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David and Alex, I wrote the dcnldn decoder so know the format. I just answered Dave Fitzgerald from Millersville regarding obtaining the time in seconds of the strike which the decoder does provide, so the question may already be answered. Otherwise if you want to write your own decoder I can send you the decription of the data structure. Steve Chiswell Unidata User Support >From: David Knight <address@hidden> >Organization: UCAR/Unidata >Keywords: 200505061627.j46GRRP3023424 >Alex, >> David, >> >> Can you give me information on the file format of the nldn ".ingest" files? >Not off hand. How embarasing! The code was written long ago, by >somebody else, in a far away land (OK just kidding about the >far away land thing) > >> I want to convert them into something I can use in GIS. >This a worthy cause. I'd like to help you. My suggestion >would be to start with the gempak files. The NLDN data >is writen to a "standard" gempak ship file when decoded >that way. Perhaps gempak ship and surface files can >already be directly imported into GIS format? Chiz? >> >> Also, do these files contain the exact times of the individual strikes, or >> just the locations? >Time and location should be reported. I don't remember checking lately >but if not we have a big problem! > >> >> Sincerely, >Likewise, >David >> >> Alex J. DeCaria >> Department of Earth Sciences >> Millersville University >> P.O. Box 1002 >> Millersville, PA 17551-0302 >> (717) 871-4739 >> > -- NOTE: All email exchanges with Unidata User Support are recorded in the Unidata inquiry tracking system and then made publicly available through the web. If you do not want to have your interactions made available in this way, you must let us know in each email you send to us.