Radiocarbon dates of peatland initiation across the northern high latitudes

A compilation of basal dates of peatland initiation across the northern high latitudes, associated metadata including location, age, raw and calibrated radiocarbon ages, and associated references. Includes previously published datasets from sources below as well as 365 new data points.

Basic and other measurements of radiation at station Ny-Ålesund (2015-03)

On 20 March 2015, a total solar eclipse occurred over Ny-Ålesund (78.9° N, 11.9° E), Svalbard, in the high Arctic. It was the first time that the surface radiation components during the totality of a solar eclipse were measured by a Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) station. With the Ny-Ålesund long-term radiation data set as background (available at doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.150000), we present here the peculiarities of the radiation components and basic meteorology observed during the eclipse event. The supplementary data set contains the basic BSRN radiation and surface meteorological data in 1 min resolution for March 2015, and is available at doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.854326. The eclipse radiation data will be a useful auxiliary data set for further studies on micrometeorological surface-atmosphere exchange processes in the Svalbard environment, and may serve as a test case for radiative transfer studies.

BSRN Toolbox V2.0 - a tool to create quality checked output files from BSRN datasets and station-to-archive files

The BSRN Toolbox is a software package supplied by the WRMC and is freely available to all station scientists and data users. The main features of the package include a download manager for Station- to-Archive files, a tool to convert files into human readable TAB-separated ASCII-tables (similar to those output by the PANGAEA database), and a tool to check data sets for violations of the "BSRN Global Network recommended QC tests, V2.0" quality criteria. The latter tool creates quality codes, one per measured value, indicating if the data are "physically possible," "extremely rare," or if "intercomparison limits are exceeded." In addition, auxiliary data such as solar zenith angle or global calculated from diffuse and direct can be output. All output from the QC tool can be visualized using PanPlot (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.816201).