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NovaStar Data / Stations

NovaStar uses the term "stations" to refer to a location where data are collected. This is equivalent to the term "site" that may be used in other systems. Stations can be physical or virtual and do not need to be a point in space. For a physical station, the station typically has some type of transmitter or modem for data access. Stations can, for example, be used to collect data for:

  • precipitation station or other weather station
  • stream gage
  • an ALERT or other standard station type that typically uses a bundle of standard sensor types
  • a hardware component such as a computer, transmitter, concentrator, etc.
  • a basin or other non-point spatial entity
  • a forecast point
  • a point where data are imported from another system
  • a virtual location, such as for a computed value

The term "station identifier" typically means the NovaStar numerical identifier for a station (stationNumId). A more general "location identifier" (locId) is used in some tools to emphasized a generalized identifier and is necessary where a station numerical identifier does not ensure a unique identifier. For example, the tscatalog and ts services use a location identifier to uniquely identify time series.

Stations have data properties such as name and description, which are available in web services, as well as properties needed by the data collection and management system, such as communication configuration data.

Although it is tempting to try to categorize stations into "types", such as "weather station" or "ALERT station", in reality categories tend to overlap. For example, a station might be a "reservoir", "ALERT", and "forecast" station. Consequently, it is often necessary to categorize stations by considering the data collected at the station, and allow a station to belong to multiple categories.

The following are important data relationships:

  • Points (sensors) are associated with a station. See the Points documentation.