scope:

This Standard provides a framework to assess, tabulate, and quantify factors contributing to the quality of hydrometeorological data. It includes a description of the data quality rating system, a description of organization-wide factors linked to management systems, training and certification of operators, as well as data storage and archiving policies, and a description of instrument-specific factors.

This Standard does not include surface water, groundwater, detailed snow, glacier mass balance, and air quality monitoring equipment. Furthermore, this Standard excludes less commonly used instrumentation, such as acoustic Doppler radars, mini-weather radars, SODAR wind profilers, and ceilometers, as well as manually operated instrumentation.

In this Standard, "shall" is used to express a requirement, i.e., a provision that the user is obliged to satisfy in order to comply with the Standard; "should" is used to express a recommendation or that which is advised but not required; and "may" is used to express an option or that which is permissible within the limits of the Standard.

Notes accompanying clauses do not include requirements or alternative requirements; the purpose of a note accompanying a clause is to separate from the text explanatory or informative material.

Notes to tables and figures are considered part of the table or figure and may be written as requirements.

Annexes are designated normative (mandatory) or informative (non-mandatory) to define their application.