A user's guide to the PC-based time-series data-management and plotting program BOB
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Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.
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Users guide for the Water Resources Division bibliographic retrieval and report generation system
The WRDBIB Retrieval and Report-generation system has been developed by applying Multitrieve (CSD 1980, Reston) software to bibliographic data files. The WRDBIB data base includes some 9 ,000 records containing bibliographic citations and descriptors of WRD reports released for publication during 1968-1982. The data base is resident in the Reston Multics computer and may be accessed by registered Multics users in the field. The WRDBIB Users Guide provides detailed procedures on how to run retrieval programs using WRDBIB library files, and how to prepare custom bibliographic reports and author indexes. Users may search the WRDBIB data base on the following variable fields as described in the Data Dictionary: Authors, organizational source, title, citation, publication year, descriptors, and the WRSIC (accession) number. The Users Guide provides ample examples of program runs illustrating various retrieval and report generation aspects. Appendices include Multics access and file manipulation procedures; a ' Glossary of Selected Terms'; and a complete ' Retrieval Session ' with step-by-step outlines. (USGS)
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WATSTORE user's guide; Volume 7, Water-use file; Chapter II, National aggregated data base
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User's Guide for the Decision Support System for Map Projections of Small Scale Data, Version 2.0
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User's guide to QPLOT, an interactive computer plotting program for earthquake and geophysical data
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User's Guide, software for reduction and analysis of daily weather and surface-water data: Tools for time series analysis of precipitation, temperature, and streamflow data
The software described here is used to process and analyze daily weather and surface-water data. The programs are refinements of earlier versions that include minor corrections and routines to calculate frequencies above a threshold on an annual or seasonal basis. Earlier versions of this software were used successfully to analyze historical precipitation patterns of the Mojave Desert and the southern Colorado Plateau regions, ecosystem response to climate variation, and variation of sediment-runoff frequency related to climate (Hereford and others, 2003; 2004; in press; Griffiths and others, 2006). The main program described here (Day_Cli_Ann_v5.3) uses daily data to develop a time series of various statistics for a user specified accounting period such as a year or season. The statistics include averages and totals, but the emphasis is on the frequency of occurrence in days of relatively rare weather or runoff events. These statistics are indices of climate variation; for a discussion of climate indices, see the Climate Research Unit website of the University of East Anglia (http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/projects/stardex/) and the Climate Change Indices web site (http://cccma.seos.uvic.ca/ETCCDMI/indices.html). Specifically, the indices computed with this software are the frequency of high intensity 24-hour rainfall, unusually warm temperature, and unusually high runoff. These rare, or extreme events, are those greater than the 90th percentile of precipitation, streamflow, or temperature computed for the period of record of weather or gaging stations. If they cluster in time over several decades, extreme events may produce detectable change in the physical landscape and ecosystem of a given region. Although the software has been tested on a variety of data, as with any software, the user should carefully evaluate the results with their data. The programs were designed for the range of precipitation, temperature, and streamflow measurements expected in the semiarid Southwest United States. The user is encouraged to review the examples provided with the software. The software is written in Fortran 90 with Fortran 95 extensions and was compiled with the Digital Visual Fortran compiler version 6.6. The executables run on Windows 2000 and XP, and they operate in a MS-DOS console window that has only very simple graphical options such as font size and color, background color, and size of the window. Error trapping was not written into the programs. Typically, when an error occurs, the console window closes without a message.
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User's guide to SELECT, an interactive VAX computer program for building subsets of earthquake summary data
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Stream Stability and Scour Assessments at Bridges in Massachusetts
In 1989, the Federal Highway Administration mandated that every state establish a program to evaluate the vulnerability to floods of all bridges over water. The Massachusetts Highway Department entered into a cooperative effort with the U.S. Geological Survey to comply with this mandate. Geomorphic and hydraulic characteristics were collected and were used to assess the processes that affect stream stability and current scour problems and potential near 2,361 bridge sites in Massachusetts. As a result of these assessments, the Massachusetts Highway Department will prioritize the bridge inventory for action regarding scour safety. A data base was prepared that includes the geomorphic and hydraulic data collected during field assessments. In addition to the data base, this report includes the historical development of the bridge scour program, the methods used for data collection during assessments, the methods used for quality assurance and quality control, and how the data base was digitally formatted to be presented on a CD-ROM. A user's guide provides assistance in the use of this electronic data base and report.
