Find Nearest GSOD Stations to a Specified Latitude and Longitude

Given latitude and longitude values entered as decimal degrees (DD), this function returns a list (as an atomic vector) of station ID values, which can be used inget_GSOD() to query for specific stations as an argument in the station parameter of that function.

Usage

nearest_stations(LAT, LON, distance)

Arguments

LAT: Latitude expressed as decimal degrees (DD) (WGS84)
LON: Longitude expressed as decimal degrees (DD) (WGS84)
distance: Distance in kilometres from point for which stations are to be returned.

Value

A data.table::data.table with full station metadata including the distance from the user specified coordinates from nearest to farthest.

Note

The GSOD data, which are downloaded and manipulated by GSODR stipulate that the following notice should be given. “The following data and products may have conditions placed on their international commercial use. They can be used within the U.S. or for non- commercial international activities without restriction. The non-U.S. data cannot be redistributed for commercial purposes. Re-distribution of these data by others must provide this same notification.”

Author

Adam H. Sparks, adamhsparks@gmail.com

Examples

if (FALSE) { # interactive()
# Find stations within a 100km radius of Toowoomba, QLD, AUS

n <- nearest_stations(LAT = -27.5598, LON = 151.9507, distance = 100)
n
}