Project supported by the European Commission as part of the 5th Framework Programme European UV Database Database located at Finnish Metereological Institute
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Help
General Information
General Info
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Site list
Data Submission
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Search
Your Folder
Your Folder
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Your Profile
Contact
Contact
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Accessing the European UV Database

A guide to the Web-Page Interface
The European UV Database (EUVDB) holds spectral and non-spectral UV radiation data collected from measurement sites across Europe. The facilities provided in this web-page interface (WPI) can be used to display information about the contents of the database, the measurement sites and instruments, and to retrieve data from the database and submit new data to the database.
Below you can find information about each item in the navigation bar, and more general information on how to retrieve data from and submit data to the database.
You can also read the task list of the database administration.
| Help | General Info | Site List | Submission | Search | Your Folder | Your Profile | Contact | Logout |
FAQ How do I submit data?
How do I discover what data are available?
How do I retrieve spectral data?
Why can I not view my data through the web-page interface?
How do I change my password?
Where can I find more documentation?
Help Displays these help pages (top)
General Info Displays a list of all the measurement stations included in the database.

The country and total number of spectra available from each station are also shown.

Click on the station name to see information about the location, responsible organisation, instruments and a summary of the spectral data available tabulated by year and month.
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Site List Displays a list of all organisations that have submitted data to the database.

Click on the organisation name to view information about the organisation, including responsible scientist, postal address and a list of measurement stations maintained by the organisation.
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Submission This page provides tools for the registration of new station/instrument/year combinations, for checking the syntax of data files prior to submission, and for the actual submission of data to the database. Step-by-step instructions are given at this page. See also the FAQ 'how do I submit data'. (top)
Search Displays selection options used to retrieve spectral and non-spectral UV radiation data from the database.

UV data may be selected according to location, type of measurement, solar zenith angle or time, and date.

There are 5 steps in the data selection process:

1. Select stations - Select one or more measurement sites
2. Select instruments - For each measurement site selected, choose one or more instruments
3. Select auxiliary data - [NOT YET AVAILABLE]
For each measurement site selected, choose auxiliary data such as ozone column, cloud amount
4. Select SZA/time & date - All data from the selected measurement sites and instruments can be constrained by either solar zenith angle or time of measurement.

Finally, a date range can be applied.
5. Select output format - All selection criteria are shown.

For spectral data, choose the output columns required

Choose the output format, and the maximum number of spectra to retrive for each instrument.

Once step 5 is completed, click on "query the database" and the selection request will be placed in a queue. An information page is displayed, which shows all selection criteria and the position of the selection request in the queue. If the selection request is at the top of the queue, the number of spectra found and retrieved is also shown. Refresh the queue details to update this information. The details of the current selection requests are also available in your folder.

The data retrieval process may take some minutes.

All the data retrieved from the database according to the selection criteria defined in steps 1 to 4 are written to an ASCII file as comma separated values. These data files are stored in your personal folder.

Retrieved data files can be viewed and downloaded from your folder.
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Your Folder Displays list of retrieved data files.

All data extracted from the database (see Search) are stored in a compressed ASCII file as comma-separated values. These data files are held in your personal folder, and can be downloaded from here.

To view the contents of a data file, left-click on the filename.

To download a data file, right-click on the filename and choose "Save Target As...".

To save disk space at the FMI server, please remember to delete data files from your personal folder when they are no longer required.
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Your Profile Displays information about you and your account.

Your password can be changed here.

Click on "Edit Your Profile" to change password and other details.
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Contact Displays contact details for the database administrator, the EDUCE scientific secretary, and the database designer. (top)
Logout Logout from the web-page interface to the database.

Data retrieval requests held in the queue will still be executed.

Retrieved data files stored in your personal folder will not be deleted, and may be downloaded at a later date.
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How do I discover what data are available?
A. To view the number of spectra currently available for download via the WPI, select General Info on the navigation bar and then click on the site of interest. The number of spectra available are tabulated by month and year.
B. To see a more detailed breakdown of data submitted to the database, go to the EDUCE web site, and follow links for European UV Database and then Database Reports. Here there are detailed reports and a summary of data submitted, which are updated every 6 months.
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How do I retrieve spectral data?
Click on Search in the navigation bar.

