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20001018: METAR reports, cloud types and precip groups

>From: Christian Page <address@hidden>
>Organization: UCAR/Unidata
>Keywords: 200010181828.e9IISi418851

>
>Hi again,
>
>Thanks, it works very well and was quite simple to implement.
>
>2 other questions regarding GEMPAK :
>
>1- I am including cloud types in my parameters when using SFMAP :
>Example :
>SFPARM = skyc;tmpc;wsym;pmsl;ptnd;dwpc;p24m;csyh;brbk:.7:2;csyl;csym
>
>But the cloud type symbols only appears for very few stations (1 or 2) for my
>Northeast plot. Why?

Can you provide me an example? Are you saying that the station is reporting 
cloud
types and not getting plotted- or, why don't stations report this information.

The cloud type information is provided in the 8/ group of a metar remarks
section, for example:

SFPARM=csyl;csym;csyh;text

    STN    YYMMDD/HHMM      CSYL     CSYM     CSYH
    BUF    001018/1200      6.00     0.00     0.00


KBUF 181154Z 00000KT 3SM BR SCT007 OVC010 11/10 A3010 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 4 SLP194 
8/6// 60001 70008 T01060100 10117 20100 51013

You see that the 8/6// group provides that CSYL=6. Cloud groups are
reported at 3 hourly intervals. Also, you have to have an observer 
to report those groups.




>
>2- Is it possible to plot accumulation of precipitation in mm for the last 24h
> ,
>as well as accumulation of precipitation since the last 12h?

The P03x and P06x groups provide 3 hourly and 6 hourly accumulation.
These are the fields provided in the METAR report using the 6RRRR group.
The 24 hour accumulation is given in the 7RRRR group.
Again, these groups will most likely be found every 3 hours of reporting.

