19990727: Gempak patch level 12 available

Gempak users,

I have placed the complete Gempak distribution tar file
updated through patch level 12 in the gbuddy ftp directory.
I have also reposted complete binary distributions for
Linux and Solaris X86 (solaris for Intel). Separate tar files
of the libraries are also in the respective binary directories if
needed.

This distribution contains several new programs: dcacars, acprof, and
nsharp; an update to Garp (2.02); a new version of dcnldn (flushes
data to output file more reliably); and many small compatibility bug fixes
for exchanging data files on little endian machines.

NEW PROGRAMS
------------
Dcacars is a decoder for use with the NetCDF format ACARS data
files from NOAA/FSL. The availability of this data set was announced
last month via LDM feed directly from FSL. Dcacars places the individual
aircraft reports of altitude, temperature, wind speed and direction and
relative humidity (RH is reported by a few aircraft) into Gempak surface
ship format files. The ACARS data is transmitted roughly at 10 minute
intervals, so if you want to look at updated sounding profiles on that
time scale, the data is really interesting. You will need NetCDF 3.x to
build dcacars. A pqact.conf pattern for ACARS is shown in the examples URL
below. Guidelines for use of the ACARS data were outlined in the original
announcement. If you have questions regarding the use of ACARS data,
please email address@hidden. 

Acprof is a modified version of snprof which displays vertical
profiles of aircraft data read from ship format files, as opposed
to standard upperair format files. Acprof allows the user to
vier a profile from a single aircraft, or from all aircraft in
the vicinity of a location.

Nsharp is a program originally developed at the AWC for interactive
Skew-T/Hodograph analysis and display. For this release, I have modified
the program for viewing ACARS data in addition to profiles of
upperair and model data. Nsharp provides a Gui interface for
data selection and display as well as the capability to modify the
sounding data interactively with automatic update of calculated
parameters. 

For examples of using ACARS data within Gempak, as well as
sample Nsharp display output, see:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/gempak/totorial/nsharp.html
and
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/gempak/examples/ACARS/

Other improvements
------------------
Garp 2.02 fixes some bugs which caused the display to crash when
changing from radar to satellite projections. Fixed YYYY template.

Dcnldn flushes datato output file as soon as bulletin is complete.
Previously, some data could be lost is not flushed.

Updated station tables.

Updated dcffg for common bulletin format.

Fix to bridge library for NOAAport products containing extra CR at end of
bulletin.

Fix for GINI format composite GOES/Meteosat/GMS data to be recognized.

Fix 5-8 character station identifiers on little endian systems.

Updated HPUX-11.0 config file.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Since this update includes updates to gemlib routines (necessary for
little endian files), a complete rebuild is required. Therefore,
I have repackaged the complete release of Gempak 5.4 as Patch level 12
rather than posting individual patches.

If you have any questions, please send them to address@hidden.


Steve Chiswell
Unidata User Support