Data can be selected according to measuring site, instrument, either the solar zenith angle or time of measurement, and the date of measurement.

See help on Search for more information. See also the database reports at the EDUCE web page.
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How do I submit data?
The submission of data to the European UV Database is a 5-stage process.

Steps 1 to 4 are executed from the submission page of the WPI.

0. First prepare your data.

Refer to the Short and Friendly Guide (S&FG) for the preparation of spectral irradiance data in Flexstor format. This document can be retrieved from the EDUCE web pages, and contains examples of spectral data files in Flexstor format.

It is recommended (although not essential) that all spectral data from one day are included in a single file.
1. The second step is to register every station/instrument/year combination.

Whenever data are to be submitted for a new year, new instrument or new station, the station/instrument/year combination must first be registered. The registration need only be done once for each unique combination. (The registration process creates a new directory in the Flexstor file tree; see the Suvdama Data Storage Document for more details).

The submission page lists all existing station/instrument/year triplets.
2. Next, check the Flexstor syntax of one or more data files.

From the submission page of the WPI, upload a data file and then use the 'flxcheck' application to verify the syntax of the Flexstor format.

If the syntax check is completed without errors, proceed to stage 3.
3. Next, check that data are successfully uploaded to the Oracle database.

Submit a small number of data files (data for one week or one month, say) to the database from the submission page of the WPI.

At this point, the files are submitted to the Flexstor file tree.

A second, automatic, process will transfer the data to the Oracle database. This transfer should be completed overnight. Only data held in the Oracle database will be viewable through the web-page interface (WPI).

Wait until the following day, then check that the submitted data can be viewed and retrieved using the facilities provided by the search page of the WPI. If your data have not appeared, check once again that the syntax of the data files is as described in the S&FG. If the cause of the difficulty is not clear, please contact user support at user-support@uv.fmi.fi.

If the data appear correctly in the WPI, proceed to the final stage.
4. Finally, submit all data files to the database.

Multiple files may be zipped and uploaded in one go (do not include any directories). It is recommended (although not essential) that all spectral data from one day are included in a single file.

At this point, the files are submitted to the Flexstor file tree.

A second, automatic, process then transfers the data to the Oracle database. This transfer will generally take place overnight. In exceptional circumstances, it may not be completed for a day or two. Once the data have been successfully transferred to the Oracle database, they may be viewed and retrieved using the facilities provided by the Web-Page Interface to the database. FMI undertake to inform data submitters if for any reason the transfer of data to the Oracle database is unsuccessful. But if your data have not appeared in the WPI after 1 week, please contact user support at user-support@uv.fmi.fi.
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Why can I not view my data through the web-page interface?
Only data that are held in the Oracle database are viewable through the web-page interface.

The transfer of data to the Oracle database is a 2-stage process. In the first step, data are inserted into the Flexstor file tree. In the second step, data are transferred to the Oracle database. The transfer of data to the Oracle database may take one or two days to complete.

FMI undertake to inform data submitters if for any reason the transfer of data to the Oracle database is unsuccessful. But if your data have not appeared in the WPI after 1 week, please contact user support at user-support@uv.fmi.fi

Note: The automatic check on the syntax of data files, made using the 'flxcheck' routine, considers only the Flexstor format. The Flexstor format checking does not guarantee a successful upload to the Oracle database. A data file in the correct Flexstor format may still fail to be transferred to the Oracle database.

Details of valid data formats, including restrictions imposed by both the Flexstor syntax and the Oracle database structure, may be found in the Short and Friendly Guide (see the FAQ, "Where can I find more documentation").
 
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How do I change my password?
Select Your Profile from the navigation bar.
Click on "Edit Your Profile" at the bottom of the page.
Enter new password in the box provided, and repeat in the box below.
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Where can I find more documentation?
Go to the EDUCE web pages and follow links for 'Database' and 'Documentation'.

Here you will find a Short and Friendly Guide (S&FG) to the preparation of spectral irradiance data in Flexstor format in preparation for submission to the database.

You will also find the Suvdama Data Storage Document, which is the definitive guide to the Flexstor format for the European UV Database.
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This page was last modified on: Thursday 31-Oct-2002

 

Copyright 2000 EDUCE. Contacts: for Scientific matters, for Database Aministration.