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Usage and administration manual for a geodatabase compendium of water-resources data: Rio Grande Basin from the Rio Arriba-Sandoval County line, New Mexico, to Presidio, Texas, 1889-2009
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, developed a geodatabase compendium (hereinafter referred to as the 'geodatabase') of available water-resources data for the reach of the Rio Grande from Rio Arriba-Sandoval County line, New Mexico, to Presidio, Texas. Since 1889, a wealth of water-resources data has been collected in the Rio Grande Basin from Rio Arriba-Sandoval County line, New Mexico, to Presidio, Texas, for a variety of purposes. Collecting agencies, researchers, and organizations have included the U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Reclamation, International Boundary and Water Commission, State agencies, irrigation districts, municipal water utilities, universities, and other entities. About 1,750 data records were recently (2010) evaluated to enhance their usability by compiling them into a single geospatial relational database (geodatabase). This report is intended as a user's manual and administration guide for the geodatabase. All data available, including water quality, water level, and discharge data (both instantaneous and daily) from January 1, 1889, through December 17, 2009, were compiled for the study area. A flexible and efficient geodatabase design was used, enhancing the ability of the geodatabase to handle data from diverse sources and helping to ensure sustainability of the geodatabase with long-term maintenance. Geodatabase tables include daily data values, site locations and information, sample event information, and parameters, as well as data sources and collecting agencies. The end products of this effort are a comprehensive water-resources geodatabase that enables the visualization of primary sampling sites for surface discharges, groundwater elevations, and water-quality and associated data for the study area. In addition, repeatable data processing scripts, Structured Query Language queries for loading prepared data sources, and a detailed process for refreshing all data in the compendium have been developed. The geodatabase functionality allows users to explore spatial characteristics of the data, conduct spatial analyses, and pose questions to the geodatabase in the form of queries. Users can also customize and extend the geodatabase, combine it with other databases, or use the geodatabase design for other water-resources applications.
New Mexico, Texas↗
Elevation Difference and Bouguer Anomaly Analysis Tool (EDBAAT) User's Guide
This report describes a software tool that imports gravity anomaly point data from the Gravity Database of the United States (GDUS) of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and University of Texas at El Paso along with elevation data from The National Map (TNM) of the U.S. Geological Survey that lie within a user-specified geographic area of interest. Further, the tool integrates these two sets of data spatially and analyzes the consistency of the elevation of each gravity station from the GDUS with TNM elevation data; it also evaluates the consistency of gravity anomaly data within the GDUS data repository. The tool bins the GDUS data based on user-defined criteria of elevation misfit between the GDUS and TNM elevation data. It also provides users with a list of points from the GDUS data, which have Bouguer anomaly values that are considered outliers (two standard deviations or greater) with respect to other nearby GDUS anomaly data. “Nearby” can be defined by the user at time of execution. These outputs should allow users to quickly and efficiently choose which points from the GDUS would be most useful in reconnaissance studies or in augmenting and extending the range of individual gravity studies.
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DESI-Detection of early-season invasives (software-installation manual and user's guide version 1.0)
This report describes a software system for detecting early-season invasive plant species, such as cheatgrass. The report includes instructions for installing the software and serves as a user's guide in processing Landsat satellite remote sensing data to map the distributions of cheatgrass and other early-season invasive plants. The software was developed for application to the semi-arid regions of southern Utah; however, the detection parameters can be altered by the user for application to other areas.
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Documentation and user's guide for interactive spectral analysis and filter program package useful in the processing of seismic reflection data
The spectral analysis and filter program package is written in the BASIC language for the HP-9845T desktop computer. The program's main purpose is to perform spectral analyses on digitized time-domain data. In addition, band-pass filtering of the data can be performed in the time domain. Various other processes such as autocorrelation can be performed to the time domain data in order to precondition them for spectral analyses. The frequency domain data can also be transformed back into the time domain if desired. Any data can be displayed on the CRT in graphic form using a variety of plot routines. A hard copy can be obtained immediately using the internal thermal printer. Data can also be displayed in tabular form on the CRT or internal thermal printer or it can be stored permanently on a mass storage device like a tape or disk. A list of the processes performed in the order in which they occurred can be displayed at any time.
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Nonparametric tests for trends in water-quality data using the statistical analysis system
Two nonparametric procedures to test for trends in water-quality data (SEASKEN AND SEASRS) have been developed for the Statistical Analysis System* (SAS). The procedure SEASKEN tests for a monotonic trend in time by a modified form of Kendall's tau, the Seasonal Kendall test. The procedure SEASRS tests for a step trend between two different periods in a time series using a modified form of the Wilcoxon (Mann-Whitney) rank sum test, the Mann-WhitneyWilcoxon rank sum test for seasonal data. Examples are presented using the two procedures. The source code and user's guide for each of the two procedures are also presented. Procedures for flow adjusting water-quality data by the SAS procedures REG and SYSREG and techniques for plotting water-quality data as a time series by the SAS procedure PLOT are presented. Additionally, examples are presented to demonstrate the use of the U.S. Geological Survey procedures QWRETR, DVRETR, QWSAS, and DVINPUT to retrieve data from the Geological Survey WATSTORE system and make it available to SAS.
