OCTOBER 2008 AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY | 1507 AFFILIATIONS: ANTUÑA, FONTE, ESTEVAN, BARJA, ACEA, AND ANTUÑA JR. —Camagüey Lidar Station, Camagüey Meteorological Centre, Camagüey, Cuba CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Dr. Juan Carlos Antuña, Camagüey Lidar Station, Camagüey Meteorological Center, P.O. Box 134, Camagüey 70100, Cuba E-mail: anadelia@caonao.cu DOI:10.1175/2008BAMS2368.1 state-of-the-art PCs is also possible. Engaging the complete research cycle is fundamental to Cuban science philosophy, and thus to the Camagüey Lidar Station team, so we have also gone further than just rescuing the original observations. The project also has involved developing the software for processing the observations, controlling quality, and improving the original manual processing. Usually, meteorological data-rescue projects in less developed countries have been led and supported by international organizations and/or institutions from developed countries. The main reason for this is the lack of funding in the less-developed countries and sometimes a lack of local “know how.” In this case, we demonstrate an alternative approach with very few material resources, optimizing both the local techni- cal expertise and scarce material resources. We believe such low-cost projects in less-developed countries can complement the internationally sup- ported data rescue projects that use state-of-the-art technology. SOLAR RADIATION MEASUREMENTS. Measurements at Camagüey Meteorological Station (21.4°N, 77.9°W, 122 m ASL) began in 1966. The manually operated Yanishevsky actinometric instru- mentation was provided by the Hydrometeorological Service of the former Soviet Union. Sensors from this station type operate based on the thermoelectric prin- ciple. Similar instruments (see Table 1) have collected valuable broadband solar radiation datasets in other A lthough global-scale digitized climate informa- tion is abundant, in some countries a consider- able amount of information remains in paper records. These valuable records are at risk of being lost forever. Several ongoing efforts are preserving data at risk of deterioration by digitizing them into computer-compatible form for easy access. In a 2004 Bulletin article, Page et al. described the following main challenges in such data rescue projects: decay- ing paper records, missing data (because of damage by improper storage, natural disasters, station opera- tions suspensions, etc.), lack of funds, and the use of obsolete technologies. Although that particular article addressed the situation in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, the challenges are common to the entire world. Here we describe the ongoing project for rescuing the solar radiation measurements dataset collected at Camagüey, Cuba. The data have been collected over a period of more than 30 years. Like many of the current meteorological and climatic records in Cuba, these data are only stored on paper, which inhibits various applications. For instance, the need to update procedures for information analysis was one of the barriers to the development of solar energy applica- tions identified by the Cuban report to the Solar and Wind Resource Assessment. Because of the lack of funding for computer equipment, we have developed a low-cost data rescue design. It is based mainly on using old, out-of-service PCs and involves key-entering software in FOR- TRAN running under MS-DOS, though the use of Solar Radiation Data Rescue at Camagüey, Cuba BY JUAN CARLOS ANTUÑA, ARAMIS FONTE, RENÉ ESTEVAN, BORIS BARJA, ROBERTO ACEA, AND JUAN CARLOS ANTUÑA JR. T ABLE 1. Instruments used at Camagüey Meteorological Center for solar radiation measurements. Instrument models Actinometer M-3 Pyranometer M-80-M, M-115-M Balanzometer M-10-M Galvanometer GSA-1MA, GSA-1MB