Climate of the Past www.clim-past.net 1814-9324 1814-9332 2 2 2006 10.5194/cp-2-137-2006 http://www.clim-past.net/2/137/2006/ http://www.clim-past.net/2/137/2006/cp-2-137-2006.html http://www.clim-past.net/2/137/2006/cp-2-137-2006.pdf 137 144 2006-10-19 A guide for digitising manuscript climate data S. Brönnimann broennimann@env.ethz.ch J. Annis W. Dann T. Ewen A. N. Grant T. Griesser S. Krähenmann C. Mohr M. Scherer C. Vogler Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Z{u}rich, Universitätstr. 16, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland Hand-written or printed manuscript data are an important source for paleo-climatological studies, but bringing them into a suitable format can be a time consuming adventure with uncertain success. Before digitising such data (e.g., in the context a specific research project), it is worthwhile spending a few thoughts on the characteristics of the data, the scientific requirements with respect to quality and coverage, the metadata, and technical aspects such as reproduction techniques, digitising techniques, and quality control strategies. Here we briefly discuss the most important considerations according to our own experience and describe different methods for digitising numeric or text data (optical character recognition, speech recognition, and key entry). We present a tentative guide that is intended to help others compiling the necessary information and making the right decisions. Brönnimann, S.: A historical upper-air data set for the 1939–1944 period, Int. J. Climatol., 23, 769–791, 2003. Brönnimann, S., Compo, G. P., Sardeshmukh, P. D., Jenne, R., and Sterin A.: New approaches for extending the 20$^th$ century climate record, Eos, Trans. AGU, 86, 2–7, 2005. Grant, A. N., Pszenny, A. A. P., and Fischer E. V.: The 1935–2003 Air Temperature Record from the Summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, J. Clim., 18, 4445–4453, 2005. Jones, D. A. and Trewin, B.: On the adequacy of digitised historical Australian daily temperature data for climate monitoring, Austral. Meteorol. Mag., 51, 237-250, 2002. Vogler, C., Brönnimann, S., and Hansen G.: Re-evaluation of the 1950-1962 total ozone record from Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Disc., 6, 3913-1943, 2006.