Steve Chiswell
Unidata User Support



>
>Thanks a lot again!
>
>Christian Page      finger address@hidden => tel. + adresse
>address@hidden    http://www.sca.uqam.ca/
>
>Assistant de recherche / Research Assistant
>Universite du Quebec a Montreal / Universite McGill / McGill Radar
>
>On Wed, 18 Oct 2000, Unidata Support wrote:
>
>> 
>> Christian,
>> 
>> No, its not possible to store ship/buoy in the same output file
>> as METAR observations using the real-time decoders for several reasons:
>> 
>> 1) The ship file format is different than standard surface files.
>> The decoded METAR file uses a station table of fixed locations,
>> where Montreal for example is in the same place at every time in
>> the file, so that information ins only stored once. A ship on the other
>> hand can have a different position for every time, so that position informat
> ion
>> is stored as variables along with the reported data at every time.
>> 
>> 2) If both dchrly and dcsynop try to write data to the same file at the
>> same time, the output file will become corrupted.
>> 
>> 3) The parameters reported by surface land stations are different than 
>> marine stations report.
>> 
>> What you can do is merge the decoded data into a common file for plotting.
>> 
>> Start by creating an empty standard surface file with enough space for your
>> ship and metar data. You will want a different file for every hour you
>> merge since ships will move with time. Specify what parameters you want
>> in the merged file using SFPRMF:
>> 
>>  SFOUTF   = testsf.gem
>>  SFPRMF   = tmpc;dwpc;sped;drct;pmsl
>>  STNFIL   =  
>>  SHIPFL   = n
>>  TIMSTN   = 24/5000
>>  SFFSRC   =  
>>  GEMPAK-SFCFIL>r
>> 
>>  SFCFIL PARAMETERS: 
>> 
>>  New surface file:      testsf.gem                                          
>         
>>  Parameter file:        tmpc;dwpc;sped;drct;pmsl                            
>         
>>  Station file:                                                              
>         
>>  Number of stations in STNFIL:       0
>>  Number of additional stations:   5000
>>  Total number of stations:        5000
>>  Total number of times:             24
>> 
>>  This file will be a standard surface file.
>> 
>> Enter <cr> to accept parameters or type EXIT:
>>  Parameters requested: SFOUTF,SFPRMF,STNFIL,SHIPFL,TIMSTN,SFFSRC.
>>  GEMPAK-SFCFIL>e
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Then copy the metar data into the surface file (the parameters
>> found in the file that match those in the file you created with
>> sfcfil will be copied):
>> 
>>  SFFILE   = 20001018_sao.gem
>>  SFOUTF   = testsf.gem
>>  DATTIM   = 18/1200
>>  AREA     = dset
>>  GEMPAK-SFMOD>r
>> 
>>  SFMOD PARAMETERS: 
>> 
>>  Input file:        ./20001018_sao.gem
>>  Output file:       testsf.gem
>>  Area:              dset
>>  Date/time          001018/1200
>> 
>> Enter <cr> to accept parameters or type EXIT:
>>  Parameters requested: SFFILE,SFOUTF,DATTIM,DATOUT,AREA,SFPARM.
>>  GEMPAK-SFMOD>e
>> 
>> 
>> And copy the ship data into the file:
>> 
>>  SFFILE   = $GEMDATA/ship/2000101812_sb.gem
>>  SFOUTF   = testsf.gem
>>  DATTIM   = 18/1200
>>  AREA     = dset
>>  GEMPAK-SFMOD>r
>> 
>>  SFMOD PARAMETERS: 
>> 
>>  Input file:    $GEMDATA/ship/2000101812_sb.gem                             
>             
>>  Output file:   testsf.gem                                                  
>             
>>  Area:          dset                                                        
>             
>>  Date/time      001018/1200         
>> 
>> Enter <cr> to accept parameters or type EXIT:
>>  Parameters requested: SFFILE,SFOUTF,DATTIM,AREA.
>>  GEMPAK-SFMOD>
>> 
>> Now you can plot the data using sfmap etc from the common file.
>> 
>> Steve Chiswell
>> Unidata User Support
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> >From: Christian Page <address@hidden>
>> >Organization: UCAR/Unidata
>> >Keywords: 200010181407.e9IE7v406965
>> 
>> >
>> >Hi again, another question now : is it possible to store ship and buoy data
>  in
>> >the same gempak file as the hourly metar data and plot everything at once? 
> Can
>> >  I
>> >still use the same dcsynop command in pqact.conf (of course I substitute th
> e
>> >output gempak filename with the one I use for hourly surface metar data)? I
>> >tried and I get some error in the logs :
>> >
>> >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1400: [DCSYNOP -21] error writing data: 73502   f
> or 
>> > 00
>> >1018/0900
>> >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1400: [DCSYNOP -21] error writing data: 73509   f
> or 
>> > 00
>> >1018/0900
>> >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1400: [DCSYNOP -21] error writing data: 74531   f
> or 
