FGDL Documentation

FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY DOCUMENTATION
VERSION 2006

TITLE: HISTORICAL NORTH ATLANTIC TROPICAL CYCLONE TRACKS

Geodataset Name:      TROPC
Geodataset Type:      SHAPE
Geodataset Feature:   LINE

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

This dataset contains the 6-hourly (0000, 0600, 1200, 1800 UTC) center locations 
and intensities for all subtropical depressions and storms, tropical depressions 
and storms, and all hurricanes, from 1851 through 2000.

DATA SOURCE(S):  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 
                 National Hurricane Center.
SCALE OF ORIGINAL SOURCE MAPS:    1: 2,000,000
DATE OF AUTOMATION OR SOURCE:     2001
GEODATASET EXTENT:                State of Florida

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES:

Datafile Name: TROPC.DBF

ITEM NAME    WIDTH     TYPE	   PRECISION
SHAPE		9      SHAPELINE       0
LENGTH         15      DECIMAL         3
NAME           12      CHARACTER       -
BTID            1      NUMBER          0
DATE            -      DATE            -
WINDSPEED1     11      NUMBER          0
PRESSURE1      11      NUMBER          0
LANDFALL        8      CHARACTER       -
WINDS_MPH       8      NUMBER          0
CATEGORY        6      CHARACTER       -
DESCRIPT       50      CHARACTER       -

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES CODES AND VALUES:

ITEM          ITEM DESCRIPTION

SHAPE         Data attribute inherent to the ESRI shapefile format, which defines 
	      the data as a point, polyline, or polygon.  

LENGTH        Length of perimeter in meters 

NAME          The given name of a storm

BTID          The unique event identifier

DATE          The year, month and day of the storm advisory, in the format yyyymmdd

WINDSPEED1    The measured or estimated windspeed at the time of the advisory, in 
              whole knots

PRESSURE1     The measured or estimated barometric pressure at the time of the 
              advisory, in millibars

Landfall      Whether the storm made landfall or not

Winds_mph     The measured or estimated windspeed at the time of the advisory

Category      The intensity classification of the storm

Descript      FGDL added descript item based on Name

USER NOTES:

This data set includes all known Atlantic Basin (Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and 
North Atlantic Ocean) tropical cyclones between 1851 and 2000.  The  term tropical 
cyclone as used here refers to subtropical depressions and storms, tropical 
depressions and storms, and all categories of hurricanes from category 1 to 
category 5.

Over-water portions of storm tracks before 1944 are subject to considerable 
uncertainties.  Aircraft reconnaissance of storms near critical areas was 
introduced in 1944, and continuous weather satellite surveillance was introduced in 
the mid-1960's.  These two developments mean that more recent storm records have a 
higher degree of accuracy than those prior to 1944.
For more information on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, please see 
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshs.html.

For more information on tropical cyclone advisories, please see 
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW/day4/forecast_products.htm.

Advisories are issued for storms that have attained at least tropical depression 
status, and are issued every 6 hours, at 0000, 0600, 1200, and 1800 hours.  
Advisories are discontinued once a storm makes landfall and all storm warnings are 
dropped, or when the wind speed drops below 30 knots or 35 mph.

These data are intended for geographic display and analysis at the national level, 
and for large regional areas.  The data should be displayed and analyzed at scales 
appropriate for 1:2,000,000-scale data.  No responsibility is assumed by the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the U.S. Geological Survey in 
the use of these data.

Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale datasets are not suitable 
for some project, analysis, or modeling purposes. Please be sure you are using the 
best available data. 

1:24000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the county level. 
1:24000 data should NOT be used for high accuracy base mapping such as property 
parcel boundaries. 

1:100000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the multi-county 
or regional level. 

1:250000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the regional or 
state level or larger. 

Vector datasets with no defined scale or accuracy should be considered suspect. 
Make sure you are familiar with your data before using it for projects or analyses. 
Every effort has been made to supply the user with data documentation. For 
additional information, see the References section and the Data Source Contact 
section of this documentation. For more information regarding scale and accuracy, 
see our web pages at: 

http://www.geoplan.ufl.edu/education.html

FGDL QUALITY ASSURANCE STATUS:


-Reprojected data to FGDL Albers HPGN (See "Map Projection Parameters" below)
-Upcased all character records
-Clipped to the State of Florida
-Name changed from 'hurmjrl020' to 'tropc'
-DESCRIPT item added based on Name
-Dropped old internal coverage items: HURALL020

REFERENCES:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 
National Hurricane Center

DATA LINEAGE SUMMARY:

This data was originally released by U.S. Geological Survey in 2001. It was 
downloaded by the GeoPlan Center in shapefile format from the National Atlas website: 
http://nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html.  When received, data was in Geographic 
projection, Datum: NAD83, Spheroid: GRS1980, Units: Decimal degrees. The data was 
clipped to State of Florida and reprojected to FGDL Albers HPGN. The dataset name was 
changed from hurmjrl020 to tropc, the DESCRIPT item was added based on Name, lowercase 
characters within the attribute table were upcased, and the internal coverage items 
were dropped.

MAP PROJECTION PARAMETERS:

 
Projection                           ALBERS
Units                                METERS
Datum                                HPGN
Spheroid                             GRS1980
1st standard parallel                24   0  0.000
2nd standard parallel                31  30  0.000
central meridian                    -84   0  0.000
latitude of projection's origin      24   0  0.000 
false easting (meters)               400000.00000
false northing (meters)              0.00000

DATA SOURCES CONTACT(S):

Name:      NOAA Coastal Services Center			 
Abbr.name: NOAA		
Address:   2234 South Hobson Avenue  Charleston, SC 29405-2413			
Phone:     843-740-1200			
Fax:       843-740-1315			
Web site:  http://nationalatlas.gov/
Ftp site:  http://nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp.html		                 
Email:     clearinghouse@csc.noaa.gov

FGDL CONTACT:

Name:                    Florida Geographic Data Library
Abbr. Name:              FGDL
Address:                 Florida Geographic Data Library
                         431 Architecture
                         PO Box 115706
                         Gainesville, FL  32611-5706
Web site:                http://www.fgdl.org
Contact FGDL:
      Technical Support:                http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfeed.html
      FGDL Frequently Asked Questions:  http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfaq.html
      FGDL Mailing Lists:               http://www.fgdl.org/fgdl-l.html
      For FGDL Software:                http://www.fgdl.org/software.html