19990914: gdedit / METAR reports

Chris,

1) In GDLIST, when you list the data, you have SCALE = 
so you are letting GEMPAK scale the data by a factor it selects.
To list the data out without scaling, set SCALE=0

(the scale factor that gdedit is reading tells GEMPAK how to scale the
values it is reading in and storing...but you can still configure scale in
the listing and mapping programs for formatting the output).


2) For NWX to list raw metar bulletins (eg the ascii format), you need
to be pointing to data files you just FILE from the LDM. NWX uses the
ascii data, and not the gempak files that dchrly is converting into GEMPAK
format for use in the surface programs. The nwx interface just gives you 
a point and click lookup into the text file...it does not use the
decoded files. It will pull up the entire bulletin that the station
exists in.

You can use SFLIST with SFPARM=TEXT;SPCL to list the raw individual
reports from a decoded Gempak surface file.

Steve Chiswell
Unidata User Support




>From: Chris Hennon <address@hidden>
>Organization: .
>Keywords: 199909142025.OAA09177

>Steve -
>
>I have a couple of questions.
>
>1)  I'm working with gdcfil and gdedit to create a grid I can display in
>gempak.  When I run gdinfo for my grid file, it looks like this:
>**********
>
> GEMPAK-GDINFO>r
>
> GRID FILE: simple.grd                                                        
>       
>
> GRID NAVIGATION: 
>     PROJECTION:          CED                 
>     GRID SIZE:            5   5
>     LL CORNER:              30.00    -80.00
>     UR CORNER:              40.00    -70.00
>
> GRID ANALYSIS BLOCK: 
>     ANALYSIS TYPE:        BARNES
>     DELTAN:               5.000
>     DELTAX:           -9999.000
>     DELTAY:           -9999.000
>     GRID AREA:            29.00  -81.00   41.00  -69.00
>     EXTEND AREA:          24.00  -86.00   46.00  -64.00
>     DATA AREA:            24.00  -86.00   46.00  -64.00
>
> Number of grids in file:     1
>
> Maximum number of grids in file:    200
>
>  NUM       TIME1              TIME2           LEVL1 LEVL2  VCORD PARM
>    1     990913/0000                           1000         PRES TMPC        
> Parameters requested: GDFILE,LSTALL,OUTPUT.
>
>**********
>My ascii data file which I added to the grid looks like this:
>**********
>
>Grid file: simple.grd
>GRID:    TIME1   TIME2   LEVEL1   LEVEL2 VCORD  PARM
>     990913/0000          1000            PRES  TMPC
>AREA:   DSET             GRID SIZE:    5   5
>COLUMNS: 1    5     ROWS: 1   5
>
>Scale factor: 10**0
>
>  COLUMN:        1       2       3       4       5
>ROW  5         10.23   11.34    10.67   8.54   9.33
>ROW  4          8.56   10.20    10.88   9.87   8.33
>ROW  3         10.22    9.98    11.29  10.59   9.34
>ROW  2          6.54    7.43    10.04  10.47   9.68
>ROW  1          5.89    6.65     9.32   9.03   8.76
>
>**********
>Now, when I run gdlist using the following inputs:
>**********
>
> GDATTIM   Grid date/time                    LAST
> GLEVEL    Grid level                        1000
> GVCORD    Grid vertical coordinate          PRES
> GFUNC     Scalar grid                       TMPC
> GDFILE    Grid file                         simple.grd
> GAREA     Graphics area                     30;-80;40;-70
> PROJ      Map projection/angles/margins|dr  CED
> SCALE     Scalar scale / vector scale       
> OUTPUT    Output device/filename            T
> Parameters requested:
>GDATTIM,GLEVEL,GVCORD,GFUNC,GDFILE,GAREA,PROJ,SCALE,
> OUTPUT.
> GEMPAK-GDLIST> r
>
>**********
>It spits back a scale factor of 10** 1, even though I explicitly specified
>the scale factor of 10** 0.
>**********
>
> GDLIST PARAMETERS: 
>
> Grid file: simple.grd                                                        
>       
> GRID IDENTIFIER:
>    TIME1             TIME2         LEVL1 LEVL2   VCORD PARM
>990913/0000                          1000          PRES TMPC        
>
> GAREA:    30;-80;40;-70                                   
> SCALE FACTOR : 10** 1
> OUTPUT:    TERM/              
>
> MINIMUM AND MAXIMUM VALUES    58.90   113.40
>
>**********
>Hence my values are all 10 times too high.  What am I missing?
>
>2)  I am trying to display METAR reports in "nwx".  No data is ever found.
>The entry in the tables/nwx/master.tbl file for METAR reports is:
>
>OBS_METAR    metar.stn    R $RAW_SAO                                 gem
>
>where $RAW_SAO is /usr/local/ldm/data/surface.  Within that directory are
>the sao files (yyyymmdd_sao.gem).  Are these the files that nwx should be
>looking for for METAR reports?  Or is there something else I should be
>looking for or doing?  When a station is clicked on the nwx map, a message
>such as "No data available for KCLE" is given in the text window.
>
>As always, thanks for you help.
>
>Chris  
>
>================================================
>| Chris Hennon        Ohio State University   |
>| Tropical Meteorology      address@hidden   |
>|                                              |
>| Dept of Geography   Office: 1174 Derby Hall  |
>| 1036 Derby Hall     Phone : (614) 292-7518   |
>| Columbus, OH 43210  Fax   : (614) 292-6213   |
>================================================
>