[nws-changes] 20130716: amended comment period on increasing res on NDFD -Fwd: ADMIN NOTICE NOUS41 KWBC

• To: nws-changes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: [nws-changes] 20130716: amended comment period on increasing res on NDFD -Fwd: ADMIN NOTICE NOUS41 KWBC
• From: Linda Miller <lmiller@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 07:10:00 -0600

-------- Original Message --------

522
NOUS41 KWBC 161308
PNSWSH

Public Information Notice: Amended
National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC
907 AM EDT Tue Jul 16 2013

To:       Subscribers:
          - Family of Services
          - NOAA Weather Wire Service
          - Emergency Managers Weather Information Network
          - NOAAPORT
          Other NWS partners and NWS employees

From:     Andrew Stern
          Acting Chief, Meteorological Services Division

Subject:  Amended: Extending Comment Period on Increasing the
          Resolution in the National Digital Forecast Database
          Until December 31, 2013

Amended to extend the comment period to December 31, 2013

On August 28, 2012, the spatial resolution in the National
Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) was increased, on an
experimental basis, to 2.5km resolution for all forecast times.
In addition, the temporal resolution was made accessible at one
hour resolution for the first 36 hours from NDFD issuance time in
experimental status. These are the finest spatial and temporal
resolutions at which NWS Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) in the
conterminous United States (CONUS) provide forecasts.  Forecasts
from WFOs and NWS National Centers that employ coarser
resolutions are mapped onto the finer resolution NDFD grid.

The increased spatial and temporal resolution applied to files
containing data for the entire CONUS, but not Alaska, Hawaii,
Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, or the 16 CONUS
subsectors. These subsectors remain at their current operational
resolutions.

The NWS will accept comments and feedback on the increase in
resolution during the experimental period through December 31,
2013.  Links to surveys are online at:

http://www.weather.gov/survey/NWS-survey.php?code=ndfd-grids25

Pending analysis of comments, the NWS will decide whether or not
to proceed to transition the experimental fine resolution to
operational status for the CONUS.  Current operational
resolutions would continue for Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico,
the Virgin Islands, and the 16 CONUS subsectors.

Specifications for operational and experimental NDFD grids can be
viewed at the following URL:

http://graphical.weather.gov/docs/ndfdSRS.htm

The NDFD continues in parallel in operational phase at current
spatial and temporal resolutions throughout the experimental
period. Experimental fine resolution forecasts are updated
approximately 15 minutes after operational NDFD forecasts. NDFD
graphics and Simple Object Access Protocol/REST/XML services are
provided from operational NDFD grids.

To access experimental fine resolution grids use the following
URLs:

ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/sl.us008001/st.expr/df.gr2/dc.ndfd/ar.co
nus/

or

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/sl.us008001/st.expr/df.gr2/dc.ndfd/ar
.conus

Experimental grids for forecast days 1 through 3 are provided in
individual files for each day in order to limit file sizes.
Experimental grids for selected elements are more tightly packed
in GRIB format with both decimal and binary scaling applied.
GRIB encoding characteristics for each NDFD element can be viewed
at the following URL:

http://graphical.weather.gov/docs/grib_design.html#element_encodi
ng_lo

File structures and GRIB packing for operational NDFD files are
unchanged during the experimental period.  Experimental Ice
Accumulation and daily Maximum and Minimum Relative Humidity
grids also remain unchanged.

WMO headers and file structures for current operational and
experimental NDFD files can be viewed at:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ndfd/resources/NDFDelem_current.xls

WMO headers and files structure for the new experimental fine
resolution files can be viewed at:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ndfd/resources/NDFDelem_fullres.xls

General information on accessing and using NDFD elements is
online at:

http://ndfd.weather.gov/technical.htm

For general questions regarding NDFD data, please email:

  nws.ndfd@xxxxxxxx

For technical questions regarding NDFD data, please contact:

  David Ruth
  Chief, Mesoscale Prediction Branch
  NOAA/NWS Office of Science and Technology
  1325 East West Highway
  Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
  David.Ruth@xxxxxxxx

For questions regarding this notice, please contact:

  Andy Horvitz
  National Weather Service
  Office of Climate Water and Weather Services
  1325 East West Highway
  Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
  Andy.Horvitz@xxxxxxxx

Service Change Notices specifically related to NDFD are online
at:

  http://www.weather.gov/ndfd/tins.htm

  http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm

$$