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20020513: decoding FSL Wind Profiler data into McIDAS MD format



>From: McIDAS Help Desk <address@hidden>
>Organization: JSFC
>Keywords: 200205131837.g4DIbGa07240 McIDAS FSL2 proftomd

Bryan et. al.,

>I'm sorry to have to tell you, but there are no plans at this time to 
>have XCD decode the profiler bulletins.

Here is the Unidata position on FSL wind profiler data:

It is _much_ better to get an LDM feed of the wind profiler data
directly from FSL.  That is sent in netCDF files that contain all
profiler levels (the grib messages do not), and is a LOT more timely
than the data in NOAAPORT (because it does not have to wait for
transmission since it is not considered operational).  In addition,
The LDM feed from FSL contains both the hourly-summary and 6-minute data.

On top of that, the UPC makes freely available decoders for the FSL
netCDF data for both McIDAS MD and GEMPAK formats.  Lastly, the UPC
also supports two McIDAS display application for the profiler data, PROFSECT
and PROFDISP:

PROFSECT - Plots vertical time series of FSL-profiler wind fields
  PROFSECT id time nobs tinc <keywords>
  PROFSECT LIST time <keywords>

PROFDISP -- Plots FSL wind profiler data
   PROFDISP parameter level map time day <keywords>

Example output from these routines can be found in:

PROFSECT: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/tom/gifs/profsect.gif
PROFDISP: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/tom/gifs/profdisp.gif

So, if you are interested in using profiler data, I would strongly
recommend that you contact FSL and get a feed of their data to
your site.  After you have that setup/underway, I can provide the
rest of the software needed to decode and use it in McIDAS.

Tom

>From address@hidden Wed May 15 10:37:07 2002
>To: "'Unidata Support'" <address@hidden>
>Cc: "'Wahner Paul Contr CSR4500'" <address@hidden>,
>   "Hoeth, Brian" <address@hidden>,
>   McIDAS Help Desk <address@hidden>, address@hidden
>Subject: RE: 20020513: decoding FSL Wind Profiler data into McIDAS MD format

Thanks Tom for this excellent information.  

I will run this by Doris' group to see if they have a requirement for this
data.  I believe the profiler site in southern New Mexico will be of
interest to them, but their AWIPS data may be sufficient for their needs.  I
will check.

Bryan