get_silodata: Retrieve weather data from Queensland Government DES longpaddock website

Description

SILO (Scientific Information for Land Owners) is a database of Australian climate data from 1889 (current to yesterday). It provides data sets for a range of climate variables. SILO is hosted by the Science and Technology Division of the Queensland Government's Department of Environment and Science (DES). For more information please see https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/silo/about. A number of data formats are available via the FORMAT option, but we have mainly used the “apsim” format. Other formats may be retrieved but these are largely untested. Please lodge an issue if there are problems. For details, please see https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/silo/about/file-formats-and-samples/. SILO products are provided free of charge to the public for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license and appear to be subject to fair use limits. Note that SILO may be unavailable between 11am and 1pm (Brisbane time) each Wednesday and Thursday to allow for essential system maintenance.

Usage

get_silodata(
  latitude,
  longitude,
  email,
  START = "20201101",
  FINISH = "20201231",
  FORMAT = c("apsim", "fao56", "standard", "allmort", "ascepm", "evap_span", "span",
    "all2016", "alldata", "p51", "rainonly", "monthly", "cenw"),
  PASSWORD = "apitest",
  extras = NULL,
  URL = "https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/DataDrillDataset.php"
)

Value

Data frame/tibble containing specified or default climate variables. If “APSIM” format is specified then an extra column date_met, containing the date, is returned along with the usual year and day of year day.

Arguments

latitude: A number or character string of the site latitude for data retrieval
longitude: A number or character string of the site longitude for data retrieval
email: A string containing your email which is required by DES in order to access the data
START: Start date as a character string “YYYYMMDD” with no spaces. Default: “20201101”
FINISH: Last date as a character string “YYYYMMDD” with no spaces. Default: “20201231”
FORMAT: of data file required. While this function was originally constructed to obtain apsim format, other formats are now available but not as tested. rainman is not included since it returns six separate files. See https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/silo/about/file-formats-and-samples/ Default: “apsim”
PASSWORD: Default: “apitest”
extras: A list containing variable names and values for extra columns. Note that the new variable(s) will have the same value. Default: NULL
URL: is the URL for querying the website and probably will not need to be changed. Default: “https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/DataDrillDataset.php”

Details

When extrais specified, then extra columns which could for instance include the site name are added to each row for later calculations. This can also be employed in a loop using for() loops or a tidyverse approach, such as purrrlyr::by_row() in order to manipulate data by site.

Examples

Run this code

if (FALSE) {
## Example 1: Replace MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS with your email address below
##            Latitude and Longitude character strings
boonah_data <-
  get_silodata(latitude = "-27.9927", longitude = "152.6906",
               email = "MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS",
               START = "20190101", FINISH = "20200531")
## Example 2: Replace MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS below with yours - adds extra column
##            Latitude and Longitude are numeric
boonah_data2 <-
  get_silodata(latitude = -27.9927, longitude = 152.6906,
               email = "MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS",
               START = "20190101", FINISH = "20200531",
               extras = list(Sitename = "Boonah"))
## Example 3: Replace MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS below with yours - adds extra column
##            Latitude and Longitude are numeric.
##            Retreives all Morton hydrological evapotranspirations
boonah_data3 <-
  get_silodata(latitude = -27.9927, longitude = 152.6906,
               email = "MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS", FORMAT  =  "allmort",
               START = "20190101", FINISH = "20190115",
               extras = list(Sitename = "Boonah"))
## Example 4: Replace MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS below with yours - adds extra column
##            Latitude and Longitude are numeric. Retreives two months of
##            total rainfall and evaporation and means for max/min
##            temperatures, solar radiation and vapour pressure
boonah_data4 <-
  get_silodata(latitude = -27.9927, longitude = 152.6906,
               email = "drpetebaker@gmail.com", FORMAT = "monthly",
               START = "20190101", FINISH = "20190228",
               extras = list(Sitename = "Boonah"))
}