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17.2 GEMPAK Decoders: Importing ASCII data
Decoding Data into GEMPAK Format
Importing data for use with GEMPAK
The "DC"-style decoders provide the basis for converting standard
products found in the FOS stream and other sources, such as the NCEP ftp server,
and case study data sets. However, it is possible that you will have
special data sets from your own field experiments, mesonets, or
research projects. These data sets can be imported into GEMPAK for
use with the plotting and analysis programs, but you will need to
help GEMPAK by placing the data into a format it can recongnize.
Alternatively, you may have archived data from standard reporting sites,
however, the data may no longer be in its native format if
someone decided they could store the data in a "better" format
than it was reported in.
The GEMPAK "Edit" programs can be used to import non-standard
data sets into GEMPAK, as well as to modify data values already
in GEMPAK files. To modify exiting GEMPAK files,
you will need to list the data out into ASCII format using one of
the listing programs.
When using the GEMPAK edit programs to import data into GEMPAK file format,
a surface data file must already exist; SNEDIT will create a file
if one does not already exist.
The file creation
programs define the number of times, stations, and parameters that will be
stored in the file.
To create a surface file, use SFCFIL
To create an sounding data file use SNCFIL
To import research data sets with stations that aren't present in the
standard GEMPAK station tables, you will have to create your own station
tables as well! More information on importing
data will be covered later.
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