Re: 19990510: problems with NOAAPORT metar data (fwd)

• To: bit-bucket <bit-bucket@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Subject: Re: 19990510: problems with NOAAPORT metar data (fwd)
• From: Robb Kambic <rkambic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 09:30:20 -0600 (MDT)

==============================================================================
Robb Kambic                                Unidata Program Center
Software Engineer III                      Univ. Corp for Atmospheric Research
rkambic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                   WWW: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/
==============================================================================

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 14:21:46 -0600
From: Jim Cowie <cowie@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Robb Kambic <rkambic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, debm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: 19990510: problems with NOAAPORT metar data (fwd)

Robb Kambic wrote:

Jim,

Could you shed some light here?

Thanks,
Robb...

The fact that you (Deb) mention metar and maritime specifically makes me
think there
is another problem. I know I gave you special versions of these
decoders,
but I may have given you copies that actually USE the CCB contents.

did at COMET
was to modify the metar and maritime decoders to use the time string
that's in the
CCB as a reference time for the observations. Previously, these decoders
used the
system clock. I made this change to allow the decoding of these data for
cases.
If I gave you this version of the decoders, then they might be having
a problem correlating the time in the CCB with the time in the actual
metar report,
and might thusly be throwing reports out.

The addccb.pl script I gave you makes the message look like a "real"

WMO ID) and adds
a stock (fake) 24 byte CCB header. The fake CCB header I got from some
product way back,
or maybe I even made it up. At that time, it didn't matter since none of
the decoders
used it. But maybe now that has changed if you have the new decoders.
Take a look
at the metar and maritime decoder log files and look for messages about
bad
report times, etc... If that apperas to be the problem, then you should
change the
addccb.pl script to write a current time stamp in the CCB, instead of
using the stock
header with the fake time. Based on my documentation, the time info is
written as follows:
(indexes starting at 1)

byte 15:        years since 1900
    16: month (1-12)
    17: day (1-31)
    18: hour (00-23)
    19: minute (11-59)

You'll have to encode each value into a single byte and write them with
the rest of the
header contents.I have very limited documentation, I tried to find out
more info on this but failed. I will fax it to you if you want it.

Hey Robb, this would not have been a problem if the message had been
left as a pure
NOAAPORT-format message :)

-jim

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 13:00:05 -0600
From: Unidata Support <support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: "Molenar, Deb" <DebM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: rkambic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: 19990510: problems with NOAAPORT metar data

------- Forwarded Message

>From: "Molenar, Deb" <DebM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: problems with NOAAPORT metar data
>Organization: CSU/CIRA
>Keywords: 199905101657.KAA05878 LDM NOAAPORT

I'm trying to ingest the Unidata NOAAPORT metar and maritime feed and run it
through the FSL D2D decoders.  The decoders won't work on the Unidata files,
but will work on files I bring over directly from the COMET NOAAPORT ingest.
I'm adding the CCB headers via a program from Jim Cowie.  My understanding
is that the program strips off the WMO headers and adds the CCB headers to
the data.  I'm guessing that might be where the problem is but since Jim's
gone and I don't have access to the source code, I'm grasping.  Do you know
if there's any reformatting done on the data at the Unidata side?

Here's a sample of the files--I don't know enough about the format to know
what's correct.

from Unidata after being run through the ADDCCB program:

@^L^ARUKWBC^Ba^E]^UAKWBCSPCN52 CWAO 101610
SPECI CZPC 101610Z AUTO 33005KT 9SM OVC010 OVC029 OVC070 M00/M02 A3009

from COMET NOAAPORT

@^L^ARUKWBC^Bc^E
^O^N^AKDENSPCN43 CWAO 101509
SPECI CYBR 101509Z 06014KT 6SM -SHRASN BKN015 OVC030 RMK SF6SC2+

from Unidata before ADDCCB program:

^A
999
SPCN31 CWAO 101546
SPECI CYFB 101546Z 06010KT 8SM OVC015 RMK SC8

It looks to me like I need to figure out how to add a line feed after the ^E
on the first line of the Unidata feed with the ccb headers?  Any format info
you could provide on what these characters mean would be a big help.

Thanks.

___________________________
Debra A. Molenar          debm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Computer Specialist     NOAA/NESDIS/RAMM  E-RA2
phone:  970-491-8447    fax:  970-491-8241

------- End of Forwarded Message

--
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Jim Cowie                               Software Engineer
WITI Corporation                        cowie@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Boulder, CO                             (303) 497-8584