File Naming Convention:
File names consist of 8 characters describing the location, followed by a 3 character extension. The first 2 characters represent the two letter International Organization for Standardization (ISO) country code. The next three characters represent the site code, and the last three characters are a sequential numeric index used to uniquely identify files for sites with replicate studies, or those with duplicate country and site codes. The fire scar data files all have an extension of "fhx" and their related documentation files all have the extension "txt", while establishment data files all have an extension of "dat".
Fire Scar Data File Format:
The fire scar data files are provided in the FHX2 format. Although FHX2 is currently a proprietary software, the data files are ASCII text files that can be read by most programs. The structure of the data file is as follows (note that line numbers listed refer to those demonstrated in this example file, but may vary due to the variable line length of the comments section):
The first 30 lines contain the site information. Each line is labeled, and should be self explanatory.
Line 31 begins the comments section, which is variable in length and can be up to 80 lines long, and is accompanied by line 32 which marks the end of the comments section.
Line 33 is blank, and line 34 reads either "FHX2 FORMAT" or "FIRE2 FORMAT" to indicate that the file is an FHX2 file.
Line 35 contains the starting year for the data matrix, the number of trees included in the matrix, and the number of characters used for the sample codes. For example, the line "1400 5 8" indicates that the data begin in 1400, that data are included for 5 trees, and that their sample codes are 8 characters long.
The next several lines contain the sample codes, with each tree labeled vertically in a single column. The number of lines is variable according to the number given in line 35, but they are followed by an additional, blank line. This is demonstrated by lines 36 through 44 in the example file.
The remaining lines contain the data matrix. Each sample is represented by a column, while each row contains the fire history information for the year. The fire history information is represented using a single designated symbol to describe each feature.
Fire Scar Documentation File Format:
The tree-ring fire event documentation files are ASCII text files that contain additional information provided by the investigator. NOTE: Early versions of the FHX2 software may override any information included in the comment lines (lines 31 and 32) of the data files. Therefore this information has been duplicated in the accompanying documentation files.
Establishment Data File Format:
All data files are ASCII text files, and each data file contains 2 sections; a Comments section, and a Data section. The Comments section includes site information, sampling methods, publications, etc., and all Comment lines begin with a pound sign (#). The Data section begins with a listing of the variables. Each variable is listed with a sequential integer, which corresponds to the position of the data value for that variable in the data section. The data then follow in tabular format.
Site Chronology Diagrams:
When provided, site chronology diagrams are available. The format is dependent upon what is provided by the investigator, but is described in the appropriate documentation file.
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