[Met_help] Re: PrepBufr format needed for METv1.0

[John Halley Gotway]

Svetlana,

I apologize for not getting back to you sooner.  I was out of the office all last week.

I see that you'd like to use ASCII point observations to in MET.  We're currently working on a new release of MET, version 1.1, which will enable you to do that directly, without having to go through 
the step of converting to PREPBUFR.  To answer your question though, PrepBufr is a variant of BUFR used by NCEP (Nat'l Centers for Environmental Prediction) here in the United States.  While I believe 
you'd be able to use a BUFR library to read PrepBufr files, I believe the formats differ somewhat.

We have links on the MET website pointing out where you can access PrepBufr data: http://www.dtcenter.org/met/users/downloads/observation_data.php

However, we realize that users may want to use observations that are not already included in PrepBufr files.  So METv1.1 will contain a new tool called ASCII2NC (similar to PB2NC for PrepBufr) which 
enables ASCII observations to be used in MET.  For this initial release, we're only supporting ASCII observations in a predefined format consisting of rows of data which each contain one observation 
value.  10 columns of data are expected in each row:
    Message_Type Station_ID Valid_Time(YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS)
    Lat(Deg North) Lon(Deg East) Elevation(msl)
    Grib_Code Level Height(msl) Observation_Value

We plan to make METv1.1 available by late May 2008.  However, if you'd need to begin working on this immediately, I could provide you with a beta release of METv1.1 for you try out.

Just let me know.

John Halley-Gotway


Svetlana Music - SENES Consultants Limited wrote:
> Hello John,
> Bosko Telenta  has installed the METv1.0 here at SENES  and we intend to 
> use it for the verification of our WRF NNM  model. In order to use 
> Point-Stat Tool we need point observations at PrepBufr format.  Please 
> advise where we can get software to convert observations from ASCII to 
> that requested format. Is it the same as BUFR code used for coding the 
> observations collected through GTS?
> Thank you in advance.
> Svetlana
> 
> 
> Svetlana Music
> 
> Meteorologist,
> Numerical Meteorological Modelling
> 
> SENES Consultants Limited
> 121 Granton Drive, Unit 12
> Richmond Hill, Ontario
> Canada L4B 3N4
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> Email Address:  smusic at senes.ca
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