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SILO climate database

SILO climate database

Identification

Title : SILO climate database
Alternative title : Metadata record only
Date : 2017-02-21 ( publication )
Presentation form code : documentDigital

Description

Abstract / Description:
SILO is a Queensland Government database containing continuous daily climate data for Australia from 1889 to present, in a number of ready-to-use formats, suitable for modelling and research applications. The SILO database contains two major classes of data: point (station) time series and spatial grids, both based on observed data from the Bureau of Meteorology ADAM (Australian Data Archive for Meteorology) database. For point data, interpolated or derived values are used where observations are missing. Gridded data are spatially interpolated from observations.
Purpose:
SILO provides climate datasets that are ready to use. Raw observational data typically contain missing data and are only available at the location of meteorological recording stations. SILO provides point datasets with no missing data and gridded datasets which cover mainland Australia and some islands.
Resource specific usage:
Usage : government agencies requiring climate data for policy development or decision making; research and educational organisations; natural resource managers; consultants; industry bodies and individual land holders.
Additional Information:
SILO data are delivered as Data Drill or Patched Point datasets.
A Patched Point dataset is a time series of daily data at a station location, consisting of observed data when available, and interpolated data when observed data are missing. Data are available at approximately 4800 locations for the period 1889 to present.
A Data Drill dataset is a daily time series consisting entirely of interpolated data. The Drill interrogates the spatial grids to provide data from 1889 to present. Data are available for 281,963 points on a 0.05° x 0.05° regular grid covering Australia and some nearby islands.
Language : eng
Character set : unknown

Topic

ISO topic category codes: climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere, environment, farming

Contacts

Point of contact :
Organisation : Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation
Address:
Delivery point : 41 Boggo Road
City : Dutton Park
State : QLD
Postcode : 4000
Country : Australia
Email: silo@des.qld.gov.au
Online resource:
Owner :
Organisation : Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation

Status

Progress status : onGoing
Maintenance and update frequency : asNeeded

Data / Resource Constraints

Resource Access Level : -->
Security classification (ISO 19115) : unclassified
Copyright : (as use constraint)
© The State of Queensland 2025
Licence : (as use constraint)
This material is licensed under a Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Creative Commons License
Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation requests attribution in the following manner:
© The State of Queensland 2025


SILO datasets are the intellectual property of the Queensland Government. SILO datasets are derived from observational data provided by the Bureau of Meteorology, and the Bureau retains ownership of the raw observational data.
The State of Queensland, as represented by the Department of Science, Information technology, Innovation and the Arts, gives no warranty in relation to the data (including without limitation, accuracy, reliability, completeness or fitness for a particular purpose).

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall the Department of Science, Information technology, Innovation and the Arts be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, or consequential damages whatsoever (including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits or confidential or other information, for business interruption, for personal injury, for loss of privacy, for failure to meet any duty including of good faith or of reasonable care, for negligence, and for any other pecuniary or other loss whatsoever including, without limitation, legal costs on a solicitor own client basis arising out of, or in any way related to, the use of or inability to use the data.

Temporal and Spatial extents:

Bounding box:
West bounding longitude : 112.00
East bounding longitude : 154.00
South bounding latitude : -44.00
North bounding latitude : -10.00
Temporal extent:
Start: after 1888-12-31 End: now 2017-12-31

Data Quality

Data quality scope:
Level : dataset
Completeness (omission):

The gridded surfaces and Data Drill products are spatially complete, covering mainland Australia and some islands. Data are available for rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature, solar radiation, and vapour pressure for the period 1889 to present. Class A pan evaporation surfaces and Data Drill are available from 1970 to present, and mean sea level pressure surfaces and Data Drill are available from 1957 to present.
Patched Point datasets are point datasets and are available at approximately 4800 locations across Australia. The time series of data at each location is complete; missing data have been infilled using interpolated estimates.
Consistency (conceptual):

The observational data may be subject to systematic errors such as poor instrument calibration, inappropriate siting of recording stations or errors in the coordinates assigned to recording stations. The data may also be subject to random errors such as observer error in reading the instrument.

