ClimaNevada: Climatic database of the Sierra Nevada Global Change observatory

Abstract

Having a good climate characterization is a key aspect for monitoring the effects of global change, particularly in mountain environments. However, climate data for many mountain areas come from very heterogeneous and dispersed sources, which makes accessing and downloading these data an arduous and tedious task. In this work we present ClimaNevada, a robust database of climate information, which harmonizes, documents and integrates climate data from weather stations and sensors from and around Sierra Nevada. We have developed a platform that brings together all the information and allows the downloading of data in a simple way and following the Open Access philosophy. We also present a case study in which a set of homogeneous data series is generated from ClimaNevada, to evaluate temporal trends of precipitation in Sierra Nevada.