[Met_help] [rt.rap.ucar.edu #70295] History for ASCII2NC oddity

John Halley Gotway via RT met_help at ucar.edu
Wed Jan 7 14:56:10 MST 2015


----------------------------------------------------------------
  Initial Request
----------------------------------------------------------------

Hi,

I have a question about running ASCII2NC in METv4.1.  

I have a simple text file with 5 records I want to convert to NetCDF:

ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -59.8  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0  -9999
ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -49.1  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0  -9999
ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -40.3  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0  -9999
ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -37.3  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0  -9999
ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -35.1  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0  -9999

When I call 'ascii2nc' I get the following error message:

ERROR  : 
ERROR  : timestring_to_sec(const char *) -> can't parse time string "1000"
ERROR  :

What I'm confused by is this: 1000 isn't the time string at all-it's the 8th field in each line.  I tried changing fields to see if it made any difference, and found if I changed the 7th field from '61' to '51' the code worked just fine and ran to completion.

What is it about setting the kpds5 number to '61' for precipitation that upsets the program?  It also broke when I tried '62' instead of '61' so I'm curious if the number 6 in particular is the culprit.

Thanks,
Matt

// SIGNED //
Matthew C. Sittel
Associate Scientist
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
16WS/WXN, Offutt AFB, NE
(402) 294-3473  DSN: 271-3473





----------------------------------------------------------------
  Complete Ticket History
----------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: ASCII2NC oddity
From: John Halley Gotway
Time: Wed Jan 07 13:44:17 2015

Hello Matt,

Column 8 of the input ascii data should contain the "level"
information,
described in the ascii2nc usage statement as:
   "Level" is the pressure level (hPa) or accumulation interval
(HH[MMSS]).

For precipitation variables, like APCP in GRIB code 61, it's expecting
to
see a timestring in HH[MMSS] format to indicate the accumulation
interval.
If the data values really are accumulated precipitation, just indicate
the
time over which it is accumulated in HH or HHMMSS format.  If it's 1-
hourly
accumulations, using "1", "01", or "010000" would all work fine.  But
"1000"  won't work because it can't parse the timestring.  If it's
actually
an accumulation of 1000 hours, I think we'll need to work on the logic
to
handle that.

John

On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 12:26 PM, SITTEL, MATTHEW C CTR USAF AFWA 16
WS/WXN
via RT <met_help at ucar.edu> wrote:

>
> Wed Jan 07 12:26:57 2015: Request 70295 was acted upon.
> Transaction: Ticket created by matthew.sittel.ctr at us.af.mil
>        Queue: met_help
>      Subject: ASCII2NC oddity
>        Owner: Nobody
>   Requestors: matthew.sittel.ctr at us.af.mil
>       Status: new
>  Ticket <URL:
https://rt.rap.ucar.edu/rt/Ticket/Display.html?id=70295 >
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I have a question about running ASCII2NC in METv4.1.
>
> I have a simple text file with 5 records I want to convert to
NetCDF:
>
> ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -59.8  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0
-9999
> ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -49.1  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0
-9999
> ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -40.3  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0
-9999
> ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -37.3  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0
-9999
> ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -35.1  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0
-9999
>
> When I call 'ascii2nc' I get the following error message:
>
> ERROR  :
> ERROR  : timestring_to_sec(const char *) -> can't parse time string
"1000"
> ERROR  :
>
> What I'm confused by is this: 1000 isn't the time string at all-it's
the
> 8th field in each line.  I tried changing fields to see if it made
any
> difference, and found if I changed the 7th field from '61' to '51'
the code
> worked just fine and ran to completion.
>
> What is it about setting the kpds5 number to '61' for precipitation
that
> upsets the program?  It also broke when I tried '62' instead of '61'
so I'm
> curious if the number 6 in particular is the culprit.
>
> Thanks,
> Matt
>
> // SIGNED //
> Matthew C. Sittel
> Associate Scientist
> University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
> 16WS/WXN, Offutt AFB, NE
> (402) 294-3473  DSN: 271-3473
>
>
>
>
>

------------------------------------------------
Subject: RE: [rt.rap.ucar.edu #70295] ASCII2NC oddity
From: SITTEL, MATTHEW C CTR USAF AFWA 16 WS/WXN
Time: Wed Jan 07 14:42:48 2015

Duh.  Sure seems obvious now.  I didn't catch that specifying 61 for
the kpds5 number changed the check on the next field.  Thanks John...
it works fine now.

Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: John Halley Gotway via RT [mailto:met_help at ucar.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 2:44 PM
To: SITTEL, MATTHEW C CTR USAF AFWA 16 WS/WXN
Subject: Re: [rt.rap.ucar.edu #70295] ASCII2NC oddity

Hello Matt,

Column 8 of the input ascii data should contain the "level"
information, described in the ascii2nc usage statement as:
   "Level" is the pressure level (hPa) or accumulation interval
(HH[MMSS]).

For precipitation variables, like APCP in GRIB code 61, it's expecting
to see a timestring in HH[MMSS] format to indicate the accumulation
interval.
If the data values really are accumulated precipitation, just indicate
the time over which it is accumulated in HH or HHMMSS format.  If it's
1-hourly accumulations, using "1", "01", or "010000" would all work
fine.  But "1000"  won't work because it can't parse the timestring.
If it's actually an accumulation of 1000 hours, I think we'll need to
work on the logic to handle that.

John

On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 12:26 PM, SITTEL, MATTHEW C CTR USAF AFWA 16
WS/WXN via RT <met_help at ucar.edu> wrote:

>
> Wed Jan 07 12:26:57 2015: Request 70295 was acted upon.
> Transaction: Ticket created by matthew.sittel.ctr at us.af.mil
>        Queue: met_help
>      Subject: ASCII2NC oddity
>        Owner: Nobody
>   Requestors: matthew.sittel.ctr at us.af.mil
>       Status: new
>  Ticket <URL:
https://rt.rap.ucar.edu/rt/Ticket/Display.html?id=70295
> >
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I have a question about running ASCII2NC in METv4.1.
>
> I have a simple text file with 5 records I want to convert to
NetCDF:
>
> ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -59.8  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0
-9999
> ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -49.1  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0
-9999
> ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -40.3  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0
-9999
> ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -37.3  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0
-9999
> ADPSFC  ZZZZ  20150103_000000  -35.1  -179.8  0  61  1000  2  0
-9999
>
> When I call 'ascii2nc' I get the following error message:
>
> ERROR  :
> ERROR  : timestring_to_sec(const char *) -> can't parse time string
"1000"
> ERROR  :
>
> What I'm confused by is this: 1000 isn't the time string at all-it's
> the 8th field in each line.  I tried changing fields to see if it
made
> any difference, and found if I changed the 7th field from '61' to
'51'
> the code worked just fine and ran to completion.
>
> What is it about setting the kpds5 number to '61' for precipitation
> that upsets the program?  It also broke when I tried '62' instead of
> '61' so I'm curious if the number 6 in particular is the culprit.
>
> Thanks,
> Matt
>
> // SIGNED //
> Matthew C. Sittel
> Associate Scientist
> University Corporation for Atmospheric Research 16WS/WXN, Offutt
AFB,
> NE
> (402) 294-3473  DSN: 271-3473
>
>
>
>
>



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