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20020910: NEXRAD volume scans



>From: Linda Miller <address@hidden>
>Organization: UCAR/Unidata
>Keywords: 200209101349.g8ADnQ118052 NEXRAD Level III volume scans

Hi Kelvin,

Linda Miller sent along the following to Unidata Support for reply:

>You might want to check the following Web site information regarding how the 
>Unidata community receives the Level III data via LDM/IDD.
>
><http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/software/ldm/howto-nnexrad.php>
>
>(I note a couple of the links on this site are not working.  I'll try to look 
>into that.  The Web site is new, so there's quite a bit of work left to do)
>
>Pertaining to the number of volume scans in a given day, I've copied Unidata 
>Support on this message, and I hope they can point you in the direction of an 
>answer to that.  Your voice mail mentioned the idea of the directory listings 
>that could be counted, though I'm unsure if that's available.  If it is, 
>Support will provide the information to you.  You might need to wait for a 
>little while, because not everybody is an early bird like I am.
>
>Let me know if there's anything else you need.

I talked with Linda about this email to try and understand what kind of
information you are looking for.  If you are asking for how many volume
scans a NEXRAD _can_ make a day, I believe that it would be the
following:

scan every 5 minutes -> 12 scans per hour -> 288 scans per day

This is based on documentation for Level III products that say that the
radars can operate in three different modes: clear air mode where scans
are done every 10 minutes; precip mode where scans are done every 6
minutes; and storm mode where scans are done every 5 minutes.

If you are asking for information on how many volume scans a NEXRAD
actually makes a day, this could be estimated by the number of Level
III product the NEXRAD PUP creates each day.  If we assume that a Level
III product is created for each Level II volume scan, then a simple
counting of the number of regularly issued Level III products for each
NEXRAD would give us the number of full volume scans for each NEXRAD
per day.

OU may be getting a feed of all NEXRAD Level III products through the
Unidata IDD.  If it is, someone at OU should be able to setup a script
to count the receipt of Level III products from each NEXRAD and come up
with an estimate for how many volume scans the NEXRAD made each day.
If I were doing this, I would count the number of Base Reflectivity at
Tilt 1 products since these are issued consistently.  The contact at OU
would can perhaps help you with this counting is Dr. Mark Laufersweiler
<address@hidden>.  Mark is the Unidata contact at OU for the IDD, so he
should know if OU is receiving the full feed of NEXRAD Level III
products.

Please let me know if you were asking for something other than the
above.

Tom Yoksas