Re: format,format and forever format (fwd)

Hi Tom, 

The COMET case study library is designed to aid NWS forecast offices, and
educational and research institutions, to better predict large and or
anomolous events. We create these case studies with their visualisation
software in mind. This is why you see many GEMPAK and McIDAS formatted
data. The Sat imagery is all in McIDAS AREA files, as that is the native
format from the Space Science and Engineering Center at U of Wisc. The
WSR-88D emits data in the NIDS format and we deliver it also in its native
format. The modeled data we get from NCEP and maintain its native GRIB
format, and offer decoding on-the-fly to GEMPAK as that is the display
software of choice for the Universities and research institutes in our
couontry. We have been making cases available in netCDF as of case 20 for
the new NWS platforms (NAWIPS). The GEMPAK files are derived here for the
ship and buoy reports, airway obs, upper air data, and profiler data, so
that NWS and Universities can view them in our supported software
(GEMPAK).

There are many visualisation tools for weather data, we strive to maintain
the data in its native format so that most applications can handle the
data as the native format has been considered in many applications..i.e
wxp.

We do not have any GRIB/GEMPAK/McIDAS/NIDS to ASCII converters and I do
not know of any in existence. I do not know what visualisation software
you are currently using, but I suspect it should be able to handle at
least the GRIB and NIDS data, if not the McIDAS and GEMPAK.


We strive to make this data as user friendly as possible, but with the
multiple platforms, software packages, and numerous data formats it is
impossible to accomodate everyone.

A good venue to look for help is our decoder maillist, who knows someone
out there may be decoding to ASCII...

You must first enroll in the maillist to post, please see:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/mailinglist/mailing-list-form.html

and follow the instructions to enroll in the decoders maillist.

Good luck and let me now if I can be of further assistance, 



-Jeff
____________________________                  _____________________
Jeff Weber                                    address@hidden
Unidata Support                               PH:303-497-8676 
NWS-COMET Case Study Library                  FX:303-497-8690
University Corp for Atmospheric Research      3300 Mitchell Ln
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/jweber      Boulder,Co 80307-3000
________________________________________      ______________________

On Fri, 11 May 2001, Ron Murdock wrote:

> Jeff -
> 
> Maybe you can respond regarding the COMET CASE 001
> data that he has ordered.
> 
> Ron
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 17:51:26 -0700
> From: "Samec, Thomas" <address@hidden>
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: format,format and forever format
> 
> It is good to have data available on-line ... good to have a brief Format 
> description ...
> But when that list does not include NIDS [47] {for the WSR-88D data I picked 
> up} , 
> or the description is really brief as for
> McIDAS [17] ( a GOES-7 VIS image I picked up) or
> GEMPAK[48] for the radiosonde data I need, and have picked up....
> 
> I could be spending my entire life attending re-formatting 
> school/workshop/seminars. I really am too old for that. 
> Are there software packages available to translate that stuff into ASCII 
> which I can then crunch on ... knowing what each variable is?????
> 
> As I have just filed an order for the entire exabyte of the comet001 project 
> (Storm of the Century) ...
> 
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Your order has been successfully submitted to CODIAC. If you have any 
> questions about your order, please send e-mail to
> address@hidden, and refer to order code: thomaAAA0YBx4D
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  I sure hope it will not be impossible to read the data!
> 
> Tom S.
> 
>