20010723: special metars.

Stonie is correct. 
Dcmetr will decode METAR reports and store decoded and raw reports
in 20 minute bins (if -m 72 is used), otherwise hourly bins.
Large numbers of stations (eg MN, IA, etc) report regularly 3 times per hour-
these aren't specials, just 20 minute observations. 

SPECIs are stored (up to 6 per station per time bin as raw reports but not
decoded. 

Steve Chiswell
Unidata User Support



>From: "Stonie R. Cooper" <address@hidden>
>Organization: Planetary Data, Incorporated
>Keywords: 200107232044.f6NKi3104186

>Julien,
>
>I hope I can help . . . this is what I know.
>
>The GEMPAK decoder dcmetr calls mtdcod.f - the main METAR, SPECI, and SAO 
>decoder program.
>
>Scanning down the source, I see that it handles the SPECI reports by writing 
>the text to the output files - i.e. as long as the text saving flag is passed 
>to dcmetr (via LDM or otherwise).  I don't see that it actually takes the 
>decoded data and writes it to files - but I have copied Steve Chizwell with 
>Unidata, as he is the "main man" when it comes to GEMPAK.  In other words, to 
>the best of what I can tell, the SPECI reports are stored in "raw" form, but 
>are not decoded into "tables".  That isn't to say it wouldn't be easy to take 
>care of this, but that's what it looks like in the current.
>
>Now, you could probably make simple edits to the code in:
>
>~nawips/gempak/source/bridge/mt/
>
>to get your desired results - again, the mtdcod.f comments indicate the SPECI 
>can be decoded.
>
>External to GEMPAK, you could use Peter Neilley's "weather" program in 
>conjunction with pqsurf packaged with LDM.
>
>Stonie
>
>On Monday 23 July 2001 20:09, Julien Chastang wrote:
>> Stonie,
>>
>> I am a software engineer at UCAR/RAP working on the 4DWX ATEC project. I
>> was informed you may have some suggestions concerning my inquiries below.
>> I am building a meteorological database that requires metar data. We are
>> currently using GEMPAK to decode NOAAPORT data into ASCII files which are
>> then ingested into the database.
>>
>> We are having problems, however, decoding "special metars". Special metars
>> are metar reports that do not come in on the hour once an hour unlike
>> other metars. Can you advise us on how to decode special metars? Have you
>> had success in decoding this data set?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> -Julien.
>
>-- 
>Stonie R. Cooper,
>Science Officer
>Planetary Data, Incorporated
>3495 Liberty Road
>Villa Rica, Georgia  30180
>ph. (770) 456-0700; pg. (888) 974-5017; fx. (770) 459-0016
>