Expand discovery modules

[mgrover1]

trafficstars

• [x] NOAA FTP/PSL Sites: https://psl.noaa.gov/data/obs/datadisplay/ (#487)
• [ ] IMPROVE: http://vista.cira.colostate.edu/Improve/
• [ ] IMPROVE URL Generator: http://views.cira.colostate.edu/fed/Express/ImproveData.aspx
• [ ] SPARTAN: https://www.spartan-network.org/kelowna-ca
• [ ] Aeronet
• [ ] NEON https://pypi.org/project/py-neonUtilities/
• [ ] ACTRIS https://www.actris.eu/topical-centre/data-centre

[AdamTheisen]

Adding NEON to that list. They have a tower near where our NSA E12 site is going to be and it would be beneficial to be able to work with that data in ACT

[kenkehoe]

Is there also a NEON site near new BNF site? Are there any other datasets available near the BNF site? Was planning to add readers to those datasets if so. I'll look into NEON data reader.

[AdamTheisen]

@kenkehoe there is a site more to the South so I'm not sure how much that team will leverage that NEON tower. Either way, NEON has a nice resource for working with their API using Python. There are a number of different Alabama mesonets, but I have not found any way to access their data (https://wx.aamu.edu/) but it does look like some sites are available through the ASOS webservice. Other networks include USCRN and SurfRad.

[AdamTheisen]

Checked NEON off the list with #590

[AdamTheisen]

Checking ACTRIS off the list as there is not an API interface at the moment.

[AdamTheisen]

@mgrover1 @zssherman I was looking through the last three on this list and I am not sure if it's necessary to include them in ACT at this time. If a need arises in the future, we can address.

1. IMPROVE - It is a somewhat complex interface that one needs to sign into to get the URL. At that point, it is easier to download through the website at the moment.
2. SPARTAN - This is a smaller network and again, if the need arises, we can consider but looks to be fairly specialized
3. AERONET - This is specialized to the cimel sun photometers and while there looks to be a webservice, I am not sure there is much value in adding this to ACT at this time.

Thoughts about closing this out with no further action?

[zssherman]

@AdamTheisen I took a look at IMPROVE as well and yeah not seeing a way to really implement it in ACT. The other two I'll take your word on it, and I'm fine with closing this for now. If we see other datasets that are of interest, we can open an issue in the future

[AdamTheisen]

Closing out. If there's a need for the others in the future or a better path forward, we can open up new issues.