USGS Water — Available data

USGS NWIS filters its queries by 5-digit parameter codes (00060 discharge, 00065 gage height, …). For variables= you may pass either a raw code or one of the curated friendly names below, which the bundled catalog resolves to a code. The full USGS parameter-code table is far larger than this curated set — any valid 5-digit code passes through unmapped, so you are never limited to the names listed here.

Curated parameter codes

Friendly name	Code	Name	Units	Group	Services
discharge	00060	Discharge	ft3/s	Physical	daily, instantaneous, statistics, peaks
dissolved_oxygen	00300	Dissolved oxygen	mg/l	Inorganics	daily, instantaneous, samples
gage_height	00065	Gage height	ft	Physical	daily, instantaneous, statistics
groundwater_level	72019	Depth to water level	ft below land surface	Physical	gwlevels, daily, instantaneous, field-measurements
nitrate	99133	Nitrate plus nitrite	mg/l as N	Nutrients	daily, instantaneous, samples
ph	00400	pH	std units	Inorganics	daily, instantaneous, samples
precipitation	00045	Precipitation	in	Physical	daily, instantaneous
reservoir_storage	00054	Reservoir storage	ac-ft	Physical	daily, instantaneous
specific_conductance	00095	Specific conductance	uS/cm @25C	Physical	daily, instantaneous, samples
suspended_sediment	80154	Suspended sediment concentration	mg/l	Physical	daily, samples
temperature	00010	Water temperature	degC	Physical	daily, instantaneous, samples
turbidity	63680	Turbidity	FNU	Physical	daily, instantaneous, samples

Resolve either form:

from earthlens.usgs_water import Catalog
cat = Catalog()
cat.resolve("discharge")   # -> "00060"
cat.resolve("00060")       # -> "00060"  (raw code passes through)
cat.resolve("63680")       # -> "63680"  (uncurated code, still valid)

An unknown but close friendly name raises with a did-you-mean hint.

The full parameter index (tooling)

The complete USGS parameter-code table is not hand-curated. The repository includes an informational index, available_parameters.yaml, of every USGS parameter code (~19,675 entries: code → name, group, unit), generated by tools/usgs_water/refresh_usgs_catalog.py from the live USGS reference table (waterdata.get_reference_table(collection="parameter-codes") — the modern replacement for the removed nwis.get_pmcodes). It is a reference / tooling artefact (used by the validate step and these docs) and is not loaded at runtime nor shipped in the wheel — any valid code can be passed to variables= directly regardless, via raw-code passthrough. Regenerate or extend it with:

# Rebuild the informational code index (needs API_USGS_PAT — the modern
# reference-table endpoint rate-limits anonymous requests).
pixi run -e dev python tools/usgs_water/refresh_usgs_catalog.py refresh

# Append a curated friendly-name row, then reload to validate it.
pixi run -e dev python tools/usgs_water/refresh_usgs_catalog.py \
    add-parameter chlorophyll 32209 --units "ug/l" --group Biological \
    --services daily samples

# Validate: every curated row's services are known, and (when the index
# exists) every curated code is a real USGS code.
pixi run -e dev python tools/usgs_water/refresh_usgs_catalog.py validate

Services

The service= keyword selects the NWIS / Water Data plane; the services column above lists where each curated code is typically reported. See Usage for each service's request shape and output columns.