Version of 22 February 2010 Description of File of PSMSL RLR Annual Means The file 'rlrann.dat' is composed of 80-byte ASCII records organised as described below. It should be readable by the job 'rlrannrd.f'. For a full understanding of the terminology employed, please consult the file 'PSMSL.doc' on this disk. In particular, only annual mean data from the 'Revised Local Reference (RLR)' dataset are included in 'rlrann.dat': annual means from the PSMSL 'Metric' dataset are not useful for time series analysis. If monthly 'RLR' or 'Metric' data are required, then see the files 'psmsl.dat' and 'psmslrd.hel' also on this disk. The data in 'rlrann.dat' are written for one station after another. For each station there are two header records. The first contains: Station Name (40 bytes) PSMSL Country Code (3 bytes) PSMSL Station Code (3 bytes) Latitude (8 bytes) e.g. ' 55 44 N' Longitude (8 bytes) e.g. '123 01 E' Authority Code (2 bytes) Frequency Code (2 bytes) RLR Datum Year (4 bytes) GLOSS code (3 bytes) or blanks if not a GLOSS station Seven blanks (7 bytes) which makes a total of 80 bytes. On the second record there are: Number of annual means following (NYEAR) (3 bytes) Number of free-text station comments (NCOMS) (3 bytes) Number of free-text country comments (NCOMC) (3 bytes) Number of free-text authority comments (NCOMA) (3 bytes) Sixty eight blanks (68 bytes) which makes a total of 80 bytes. The years (IYEAR) for which RLR annual means exist and the means (MYEAR) themselves (in mm) can then be read from 80-byte records by (in FORTRAN): READ(UNIT,91) (IYEAR(I),MYEAR(I),I=1,NYEAR) 91 FORMAT(20I4) NCOMS 80-byte comments on the station can then be read followed by NCOMC comments the relevant country and NCOMA comments on the authority. The simple FORTRAN job 'rlrannrd.f' shows how this is done. At latest update the file contained: - a total of 38691 RLR annual means - a total of 7929 station comments - a total of 1723 country comments - a total of 2829 authority comments Subsequent versions of the file will contain larger numbers of records. If problems are found reading the file, or if further information is required, please contact the PSMSL at: Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory Joseph Proudman Building 6 Brownlow Street Liverpool L3 5DA United Kingdom or Telephone: (UK +44) 151-795-4800 or Fax: (UK +44) 151-795-4801 or Email: psmsl@pol.ac.uk