>> > 00
>> >1018/0700
>> >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1400: [DCSYNOP -21] error writing data: 73502   f
> or 
>> > 00
>> >1018/0700
>> >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1400: [DCSYNOP -21] error writing data: 73509   f
> or 
>> > 00
>> >1018/0700
>> >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1400: [DCSYNOP -21] error writing data: 17557   f
> or 
>> > 00
>> >1018/1400
>> >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1401: [DCDOSY -1] SMVB14
>> >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1401: [DCDOSY -1] SMVD14
>> >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1401: [DCDOSY -1] SMVE14
>> >DCSYNOP[17940445]: 001018/1401: [DCDOSY -1] SMVX14
>> >
>> >Christian Page      finger address@hidden => tel. + adresse
>> >address@hidden    http://www.sca.uqam.ca/
>> >
>> >Assistant de recherche / Research Assistant
>> >Universite du Quebec a Montreal / Universite McGill / McGill Radar
>> >
>> >On Wed, 18 Oct 2000, Christian Page wrote:
>> >
>> >> 
>> >> Thanks, it was only a problem of write permissions... there was a log fil
> e
>> >> already there but with read-only permissions...
>> >> 
>> >> Thanks again for your support!
>> >> 
>> >> Christian Page      finger address@hidden => tel. + adresse
>> >> address@hidden    http://www.sca.uqam.ca/
>> >> 
>> >> Assistant de recherche / Research Assistant
>> >> Universite du Quebec a Montreal / Universite McGill / McGill Radar
>> >> 
>> >> On Tue, 17 Oct 2000, Unidata Support wrote:
>> >> 
>> >> > 
>> >> > Christian,
>> >> > 
>> >> > You will need to create the ~lmd/data/gempak/surface/sao directory
>> >> > if it doesn't already exist.
>> >> > 
>> >> > Also, your log file output is to: -d /io/gempak/nawips/dcsynop_sb.log
>> >> > That directory is probably in your GEMPAK tree....the LDM may
>> >> > not have write permission there. Do you see any log file output?
>> >> > 
>> >> > Check your ldmd.log file for errors from pqact. Make sure that
>> >> > the LDM use is allowed to look in the GEMPAK tree for the dcsynop
>> >> > executable and the packing file. And, make sure you have run
>> >> > ldmadmin pqactHUP to reread your pqact.conf file after
>> >> > making any changes. Verify that all your "Tabs" are correct in the file
>> >> > as well.
>> >> > 
>> >> > Steve Chiswell
>> >> > Unidata User Support
>> >> > 
>> >> > 
>> >> > 
>> >> > 
>> >> > >From: Christian Page <address@hidden>
>> >> > >Organization: UCAR/Unidata
>> >> > >Keywords: 200010171806.e9HI6u428133
>> >> > 
>> >> > >
>> >> > >Hi,
>> >> > >
>> >> > >I would like to add to my hourly surface METAR plots, other hourly obs
> erv
>> > ation
>> >> > > s,
>> >> > >like SHIP, BUOY, etc. What should I have in pqact.conf? I have the fol
> low
>> > ing a
>> >> > > nd
>> >> > >it doesn't work (I get no output file) :
>> >> > >
>> >> > >#
>> >> > ># buoy and ship reports in yymmdd.gem
>> >> > >#
>> >> > >WMO     ^S([INS]V.*|MV[^NS].*) .... ([0-3][0-9])([0-2][0-9])
>> >> > >        PIPE    /io/gempak/nawips/bin/irix/dcsynop -v 1
>> >> > >        -d /io/gempak/nawips/dcsynop_sb.log
>> >> > >        -p /io/gempak/nawips/gempak5.4/tables/pack/sfship.pack
>> >> > >        data/gempak/surface/sao/YYYYMMDD_buoy.gem
>> >> > >
>> >> > >Any hints?
>> >> > >
>> >> > >Thanks!
>> >> > >
>> >> > >Christian Page      finger address@hidden => tel. + adresse
>> >> > >address@hidden    http://www.sca.uqam.ca/
>> >> > >
>> >> > >Assistant de recherche / Research Assistant
>> >> > >Universite du Quebec a Montreal / Universite McGill / McGill Radar
>> >> > >
>> >> > >
>> >> > 
>> >> > ***********************************************************************
> ***
>> >> > Unidata User Support                                    UCAR Unidata Pr
> ogr
>> >> > (303)497-8644                                                  P.O. Box
>  30
>> >> > address@hidden                                   Boulder, CO 
> 803
>> >> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
>> >> > Unidata WWW Service                        http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/
>    
>> >> > ***********************************************************************
> ***
>> >> > 
>> >> 
>> >> 
>> >
>> 
>> ****************************************************************************
>> Unidata User Support                                    UCAR Unidata Program
>> (303)497-8644                                                  P.O. Box 3000
>> address@hidden                                   Boulder, CO 80307
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Unidata WWW Service                        http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/     
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>> 
>