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20000927: DIFAX situation

>From: "Pam Grube" <address@hidden>
>Organization: Lyndon State College
>Keywords: 200009271457.e8REvNb16935 difax demise

Hi Pam-

>     Thanks for your reply regarding the DIFAX situation.  
>
>     In fact, I was copied on the message containing the alternate 
>sites, and have been using the Unidata site for class to some 
>extent.  It does not contain all I need (specifically upper air maps 
>and analyses, with actual data, and not model data), and, more 
>importantly, we have had a hard time getting in.  One day we could 
>not get maps from either the Unidata site or the HPC graphics site, 
>which was my fallback.  

That's why generating the products locally is the best option.

>     That leaves the other two locations which cannot be readily 
>viewed.  I have asked Mark to explore those sites which involve 
>uncompressing, FTP'ing, etc, and am eagerly awaiting an example 
>to examine from those two sites.  

University of Wisconsin-Madison has offered to make the scripts they
use to generate the PostScript files of their DIFAX-like products
available to anyone who wants them. Mark should contact Pete Pokerant
(address@hidden) to get copies. These will have to be tailored to
your own needs, so it's not just plug and play. Alternatively, you could
talk to Pete P. about having the products automatically shipped to you
via LDM as they are generated. I'm not sure what his reaction to that
would be, but this possibility has been discussed.

>     While McIdas may be able to fill in to some degree once the 
>proper batch files are written (you mentioned some scripts from 
>SSEC?), we cannot print from GARP, which renders it minimally 
>helpful (also, the upper air data plots, but it cannot be contoured in 
>GARP).  

I would suggest using GEMPAK, not McIDAS to create the products
(that's what UW is doing) because GEMPAK has a PostScript driver
that provides cleaner images.  The scripts would run from cron
to generate products.  You could also have them create GIF's to
put on a local Web site if you wanted.

GARP was never intended to be a product generator, just a product
viewer, that's why printing capabilities are not available.  You
could save the plot as a GIF and then print the GIF. However, the
quality is poorer than GEMPAK PostScript output.

>    Bottom line....I do not currently see any product that can 
>adequately substitute for DIFAX  

That seems to be the general consensus among those who still use
DIFAX.  However, there will be a day when there is no DIFAX so
other substitutes will be necessary.

>(not to mentiont that products like 
>the 700mb Vert Displacement Chart are essential to me, and I 
>can't imagine will be available from any of the sources listed.)

It should be available from the NWS site.  Their web page:

http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/nwsfax.shtml

says "The latest version of each weather chart available for distribution 
from the NWS Telecommunication Gateway on the DIFAX satellite broadcast 
system to the WSFOs is available on this server."  I'm not sure which
chart you are actually talking about, so I can't give an exact URL.
(Do you mean the 700 mb Vert Vel panel on the models? - if so, it is
available at:  http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/ngmmodel.shtml).  BTW, a note went 
out from UMass-Lowell to the difax@unidata list yesterday explaining
how they are FTPing the charts from the NWS site automatically and
either printing or viewing the charts on screen.  You could contact
Frank Colby (address@hidden) for more information.

Again, once DIFAX goes away, it is our understanding that the charts
on their web site will also disappear, so using that site is not a
long term solution and other alternatives will be necessary. All the
data necessary to create the non-manual charts is available in the
datastream.

>    OK....enough venting....Thanks again for your reply, and I will 
>continue to pursue solutions at this end.

I understand your frustration. This issue has consumed a awful lot of
the User Committee's (of which Bill is now a member) and the UPC staff's
time and energy. We can't change the NWS's mind on terminating DIFAX
which is no longer needed for their operations (in some ways I wish
they'd just pull the plug already rather than drag this out). All we can
do is help sites effectively use the plethora of data that they receive
via IDD to create similar products locally or help them find other sites
that are willing to pregenerate products if they do not have adequate
local expertise with McIDAS and GEMPAK.  That is the crux of Unidata -
a community of sites working together to solve problems.  The UPC is
a facilitator in this community interaction, but the hard work needs 
to be done by the community members.  Sites like UW have stepped up
to help solve the demise of DIFAX.  We hope others will do the same
and then share their work with the rest of the community.

Don
*************************************************************
Don Murray                               UCAR Unidata Program
address@hidden                        P.O. Box 3000
(303) 497-8628                              Boulder, CO 80307
*************************************************************
Unidata WWW Server               http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/
McIDAS Demonstration Machine  http://mcdemo.unidata.ucar.edu/
*************************************************************

From: "Pam Grube" <address@hidden>
To: Don Murray <address@hidden>
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 13:33:09 -0400

Don,,,

     Thanks again....I will continue to investigate some of these 
options, as my teaching depends on a suitable solution.

Pam G.