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GP Workbench Manual: Technical Manual, User's Guide, and Software Guide
GP Workbench is an open-source general-purpose geophysical data processing software package written primarily for ground penetrating radar (GPR) data. It also includes support for several USGS prototype electromagnetic instruments such as the VETEM and ALLTEM. The two main programs in the package are GP Workbench and GP Wave Utilities. GP Workbench has routines for filtering, gridding, and migrating GPR data; as well as an inversion routine for characterizing UXO (unexploded ordinance) using ALLTEM data. GP Workbench provides two-dimensional (section view) and three-dimensional (plan view or time slice view) processing for GPR data. GP Workbench can produce high-quality graphics for reports when Surfer 8 or higher (Golden Software) is installed. GP Wave Utilities provides a wide range of processing algorithms for single waveforms, such as filtering, correlation, deconvolution, and calculating GPR waveforms. GP Wave Utilities is used primarily for calibrating radar systems and processing individual traces. Both programs also contain research features related to the calibration of GPR systems and calculating subsurface waveforms. The software is written to run on the Windows operating systems. GP Workbench can import GPR data file formats used by major commercial instrument manufacturers including Sensors and Software, GSSI, and Mala. The GP Workbench native file format is SU (Seismic Unix), and subsequently, files generated by GP Workbench can be read by Seismic Unix as well as many other data processing packages.
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User's guide for the national hydrography dataset plus (NHDPlus) high resolution
The National Hydrography Dataset Plus High Resolution (NHDPlus HR) is a scalable geospatial hydrography framework built from the High Resolution (1:24,000-scale or better) National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), nationally complete Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD), and ⅓-arc-second (10-meter ground spacing) 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) digital elevation model (DEM) data. The NHDPlus HR brings modeling and assessment to a local neighborhood level while nesting seamlessly into the national context. NHDPlus HR is modeled after the highly successful NHDPlus version 2 (NHDPlus V2). Like the NHDPlus V2, the NHDPlus HR includes data for a nationally seamless network of stream reaches, elevation-based catchment areas, flow surfaces, and value-added attributes that enhance stream-network navigation, analysis, and data display. Users will find that the NHDPlus HR, however, provides much greater detail. This User’s Guide is intended to provide necessary information and guidance in the use of NHDPlus HR data.
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Users' manual and installation guide for the EverVIEW Slice and Dice Tool (Version 1.0 Beta)
Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) is a self-describing, machine-independent file format for storing array-oriented scientific data. Over the past few years, there has been a growing movement within the community of natural resource managers in The Everglades, Fla., to use NetCDF as the standard data container for datasets based on multidimensional arrays. As a consequence, a need arose for additional tools to view and manipulate NetCDF datasets, specifically to create subsets of large NetCDF files. To address this need, we created the EverVIEW Slice and Dice Tool to allow users to create subsets of grid-based NetCDF files. The major functions of this tool are (1) to subset NetCDF files both spatially and temporally; (2) to view the NetCDF data in table form; and (3) to export filtered data to a comma-separated value file format.
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User's guide for polyethylene-based passive diffusion bag samplers to obtain volatile organic compound concentrations in wells. Part I, Deployment, recovery, data interpretation, and quality control and assurance
Diffusion samplers installed in observation wells were found to be capable of yielding representative water samples for chlorinated volatile organic compounds. The samplers consisted of polyethylene bags containing deionized water and relied on diffusion of chlorinated volatile organic compounds through the polyethylene membrane. The known ability of polyethylene to transmit other volatile compounds, such as benzene and toluene, indicates that the samplers can be used for a variety of volatile organic compounds. In wells at the study area, the volatile organic compound concentrations in water samples obtained using the samplers without prior purging were similar to concentrations in water samples obtained from the respective wells using traditional purging and sampling approaches. The low cost associated with this approach makes it a viable option for monitoring large observation-well networks for volatile organic compounds.
Water-Resources Investigations Report↗
Adaptation and Response in Drylands (ARID): Community insights for scoping a NASA terrestrial ecology field campaign in drylands
Dryland ecosystems cover 40% of our planet's land surface, support billions of people, and are responding rapidly to climate and land use change. These expansive systems also dominate core aspects of Earth's climate, storing and exchanging vast amounts of water, carbon, and energy with the atmosphere. Despite their indispensable ecosystem services and high vulnerability to change, drylands are one of the least understood ecosystem types, partly due to challenges studying their heterogeneous landscapes and misconceptions that drylands are unproductive “wastelands.” Consequently, inadequate understanding of dryland processes has resulted in poor model representation and forecasting capacity, hindering decision making for these at-risk ecosystems. NASA satellite resources are increasingly available at the higher resolutions needed to enhance understanding of drylands' heterogeneous spatiotemporal dynamics. NASA's Terrestrial Ecology Program solicited proposals for scoping a multi-year field campaign, of which Adaptation and Response in Drylands (ARID) was one of two scoping studies selected. A primary goal of the scoping study is to gather input from the scientific and data end-user communities on dryland research gaps and data user needs. Here, we provide an overview of the ARID team's community engagement and how it has guided development of our framework. This includes an ARID kickoff meeting with over 300 participants held in October 2023 at the University of Arizona to gather input from data end-users and scientists. We also summarize insights gained from hundreds of follow-up activities, including from a tribal-engagement focused workshop in New Mexico, conference town halls, intensive roundtables, and international engagements.
Earth's Future↗