of monthly precipitation totals for a year and month's historical average.
month_update Month Month Computes monthly total.
year_report Years Month, year Create a report of monthly precipitation, with monthly and annual averages, one year per line.

Report Programs - Ratings

The following program prints rating data.

Rating Data Report Program

Program Description
nsprintrating Format and print rating data.

Map Display

The following program is a legacy program that may be removed in the future. Current systems typically rely on web applications to view map data.

Hardware Map Display Program

Program Description
nsmapdisplay Was implemented on some systems to provide a hardware system map.