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March 2011

Water Web Services - (waterservices.usgs.gov)

  • New Beta Site Service - A "beta" quality site web service is available for use. This service provides information about hundreds of thousands of water sites, both current and historical, maintained by the USGS or its cooperators. Users are reminded that beta services may occasionally experience operational issues. The service is accurate and stable, however not all features have yet been implemented. The service allows multiple site retrievals using a number of filters. USGS RDB (tab-delimited), Google Maps, Google Earth and a USGS Mapper output formats are supported. A full site service is expected to be available in July 2011. Service details including a test tool are available on the USGS Water Web Services web site.

  • Instantaneous Values Web Service Bug Fixes
    • A Standard Time bug was fixed. Not all sites were accurately reporting measurement changes when the modifiedSince values were less than two hours. This happened due to incorrect logic when sites moving from daylight savings time to standard time. This bug has been fixed.
    • Email address shown in HTTP 503 error pages is now correct
    • timeSeries tag is now always closed for WaterML output. This bug occurred when no sites were found matching the request.
    • Instantaneous Values that have been approved by a USGS Water Science Center will now reflect that approval with a qualifier code of 'A' for Approved. Previously all values were shows as 'P' for provisional.

  • New Instantaneous Values Web Service Bugs
    • The Javascript Object Notation (JSON) format for this service has a previously undiscovered limitation. The JSON format offered by the Instantaneous Values service may not work with browser based applications. Instead, an intermediate proxy may be needed. This problem is due to browsers not trusting JSON content that is not acquired by the server presenting the web page. A JSONP version of this format is planned for a future release that will remove this limitation.

  • The interim site service now allows for an optional agency code.

  • A product showcase highlighting products or sites that use USGS water services is now available.


USGS Water Data for the Nation (waterdata.usgs.gov)

  • Groundwater discrete values are now output with continuous time-series groundwater values on all tables and tab-separated outputs.  The help system has been updated to reflect this new functionality.
  • Improved logic for properly converting field water-level measurements datums to the secondary axis for instantaneous groundwater levels values.
  • The time datum (time zone) has been added to display of surface-water field measurements . The time datum column is set to "blank/null" for RDB outputs and set to "--" for web pages if there is no time of measurement provided. See the updated Help system describing the updated output format.
  • Data aging code now included in the instantaneous value rdb output
    • Example: Previous Instantaneous values RDB tab-separated output format.
      • # //UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY       http://water.usgs.gov/ 
        # //NATIONAL WATER INFORMATION SYSTEM     http://water.usgs.gov/data.html 
        # //DATA ARE PROVISIONAL AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE UNTIL PUBLISHED BY USGS 
        # 
        # combined nwts2rdb file for uv data 
        # 
        #   combined : 2011-03-18 12:08:43 MDT 
        # 
        #   nwts2rdb range : 2011-03-17 00:00:00  2011-03-19 23:59:59
        # 
        # NAMES: agency site_no dd_nu   parameter_cd    result_dt       result_tz_cd    result_va       precision       result_cd       data_aging_cd
        # FORMATS: 4s   15s     2s      5s      15s     6s      16n     1s      15s     1s
        # CACHE: USGS   05017500        01      00060   201103181115    MDT     287     3               W
        # CACHE: USGS   05017500        03      00065   201103181115    MDT     2.07    3               W
        # 
        # 
        #  site_no: 05017500
        # 
        datetime        tz_cd   p01_00060       c01_00060       p03_00065       c03_00065
        14s     6s      12s     4s      12s     4s
        201103170000    MDT     210     e      1.90    
        201103170015    MDT     215            1.91    
        201103170030    MDT     210     e      1.90    
        201103170045    MDT     215     e      9.91    H
        201103170100    MDT     210     e      9.90    H
        201103170115    MDT     220     e      1.92    
        201103170130    MDT     215     e      1.91    
        
        
    • Example: New Instantaneous values RDB tab-separated output format.
      • # //UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY       http://water.usgs.gov/ 
        # //NATIONAL WATER INFORMATION SYSTEM     http://water.usgs.gov/data.html 
        # //DATA ARE PROVISIONAL AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE UNTIL PUBLISHED BY USGS 
        # 
        # combined nwts2rdb file for uv data 
        # 
        #   combined : 2011-03-18 12:08:43 MDT 
        # 
        #   nwts2rdb range : 2011-03-17 00:00:00  2011-03-19 23:59:59
        # 
        # NAMES: agency site_no dd_nu   parameter_cd    result_dt       result_tz_cd    result_va       precision       result_cd       data_aging_cd
        # FORMATS: 4s   15s     2s      5s      15s     6s      16n     1s      15s     1s
        # CACHE: USGS   05017500        01      00060   201103181115    MDT     287     3               W
        # CACHE: USGS   05017500        03      00065   201103181115    MDT     2.07    3               W
        # 
        # 
        #  site_no: 05017500
        # 
        datetime        tz_cd   p01_00060       c01_00060       p03_00065       c03_00065
        14s     6s      12s     4s      12s     4s
        201103170000    MDT     210     W,e      1.90    W,
        201103170015    MDT     215     W,       1.91    W,
        201103170030    MDT     210     W,e      1.90    W,
        201103170045    MDT     215     W,e      9.91    W,H
        201103170100    MDT     210     W,e      9.90    W,H
        201103170115    MDT     220     W,e      1.92    W,
        201103170130    MDT     215     W,e      1.91    W,
        
        

  • Status of Dry on Instantaneous value graphs, tables, and tab-separated outputs has been updated for groundwater conditions. Help system updated with further information.
  • Corrected the incorrect link for national aquifer codes available in a pre-formatted or tab-separated format in the help system
  • Changed "Land-surface elevation XX.X feet above sea level NGVD29" to "Land-surface elevation XX.X feet above NGVD29" in site descriptions
  • Addressed bugs with secondary y-axis labeling for all graphs. The change addresses the improper use of the reference to sea level in the secondary y-axis label. The label for the secondary y-axis will reference the datum used to describe the altitude of a site or the datum taken from the parameter that was measured at a site. The datum used to determine the altitude of a site are typically in NVGD29 or NAVD88 datums. Parameters measured at a site can be referenced to these datums as well as the HILOCAL or GULOCAL datums. The secondary y-axis label will not be shown on the graph if the datum used to reference the altitude of a site is different from the datum used to reference the values of a parameter, and if the datums used to reference the values of two parameters are different. In addition, no graph will be shown if the datum used to reference the values of a parameter changed over the period of time the parameter was measured at a site.
  • The time zone is now displayed for field measurements in all table and tab-separated outputs of that data
  • Updated method code link to correct data.
  • Updated accessibility link