Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 07:29:10 -0600 (MDT) From: Bob Rozumalski Subject: Modsnd Version 4.1 Unleashed! Modsnd Version 4.1 Unleashed! Note: This announcement has been recycled to save precious brain cells. Greetings All, Earthquake in the Northwest? I don't think so. What the USGS failed to mention was that the tremors were not cause by tectonic plates smashing against each other, but rather, by the excitement building in anticipation of the Modsnd 4.1 package release. That's correct, this release is an earth-moving experience! http://strc.comet.ucar.edu/modsnd Yes, everything you've heard about Modsnd version 4.1 (Steve Dallas release) is true. The all new Modsnd is the greatest thing since the early 1970's when Quisp banished Quake to a future in cereal box character purgatory during that era's version of American Idol. It has taken 30 years but that culinary monolith has finally been surpassed; except you can't eat this one. Included in this version is faster, more efficient BUFR file processing support for every possible BUFR file type I could find. There is also an updated support web page, plus a whole lot more! Modsnd 4.1 is significantly faster than its predecessor. By some mostly reliable estimates there is an 20x increase in performance, leaving extra time for that special MIC in your life. Modsnd 4.1 is available on the soostrc ftp server in the modsnd directory. I suggest that you first go to the STRC modsnd web page for information on setting up and running modsnd. If you are not familiar with BUFKIT and/or modsnd, you should be. Call me. A Change Summary for Modsnd Version 4.1: a/2. The get_bufr script has been completely rewritten in Perl. a. The get_bufr script is more efficient than before, but I said that already. It will detect when you have already downloaded and processes requested files and will only only grab the files you want. It almost thinks for you. b. You can now request multiple stations at once using a mix of station numbers and IDs. I've tested the script with as many 800 stations, which didn't work only because my FTP connection was terminated by NCEP after about 140. But I was living large for a while watching the files roll in. Duplicate requests are no problem, remember, it thinks for you. c. Adding and removing support for different model data sets has been greatly simplified by the use of almost to easy to understand configuration files. d. Support for the following data sets has been included: Eta BUFR data sets: eta : Operational Eta Model BUFR files etaa : Operational Eta Model BUFR files archived on the SOO/STRC ftp server Eta BUFR threats data sets: etata : BUFR files from the threats runs over Alaska etath : BUFR files from the threats runs over Hawaii etatw : BUFR files from the threats runs over the western US etate : BUFR files from the threats runs over the eastern US etatc : BUFR files from the threats runs over the central US etatp : BUFR files from the threats runs over Puerto Rico GFS BUFR data sets: gfs3 : Operational GFS Model BUFR files (3-hourly) gfs3t : Operational GFS Model BUFR files (3-hourly) using Eta Station list gfs1 : COMING SOON: Operational GFS Model BUFR files (1-hourly) SREF BUFR data sets: sref : As soon as they are made available RUC BUFR data sets: ruc : Hourly operational RUC Model BUFR files NGM BUFR data sets: ngm : NGM - Same as it ever was and will be e. Almost all functionality is now command line driven. Options for verbose and debugging modes, ftping BUFKIT files to a remote server, archiving data, specifying dates and cycle time of data. Yea, it's in there. f. Lots of error checking has been added. More dynamic verbs too. g. Here are 2 examples of how to use the get_bufr.pl script: % get_bufr.pl -m eta KRDU KGSO 723140 723060 The above get_bufr.pl call will download and process the most current operational eta BUFR files for Raleigh, Greensboro, and Charlotte, NC. You can mix station numbers and IDs. Duplicate (723060) and non-existent stations will be ignored. If the time is 1600 UTC when the above command is executed then the script will attempt to download data from the 1200 UTC cycle run. Note that if the time is 1430 UTC then the script will attempt to download 0600 UTC BUFR data since it is unlikely that the 1200 UTC data are available. See the DELAY setting in the model configuration file for more information. % get_bufr.pl -f -c 00 -d 040311 -m etaa KRDU KGSO 723140 Same as above except above except download data from the 11 March 2004 0000 UTC cycle run of the operational eta model from the SOO/STRC ftp server. Note that the server only keeps ~ 3weeks of data on-line at any given time. Ftp the final BUFKIT files to a user-defined remote server. See the modsnd.conf file to specify the server and location to upload the files. f. You can now easily peruse the lists of available stations for each data set with the "-s MODEL " argument. % get_bufr.pl -s gfs3 ' CO ' Matches for CO from the gfs3 BUFR station list: 72464 38.46N 104.18W PUB PUEBLO, CO 1618 WSR88D 3-93 72467 38.53N 106.93W GUC GUNNISON, CO 2339 72468 38.70N 104.77W FCS FORT CARSON, CO 1789 UA 72469 37.75N 104.87W DEN DENVER, CO 1625 72476 39.12N 108.53W GJT GRAND JUNCTION, CO 1475 UA NA110 FOUS 74530 37.77N 102.18W P#C GDAC2 GRANADA CO 1155 PROF 74533 40.18N 104.72W P#D PLTC2 PLATTEVILLE CO 1524 PROF Contact me if you have any questions. You know where I live. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Announcements take a long time to compose. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Robert A. Rozumalski NWS National SOO Science and Training Resource Coordinator COMET/UCAR PO Box 3000 Phone: 303.497.8356 Boulder, CO 80307-3000 FAX: 303.497.8491 SOO/STRC Home Page: http://strc.comet.ucar.edu +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++