Data is key
In this section...
Data is collected at ECN sites by our dedicated site staff, stored in a central database at UKCEH Lancaster and made available to anyone wishing to use it.
Using ECN data
Explore our available datasets.
Our datasets are available upon request and are issued under licence for you to use. They are a potentially valuable and unique resource, especially for early career researchers, established scientists, lecturers, school teachers and students. There is no charge for using our data for non-commercial purposes. These are our full (also known as 'raw') datasets at the resolutions specified in our measurement protocols. They are released under the terms of the ECN Data Policy and are made available to you through an Open Government Licence. Each dataset has a unique Digital object identifier (DOI) that makes it easier for you to cite any data you use.
Publications Library
You can search our extensive Publications Library, which contains references to published material related to ECN sites or by authors connected to ECN.
Fixed-point photos
Fixed-point photographs are taken at regular intervals at some ECN sites. These are archived in the ECN database forming a unique pictorial record of the conditions at these sites.
Data management & quality control
The ECN database is managed at UKCEH Lancaster. Data quality is an extremely important facet of all ECN data. All laboratories generating chemical data adhere to strict Quality Control (AQC) standards determined by each partner’s AQC policy, while meteorological instruments are routinely serviced by professional instrument technicians. Some biological analyses (e.g. moths) are conducted by a small number of highly skilled taxonomists, while site managers ensure that field surveyors are sufficiently trained to ensure long-term taxonomic consistency. Before data are incorporated into the database, they are screened to detect incorrectly formatted data and values outside the expected range. In addition to supplying the raw measurements, the data providers (i.e. the site staff) also submit metadata in the form of quality codes, which is stored alongside the data. Such metadata can be very useful when the data is subsequently analysed.
In 2019/20, ECN data was used to test a new quality assurance approach - system state tagging - developed by Michael Tso and colleagues at UKCEH.