Gridded datasets for the period 1957 to present are obtained by direct interpolation of the daily data. Gridded datasets for the period 1889 to 1956 are constructed using an anomaly interpolation technique. The user should note that different schemes are used for the periods 1889-1956 and 1957-present, potentially resulting in a discontinuity between the two datasets.
Positional accuracy (external, absolute):

The coordinates of stations reporting observational data have an associated accuracy of the order of 0.01° or better.
Attribute accuracy (non quantitative):

The accuracy of the interpolated datasets has been assessed and published in peer reviewed journals (Jeffrey et al, 2001 and Beesley et al, 2009).

History:

Lineage statement:
SILO evolved from a "Climate Data Bank" (Carter and Johnston, 1986) that was developed around 1986 to support agricultural research within the Queensland Government. The database was developed as follows:
  • The first colour maps of rainfall deficit were released in November 1991.
  • Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation (LWRRDC) provided funding to expand the database to have Australia-wide coverage as part of the National Drought Alert (1994-1996)
  • The database was used as the foundation for SILO, a collaboration with the Bureau of Meteorology. The three year project commenced in 1996 and the SILO database was launched in 1997.
  • Many of SILO's operational systems were upgraded around 1998-1999 and the entire system was documented in Jeffrey et al. (2001).
  • Gridded daily climate surfaces for years prior to 1957 were added to SILO in 2003 (see Rayner et al., 2004), using new data made available under the Climate Archive (CLIMARC) project.
  • The CLIMARC data were updated in 2008.
Process step:
SILO is updated daily. Each day, the observational data for the previous day are downloaded from the Bureau of Meteorology. Datasets for any day in the previous twelve month period which have been updated are also downloaded. The new and revised observational datasets are spatially interpolated to produce gridded datasets which are used to update the Patched Point and Data Drill products.
The observed and interpolated datasets evolve as new data becomes available and the existing data are improved through quality control procedures. Modifications gradually decrease over time, with most datasets undergoing little change 12 months after the date of observation.

The construction of the post-1956 SILO daily climate surfaces was comprehensively described by Jeffrey et al. (2001). The methodology for computation of pre-1957 climate gridded datasets can be found in Rayner et al. (2004).
Source:
Carter, J.O. and Johnston, P.J. (1986). Climate Data Bank Documentation, Agriculture Branch, Queensland Department of Primary Industries.

Carter, J., Flood, N., Danaher, T., Hugman, P., Young, R., Duncalfe, F., ... , Petty, D. (1996). Development of data rasters for model inputs. Volume 3. Final Report on QPI 20 to Land and Water Resources research and Development Corporation (May 1996).

Carter, J. and Brook, K. (1996). Developing a national drought alert framework. 'Of droughts and flooding rains' Occasional Paper CV03/96. Climate Variability Series. Managing with Climate Variability Conference. Canberra, 16-17 November 1995.

Clewett, J., Cliffe, N., Drosdovsky, L., George, D., O'Sullivan, D., Paull, C., Patridge, I., and Saal, R. (2000). Building knowledge and skills to use seasonal climate forecast in property management planning. In Applications of Seasonal Climate Forecasting in Agricultural and Natural Ecosystems. Edited by Hammer, G.L., Nicholls, N., and Mitchell, C. Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Jeffrey, S.J., Carter, J.O., Moodie, K.B. and Beswick, A.R. (2001). Using spatial interpolation to construct a comprehensive archive of Australian climate data, Environmental Modelling and Software, 16(4), pp 309-330.

Rayner, D.P., Moodie, K.B., Beswick, A.R., Clarkson, N.M., and Hutchinson, R.L. (2004). New Australian daily historical climate surfaces using CLIMARC. Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing and Regional and Rural DevelopmentReport QNRME04247.

Zajaczkowski, J., Wong, K., and Carter, J. (2013). Improved historical solar radiation gridded data for Australia. Environmental Modelling & Software 49, 64-77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2013.06.013

Distribution

Format(s):
Name/identifier : SILO climate data
Test specification:
Online resource:

Distributor:
Format(s):
Name/identifier : SILO climate data

Online resource:
Transfer options:
Online resource:
Website: Function : download

Web Service Finder:
Instructions: Use the URL to search QSpatial for web services displaying or using this dataset.

Metadata Reference Information

Hierarchy level (scope of the metadata) : dataset
Identifier : {57A0CBE4-DA80-447A-962B-717557066261}
Parent identifier : x
Metadata date stamp: 2017-02-21
Language : eng
Character set : utf8
Metadata standard name : ISO 19115:2005, ANZLIC ISO 1.1
Metadata version name : Minimum Validation
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