read_waterdata_ts_meta: Get USGS Time Series Metadata

In dataRetrieval: Retrieval Functions for USGS and EPA Hydrology and Water Quality Data

Get USGS Time Series Metadata

Description

Description Daily data and continuous measurements are grouped into time series, which represent a collection of observations of a single parameter, potentially aggregated using a standard statistic, at a single monitoring location. This endpoint provides metadata about those time series, including their operational thresholds, units of measurement, and when the earliest and most recent observations in a time series occurred.

Usage

read_waterdata_ts_meta(
  monitoring_location_id = NA_character_,
  parameter_code = NA_character_,
  parameter_name = NA_character_,
  properties = NA_character_,
  statistic_id = NA_character_,
  last_modified = NA_character_,
  begin = NA_character_,
  end = NA_character_,
  unit_of_measure = NA_character_,
  computation_period_identifier = NA_character_,
  computation_identifier = NA_character_,
  thresholds = NA,
  sublocation_identifier = NA_character_,
  primary = NA_character_,
  time_series_id = NA_character_,
  web_description = NA_character_,
  skipGeometry = NA,
  limit = NA,
  max_results = NA,
  bbox = NA,
  convertType = FALSE
)

Arguments

monitoring_location_id	A unique identifier representing a single monitoring location. This corresponds to the id field in the monitoring-locations endpoint. Monitoring location IDs are created by combining the agency code of the agency responsible for the monitoring location (e.g. USGS) with the ID number of the monitoring location (e.g. 02238500), separated by a hyphen (e.g. USGS-02238500).
parameter_code	Parameter codes are 5-digit codes used to identify the constituent measured and the units of measure. A complete list of parameter codes and associated groupings can be found at https://help.waterdata.usgs.gov/codes-and-parameters/parameters.
parameter_name	A human-understandable name corresponding to parameter_code.
properties	A vector of requested columns to be returned from the query. Available options are: geometry, id, unit_of_measure, parameter_name, parameter_code, statistic_id, last_modified, begin, end, computation_period_identifier, computation_identifier, thresholds, sublocation_identifier, primary, monitoring_location_id, web_description, parameter_description
statistic_id	A code corresponding to the statistic an observation represents. Example codes include 00001 (max), 00002 (min), and 00003 (mean). A complete list of codes and their descriptions can be found at https://help.waterdata.usgs.gov/code/stat_cd_nm_query?stat_nm_cd=%25&fmt=html.
last_modified	The last time a record was refreshed in our database. This may happen due to regular operational processes and does not necessarily indicate anything about the measurement has changed. You can query this field using date-times or intervals, adhering to RFC 3339, or using ISO 8601 duration objects. Intervals may be bounded or half-bounded (double-dots at start or end). Examples: A date-time: "2018-02-12T23:20:50Z" A bounded interval: "2018-02-12T00:00:00Z/2018-03-18T12:31:12Z" Half-bounded intervals: "2018-02-12T00:00:00Z/.." or "../2018-03-18T12:31:12Z" Duration objects: "P1M" for data from the past month or "PT36H" for the last 36 hours Only features that have a last_modified that intersects the value of datetime are selected. If a feature has multiple temporal properties, it is the decision of the server whether only a single temporal property is used to determine the extent or all relevant temporal properties.
begin	The datetime of the earliest observation in the time series. Together with end, this field represents the period of record of a time series. Note that some time series may have large gaps in their collection record. This field is currently in the local time of the monitoring location. We intend to update this in version v0 to use UTC with a time zone.
end	The datetime of the most recent observation in the time series. Data returned by this endpoint updates at most once per day, and potentially less frequently than that, and as such there may be more recent observations within a time series than the time series end value reflects. Together with begin, this field represents the period of record of a time series. It is additionally used to determine whether a time series is "active". We intend to update this in version v0 to use UTC with a time zone.
unit_of_measure	A human-readable description of the units of measurement associated with an observation.
computation_period_identifier	Indicates the period of data used for any statistical computations.
computation_identifier	Indicates whether the data from this time series represent a specific statistical computation.
thresholds	Thresholds represent known numeric limits for a time series, for example the historic maximum value for a parameter or a level below which a sensor is non-operative. These thresholds are sometimes used to automatically determine if an observation is erroneous due to sensor error, and therefore shouldn't be included in the time series.
sublocation_identifier	An optional human-readable identifier used to specify where measurements are recorded at a monitoring location.
primary	A flag identifying if the time series is a "primary" time series. "Primary" time series (which have this flag) are standard observations which undergo Bureau review and approval processes. Non-primary time series, which will have missing values for "primary", are provisional datasets made available to meet the need for timely best science and to assist with daily operations which need real-time information. Non-primary time series data are only retained by this system for 120 days. See the USGS Provisional Data Statement for more information.
time_series_id	A unique identifier representing a single time series. This corresponds to the id field in the time-series-metadata endpoint.
web_description	A description of what this time series represents, as used by WDFN and other USGS data dissemination products.
skipGeometry	This option can be used to skip response geometries for each feature. The returning object will be a data frame with no spatial information.
limit	The optional limit parameter is used to control the subset of the selected features that should be returned in each page. The maximum allowable limit is 10000. It may be beneficial to set this number lower if your internet connection is spotty. The default (NA) will set the limit to the maximum allowable limit for the service.
max_results	The optional maximum number of rows to return. This value must be less than the requested limit.
bbox	Only features that have a geometry that intersects the bounding box are selected.The bounding box is provided as four or six numbers, depending on whether the coordinate reference system includes a vertical axis (height or depth). Coordinates are assumed to be in crs 4326. The expected format is a numeric vector structured: c(xmin,ymin,xmax,ymax). Another way to think of it is c(Western-most longitude, Southern-most latitude, Eastern-most longitude, Northern-most longitude).
convertType	logical, defaults to TRUE. If TRUE, the function will convert the data to dates and qualifier to string vector.

Examples

site <- "USGS-02238500"
meta_1 <- read_waterdata_ts_meta(monitoring_location_id = site)

meta_multi <- read_waterdata_ts_meta(monitoring_location_id =  c("USGS-01491000", 
                                                            "USGS-01645000"),
                            parameter_code = c("00060", "00010"),
                            properties = c("monitoring_location_id",
                                           "parameter_code",
                                           "begin",
                                           "end",
                                           "time_series_id"),
                            skipGeometry = TRUE)

dataRetrieval documentation built on June 28, 2025, 1:08 a.m.