[Xastir] Re: Wind Gusts

[Curt, WE7U]

On Fri, 15 Dec 2006, Jason Jordan wrote:

> Off-the-record, very little QC is done with the APRS weather data
> we get (mainly through the Citizen Weather Observers Program and
> other various sources) into our operational weather display
> software .  There is a station near our office that consistently
> has wind directions that are off anywhere from 60 to 150 degrees
> from "official" and other APRS stations in the area and they have
> done little to fix their data.  Due to the inconsistency and
> questionable data quality, we decided to nix importing APRS sites
> into any analysis products we do.  I cannot speak for other
> offices across the U.S. and have heard of some NWS offices that do
> collect, use, and display data for forecasting operations from the
> CWOP program (which includes APRS weather stations).
>
> I'd strongly recommend that XASTIR and APRS try to meet NWS data
> standards to encourage their use in operations.  Many forecasters
> (O.K...at least myself) prefer more data rather than less.  We
> already have the capability to import the data in our operational
> display system, it's just a matter of quality!

There's a club station south of here in Tacoma that was reporting
wind speeds of 125 mph yesterday when everyone else near them was
reporting perhaps 10% of that.  At least my brain could do the
auto-reject based on quality for that station.

I have no problem trying to adhere to standards (I'm an engineer
BTW, BSEE).  It's just that all of these weather stations put out
different standards, plus the APRS spec has standards listed in the
spec and even those don't appear to match the NOAA standards if I've
read the previous stuff in this thread correctly.

Weather people:  Figure out what we want, get Bob Bruninga to bless
it publicly on the APRS and perhaps APRSSPEC list (if it differs
from the published APRS spec), and I'll help to meet those standards
in Xastir.

W.r.t. to the gust value for Clay, I'm not sure I'd want to do the
calculation any differently in a global sense.  In particular I want
to keep the gust calulation code the way it is now, but perhaps
there's a different value your weather station provides that would
make a better transmitted gust value.  Again, without changing the
general code.

--
Curt, WE7U.   APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
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