[Met_help] Point-Stat Tool --- Point Observation Component Issue

[John Halley Gotway]

Waylon,

Thanks for checking in.  I am working on it, but have been slowed by needing to get ready for a MET tutorial we're giving next week.  I'll get to work on it though and will get in touch with you when
I have something for you.  I hope to make significant progress this week.

Thanks,
John

Waylon.Collins at noaa.gov wrote:
> Hello John,
> 
> Just wondering if you made any progress developing software to convert AWIPS METAR netCDF files to Point Stat tool compatible netCDF files?
> 
> Waylon 
> 
> Waylon Collins (Senior Forecaster)
> NOAA/National Weather Service
> 300 Pinson Drive
> Corpus Christi, TX 78406
> (United States)
> Telephone: (361) 289-0959    
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: John Halley Gotway <johnhg at rap.ucar.edu>
> Date: Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:43 pm
> Subject: Re: [Met_help] Point-Stat Tool --- Point Observation Component Issue
> To: "Waylon.Collins" <Waylon.Collins at noaa.gov>, met_help <met_help at ucar.edu>
> 
> 
>> Waylon,
>>
>> Sounds good.  I'm busy this week with the WRF-User's Workshop.  But 
>> I'll take a look at these files next week.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> John
>>
>> Waylon.Collins wrote:
>>> Hello John,
>>>
>>> Yes, lets pursue the strategy of developing a reformatting tool that
>>> would read an AWIPS netCDF METAR file and write a Point-Stat tool
>>> compatible netCDF file. I uploaded three (3) METAR files to the
>>> collins_data subdirectory on your FTP site. Go ahead and ignore the 
>> QC
>>> information and simply use the actual data values. The twelve (12)
>>> observation types you mentioned below are sufficient. Thanks for 
>> your help.
>>> Waylon
>>>
>>> John Halley Gotway wrote:
>>>> Waylon,
>>>>
>>>> We do not currently have tools that will do either of the things you
>>>> requested.  However, I took at look at the NetCDF header you sent, 
>> and
>>>> the format looks pretty straight-forward.  I'd be happy to
>>>> work with you on a reformatting tool that would read a NetCDF AWIPS
>>>> file and write a NetCDF file for input into the Point-Stat tool.  I
>>>> don't think it'd be too difficult.  But I'd need you to send me
>>>> a few sample files for testing and answer some questions about the
>>>> format.
>>>>
>>>> If you'd like to proceed with this, please send a few sample files
>>>> either via email or by posting them on our anonymous FTP site:
>>>> ftp ftp.rap.ucar.edu
>>>> username = anonymous
>>>> password = "your email address"
>>>> cd incoming/irap/met_help/collins_data
>>>> put "your sample files"
>>>> bye
>>>>
>>>> Looking at the NetCDF header you sent, it looks like there's a lot 
>> of
>>>> quality control information in the file.  The goal of this
>>>> reformatting tool would be to extract the actual observation values
>>>> you'd like to use in the verification.  Would it be reasonable
>>>> initially to ignore the QC information and just use the actual data
>>>> values?
>>>>
>>>> Here are the observation types I see that we would make sense to
>>>> extract to use in verification.  Each is followed by the GRIB code 
>> to
>>>> which it would correspond:
>>>> (1)  Sea Level Pressure (GRIB Code 2)
>>>> (2)  Temperature (GRIB Code 11)
>>>> (3)  Maximum Temperature (GRIB Code 15)
>>>> (4)  Minimum Temperature (GRIB Code 16)
>>>> (5)  Dewpoint (GRIB Code 17)
>>>> (6)  Wind Direction (GRIB Code 31)
>>>> (7)  Wind Speed (GRIB Code 32)
>>>> (8)  Wind Gust (GRIB Code 180)
>>>> (9)  1-hourly precip (GRIB Code 61)
>>>> (10) 3-hourly precip (GRIB Code 61)
>>>> (11) 6-hourly precip (GRIB Code 61)
>>>> (12) 24-hourly precip (GRIB Code 61)
>>>>
>>>> Does that set of observation types look reasonable to you?  Or am I
>>>> missing something?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> John Halley Gotway
>>>> johnhg at ucar.edu
>>>>
>>>> Waylon.Collins wrote:
>>>>  
>>>>> Dear Sir or Madam,
>>>>>
>>>>> My goal is to generate verification statistics using the 
>> Point-Stat Tool
>>>>> by comparing point observations with WRF-ARW gridded forecast output.
>>>>> With respect to the Point-Stat Tool, I understand that the netCDF
>>>>> obs_file should be created from pb2nc or ascii2nc. I do not have access
>>>>> to data in prepbufr format, thus ascii2nc would be used. However, 
>> I will
>>>>> be preparing verification statistics based on 3 months of data, every
>>>>> 3-months, time resolution of 3 hours, for 5-10 observation points.
>>>>> Manually creating files to match the 10 column ASCII Point Observation
>>>>> Format as input into ascii2nc is not practical. I need an efficient
>>>>> method to create the obs_file as input into point_stat. I have 
>> access to
>>>>> the observations in netCDF format used by AWIPS. Attached is the output
>>>>> from the linux command "ncdump -h" applied to one of these files. 
>> Do you
>>>>> have software that will either (1) convert my AWIPS netCDF files into
>>>>> the netCDF flavor required by point_stat, or (2) input my AWIPS netCDF
>>>>> files and output an ASCII file containing the data in the 10 column
>>>>> ASCII Point Observation Format required by ascii2nc?
>>>>>
>>>>> Waylon
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>>