On-Line Weather Maps

SIO Weather Map Users:

There are several on-line weather map users here at SIO.  I don't know who 
you are, so this is being sent to "all-at-sio".  If you're neither a 
weather map user, nor interested in weather maps, you've probably gone as 
far into this message as you'll find interesting.

The National Weather Service has announced the final sundown date for DIFAX 
weather maps (next Spring).  For those who go to sea, I'm not sure whether 
or not this will have any affect on WEFAX products, assuming those are 
still broadcast at all.  However, the current set of DIFAX products is 
accessible from sea via the internet (see below).

For those who want to see what the DIFAX products look like, go to the SIO 
Weather Page (http://meteora.ucsd.edu/weather.html) and click on the quick 
pointer for "Real Time Data".  There is a pointer there for "Current NWS 
Difax Charts". Click on that and it will bring up a laundry list of current 
DIFAX charts.  Note: this is only available from hosts ending in 
".ucsd.edu" or ".sdsc.edu".  Sorry for this, it is the usual lawyers and 
contractual agreements thing.

I will be attending a meeting in Boulder, Colorado next week.  This is the 
Fall Users Committee meeting of Unidata, an organization of over 150 
colleges and universities that teach and/or perform research in the 
atmospheric/oceanic sciences.  Part of the agenda is what, if anything, we 
(the university atmospheric/oceanic sciences community) should do about 
this problem.  I would like some input from you to present at this meeting 
so I'll have something beyond my own prejudices to talk about.

All of the images mentioned above (found on the SIO Weather Page) are in 
PCX format.  If your browser/computer system doesn't know how to handle 
this format, sorry again.  This is another problem to be discussed next 
week.  Should map graphics be sent out as postscript or fax-format files 
(easy to print, but hard to view on a computer screen)?  Or should they be 
sent out as image files (GIF, PCX, TIF, PNG, etc.) which are easy to view 
on a computer screen, but harder to print?

One option being discussed is to do nothing.  This is not a popular 
solution, but it is a possible solution.  DIFAX and DIFAX like products 
will just go away.  Every school and institution will locally generate 
whatever products it deems desirable.  That would require constantly 
circulating images to each person in a non-local (cross 
country/international/etc.) discussion group (either email or telephonic) 
so that all are looking at the same thing.

A second solution, the current preferred option, is to set up a standard 
set of computer scripts that generate a standard set of maps.  This would 
require that all sites would run the same software (not a problem as the 
software is "free"), but would otherwise answer most of the problems in 
solution one.  A problem that isn't solved is that the same software, using 
the same input scripts and data, does not always arrive at the same exact 
answer when the platforms and/or operating systems are different 
(Sun/DEC/HP/etc).  The solutions aren't "wrong", just slightly different.

A third solution, my personal preference, is for a subset of sites (all on 
the same platforms and running the same software and script versions) to 
generate a suite of DIFAX like products that are distributed using the same 
methodology that currently handles the real time data.  This would allow 
two users on different sides of the country to look at the exact same 
product without having to jump through too many hoops.  Doing this at more 
than one site allows for one site to fail (hardware, power, etc.) without 
shutting down the entire system.

I will appreciate your comments.

Larry

    ---===---=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=====[\/]=====-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=---===---
  -----===(*  Climate's what we expect, but weather's what we get.  *)===-----
 Larry Riddle : Climate Research Division : Scripps Institution of 
Oceanography
     University of California, San Diego : La Jolla, California  92093-0224
     Phone: (858) 534-1869 : Fax: (858) 534-8561 : E-Mail: address@hidden