Continuous measurement of rainfall (2010-2015) [Wensum DTC]

The Wensum DTC has a monitoring network installed to measure meteorological, hydrological and hydrochemical parameters in target sub-catchments. This statement aims to describe the in-situ monitoring equipment, methods and protocols performed on our data before it is published on the archive. Quality assurance and quality control procedures Quality assurance (QA) procedures are followed during data collection, detailed with our monitoring equipment. Regular maintenance activities are carried out at a weekly frequency and involve cleaning of flow-through cells, clearing of in-channel vegetation and debris where stage is monitored and cleaning of rain gauges. All field work and maintenance activities are entered into maintenance logs for each site, which are used during data quality control (QC) procedures. QC procedures include the validation of high-frequency nutrient data using point samples in the Blackwater sub catchment. These samples are analysed in laboratories following standard methods. Inter-laboratory comparisons are used to check consistency in analytical procedures between sub-catchments. QC procedures also include the identification of errors in all data sets. Errors flagged as critical include: periods of maintenance when data may be unrepresentative; equipment of power failures; or data below limits of detection. On-site visits by field staff are recorded in a maintenance log which is checked against the data during the quality control (QC) post-processing. Any data likely to be disturbed by the routine field work are removed, along with any known periods of downtime, hence some of the data is not included and there may be time breaks in the files accessible on the archive. The Wensum DTC’s weather station data has been corrected for issues predominantly associated with the anemometer, hence some of the data is not included and there may be time breaks in the files accessible on the archive. Rain gauge data on the archive contains a quality check to ensure that the data has been matched with other rain gauge measurements, ensuring its validity. This and other periods of downtime are shown by a potential error associated with each measurement at an hourly resolution.