20020102: Weather data in netCDF

>From: "Suh, John" <address@hidden>
>Organization: Metron Aviation, Inc.
>Keywords: 200201021704.g02H4RN03978 POET FAA netCDF

John,

>My name is John Suh and I'm a developer for Metron Aviation, Inc.
>I have been asked to incorporate near-real time/historical weather
>into our FAA funded software called POET.  

Sound like an interesting and large project.

>My questions pertain to:
>1.  Where I can get data for weather?

There are a number of places one can get weather data.  These range
from commercial vendors like WSI Corporation, Unisys, Kavorus,
Planetary Data, Inc., SSEC UW-Madison, to various FTP sites operated by
NOAA/NWS and the National Climactic Data Center.  The amount and
breadth of realtime and archived data that is available is staggering,
so you have a big job ahead of you.  Web searches for sources of
weather data would be the best to start looking for data as our
program is not a clearing house for this kind of information.

>2.  Does netCDF support this data?

netCDF can be used as a container for weather data.  The AWIPS system
used at NWS forecast offices (D2D) uses data in netCDF almost exclusively.
The key is how to get the data in netCDF (observational data must be
converted/decoded into forms that can be stored in netCDF and then you
must have an application that supports import of data from those
netCDF).  You may want to contact any/all of the commercial vendors
out there to see what their support of netCDF is.

>Thank you in advance for your assistance,
>
>John Suh
>Metron Aviation, Inc.

Good luck with your project!

Tom Yoksas