[Xastir] Re: Wind Gusts

[Gerry Creager N5JXS]

Jason, et al,

Jason Jordan wrote:
> Howdy Folks,
> 
> ---- "Curt wrote: 
> 
>>I'm not a weather guy, so I want to stay out of it, but my tendency
>>would be to say "yes".  It makes no sense to dump weather data into
>>the system that doesn't fit their models.  That being said, perhaps
>>they already account for that in the APRS data they receive?  Steve
>>Dimse would probably know this stuff.
> 
> 
> 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).

Actually, there's a lot of QC effort that occurs in the systematic inget 
via MADIS.  There's no way to enforce CWOP bad data unless you look at 
the QC flags and disable stations based on said flags, and there's some 
limits to what QC can be done.

Take a look at http://mesonet.tamu.edu/currentwx.html for real-time data 
that incorporates CWOP via MADIS.  We also archive the data and are 
starting to incorporate it into 3DVAR work for MM5 and eventually WRF. 
It's usable with the above caveats.

> 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!

I agree, although changing the spec is likely to be difficult.  Thus, 
I'm thinking about a back-door approach to create the weather products.

As I'm planning to revamp how MADIS gets the data we can work thru this 
and make Xastir the first application to do it "right" in a new message 
paradigm.

I also want to get with Scott to make sure OpenTrak revamps its weather 
scheme to be WMO-1 and FMH compliant...

Gerry
> ----------------------------------
> Jason Jordan, KC5KND
> E-mail:  kc5knd at cox.net
> Webpage: http://members.cox.net/kc5knd/
> 
> Meteorologist, National Weather Service Amarillo, TX
> ----------------------------------
> 
> 
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-- 
Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu
Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University	
Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.458.4020 FAX: 979.862.3983
Office: 1700 Research Parkway Ste 160, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843