[AWIPS #AWM-758949]: Some questions about python-awips

Hi there,

> I'm working in a group within the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the 
> University
> of Buenos Aires, Argentina, working towards using python-AWIPS in the 
> classroom with 
> students slightly changing the code for visualization purposes. We are using 
> the 
> Unidata EDEX server on the cloud to retrieve the information at this time and 
> we are
> finding some difficulties and we would like to ask some questions.

I'm glad to hear you're interested in using python-AWIPS in the classroom!  
Hopefully I 
can help with the difficulties you've been encountering.

> 1) We are plotting surface observations and found that the only datasets 
> available for 
> South America are METAR observations under the "obs"datatype. This is fine at 
> the 
> moment but there is also a "sfcobs" datatype which only has SYNOP 
> observations for a 
> few locations in North America. The same applies to sounding data which seems 
> to be 
> available to a handful of countries. Is it possible for you to add these 
> observations 
> to the Unidata cloud?

Unfortunately, we don't have access to modelsounding or surface obs data over 
South 
America.  If you had access to that data directly, we could help you set up 
your own EDEX 
server to view this data though.

> 2) We found that we can't retrieve the analysis for GFS1p0 (this is the zero 
> hour 
> forecast). A piece of code is attached at the end of this email.

We do not have the zero hour forecast for the GFS 1 degree (GFS1p0).  We do not 
seem to be
receiving this model run, possibly because it is just more accurate to look at 
current 
observations, than to look at the 0hr run.  We do have the zero hour forecast 
for the GFS20, 
though, if that is useful to you?

> 3) Some random day a few weeks ago we were looking into _every_ datatype to 
> identify which
> ones were the most useful for us, we found that the server wouldn't let us 
> download more 
> data. The day after this event there were no issues but we certainly didn't 
> download as 
> much data as before. Do you have some IP restriction or limitation per day?

Were you receiving some sort of error response?  What do you mean exactly by 
"the server 
wouldn't let us download more data"?  We do not have any kind of limitation 
that I know of.

> 4) We found that the name for the GFS1p0 parameters are not as descriptive as 
> they can be.
> We also found that CAVE shows the description in the menus when selecting 
> them. Is there a 
> downloadable list of these parameters?

Some of the parameters have descriptions in this table, although it is not 
entirely complete 
or up to date:
http://unidata.github.io/awips2/appendix/appendix-grid-parameters/

To get an entire list of all the parameters, you can run the following lines of 
code:

  edex_url = "edex-cloud.unidata.ucar.edu"
  DataAccessLayer.changeEDEXHost(edex_url)
  grid_request = DataAccessLayer.newDataRequest()
  grid_request.setDatatype('grid')
  grid_request.setLocationNames('GFS1p0')
  print(DataAccessLayer.getAvailableParameters(grid_request))

But, you are correct, the names aren't always the most descriptive or helpful.  
I'm currently 
asking around to some of my coworkers to see if there's a better source for 
descriptions, and 
will get back to you if I come up with something more helpful.


--Shay Carter

She/Her/Hers
AWIPS Software Engineer
UCAR - Unidata

If you're interested, please feel free to fill out a survey about the support 
you receive: 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeDIkdk8qUMgq8ZdM4jhP-ubJPUOr-mJMQgxInwoAWoV5QcOw/viewform

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: AWM-758949
Department: Support AWIPS
Priority: Normal
Status: Open
===================
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