Global Atmosphere Watch

World Data Centre for Precipitation Chemistry

The World Data Centre for Precipitation chemistry (WDCPC) is presently operated by Mr Van Bowersox in association with the Illinois State Water Survey and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Mr. Bowersox, formerly the Program Coordinator of the US National Atmospheric Deposition Program, assumed this position in January 2009. The
WDCPC was initiated in 1992 at the State University of New York in Albany, New York, where it operated jointly with the Quality Assurance/Science Activity Centre (QA/SAC) for the Americas. This joint arrangement of the WDCPC and the QA/SAC-Americas continues unchanged.

The WDCPC seeks to provide on-line access to GAW precipitation chemistry data by creating links to major regional precipitation chemistry programs that offer their own data ports, and by archiving and making accessible data from other GAW global and regional sites not affiliated with one of these major networks. The WDCPC will provide laboratory contact information, as well as pictures and links to monitoring site information. Other unique and
historic data also will be archived on the WDCPC Web site. This site operates in close coordination with the QA/SAC-Americas, which conducts semi-annual laboratory intercomparison studies. These studies, designed to help ensure the known and high quality of GAW precipitation chemistry measurements, provide data for assessing laboratory performance. Performance charts are presented as "ring diagrams." These diagrams uniquely enable data users to visually evaluate laboratory accuracy for individual chemical species and make decisions about the appropriateness of data for their own studies.

Conventional FTP access to the WDCPC and QA/SAC data sets will require username and password. Together the links to major networks and the online data archives will give users access to more than 200 global, regional, and contributing stations worldwide.

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