[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

20021018: Radar data



>From: Petty Kevin <address@hidden>
>Organization: UCAR/Unidata
>Keywords: 200210181916.g9IJG5109965

Hi Kevin,

>I just want to let you know that I have downloaded WSR-88D from your
>archives for use in McIDAS. I am presently working on an aviation
>accident which occurred in Maine last week (Oct 11). Your  archive of
>radar data allows us to view and retrieve data for some of our cases.
>Thanks.

We are glad to be of help.  Thanks for letting us know!

>On another subject, I am running IDV and I'm interested in getting
>access to some historical model data (netCDF format of course). I
>notice that you have a repository of data on "Motherlode".

Historical is not exactly how I would describe the data we have residing
on motherlode.  Near realtime is more accurate.  The NCAR Mass-store,
on the other hand, does have historic archives of meteorological data
many of which are stored in netCDF.  I believe that the same is true
of NCDC.

>To get access to these data I think that you need a password of some sort.

Yes, that is correct.

>Would it be possible for the Meteorologists here
>to get access to these data? I would like to periodically save these
>data to my machine for use at a later date.

FTP access to motherlode-hosted data files was never intended to serve
as a realtime feed of data.  Rather, our intention has always been to
allow users to FTP data that they missed through "normal" feed
mechanisms (IDD, direct NOAAPORT ingest, etc.).

With that said, here is the information you need:

machine:   motherlode.ucar.edu
user:      xxxxx
pass:      xxxxx
directory: decoded/netcdf/...

All netCDF files end in a '.nc' suffix.

Please don't abuse this access.  We gave out this information to an
NWS person noting that access to the data was NOT to be used in place
of a realtime data feed:

"The idea of the files on motherlode is to provide a backup source for
our IDD and ADDE service rather than realtime access."

The user immediately setup a cron-initiated FTP of all of the files
wanted with new FTP jobs being issued about once per second.  This
caused a huge problem from the log files that were generated, and that
problem translated into people time and effort that we simply do not
have the resources to support.

I feel terrible having to say this, but...  if we feel that the access
we are giving you is being abused, we will be forced to shut you off.

>There doesn't seem to be a
>way to save the actual data using IDV (am I wrong about this?)

The VisAD java classes that the IDV is built on top of _do_ have the
capability of saving data to netCDF files.  I just asked one of the
developers of the IDV if it brough that capability out in the
interface, and he doesn't know.  The other members of the IDV
development group are not in today, so I can't probe further, sorry.  I
would, however, speculate that if it is not obvious that the IDV can do
the save, it probably doesn't.

Cheers,

Tom Yoksas

>From address@hidden Mon Oct 21 10:58:33 2002
>Subject: RE: 20021018: Radar data

Tom,

 Thanks for the response, and thanks for providing us
with access to these data. I am also cc'ing Jeff Weber
because he sent me a response on this topic. 

 I would agree that my use of the term "historical" is not 
accurate when describing these data. Near real-time is more
appropriate. Please be assured that we will not abuse our
use of the archive (e.g. Cron Job FTP). I understand that this
is a privilege, and we will respect that. Sometimes we are asked
by our field offices to help out on a general aviation accident
that has occurred within the last week (or two). In this situation, 
near real-time data is more difficult to come by without making a formal
request for these data to be restored. Like your
10-15 day archive of WSR-88D, I think the near real-time model data 
archive may be beneficial to use in these situations. Moreover, we're
interested in exploring the use of IDV in our accident investigations. 
Therefore, access to netCDF data will make this easier.

If you have any questions or concerns about our use of these data, please
do not hesitate to ask.

By the way Jeff, I am the same Kevin Petty who worked in RAP.

Thanks again,

Kevin