NOAA’s National Weather Service Accessing the GRIB2 encoded National Digital Forecast Database

1. NOAA’sNational Weather ServiceAccessing the GRIB2 encoded National Digital Forecast Database Arthur Taylor NOAA/NWS/Meteorological Development Laboratory NOAA WebShop 2004 July 28, 2004

2. NDFD: What is it? • The National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD), is a mosaic of the National Weather Service’s (NWS) digital forecasts • It is available free to all. • It is updated hourly with the best forecast available to the NWS. • It contains the following variables at various temporal steps out to 7 days: • Maximum Temperature, Minimum Temperature, Probability of Precipitation, Temperature, Wind Direction, Wind Speed, Dew Point Temperature, Sky Coverage, Quantity of Precipitation, Snow Amount, Wave Height, and Weather (which includes visibility). • Advantage? • The NDFD provides a single place to go in order to get the best forecast available from the NWS each hour.

3. NDFD: How do I get it? • The NDFD is available in the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) GRIB (version 2) format at: • http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/ • ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/ • It is broken up into various geographic areas which include: • The Continental U.S. (CONUS), • Various predefined sectors which are: Pacific North West, Pacific South West, Northern Rockies, Central Rockies, Southern Rockies, Northern Plains, Central Plains, Southern Plains, Upper Mississippi Valley, Central Mississippi Valley, Southern Mississippi Valley, Central Great Lakes, Eastern Great Lakes, North East, South East, and Mid Atlantic sectors. • Puerto Rico. • Inside a sector it is broken up into the various weather elements.

4. NDFD: Which Sector?

5. NDFD: Custom Sector? • The predefined sectors are created hourly, and are already waiting to be downloaded. • Advantage: Speed. • Data is already available and ready to transmit when the request for the data arrives on the server. • Disadvantage: Flexibility. • If a user is interested in a specific area, he/she will either need to download multiple sectors, or download excess information. • Alternate solution? • Provide a web service which allows the user to specify the area they are interested in. The service encodes just that portion of the NDFD in GRIB2 and sends it back.

6. NDFD: Custom Sector. • The experimental custom sector web service is available at: • http://ndfd.weather.gov/cgi-bin/ndfd/gribcut • The following call gets the maximum temperature in a subgrid which is defined with its lower left corner at lat=30, lon=-100, and its upper right corner at lat=40, lon=-90: • gribcut?var=maxt&lat1=30&lon1=-100&lat2=40&lon2=-90 • For more information see: • http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ndfd/grib.htm • Advantage: Flexible. • The user can choose any latitude longitude box. Note the box is not allowed to be larger than 15 degrees on a side. • Disadvantage: Speed. • The data is encoded upon request, which means some work on the server side. • In a high demand period this method may slow down. • If this becomes an issue, various methods can be used to speed it up.

7. NDFD: How do I use it? • Since NDFD uses the WMO’s GRIB2 format, how do I read a GRIB2 file? • The NWS has provided NDFD users a program (“degrib”) to easily download and locally decode GRIB2 files see: • http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/NDFD_GRIB2Decoder/ • “degrib” can be installed on most local operating systems (Windows, Linux, UNIX). • It provides a graphical user interface for specifying products to download and decode, along with some image generation capability. • The software is based on the GRIB2 library available at: • http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/iwt/grib2/decoder.htm • http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/iwt/grib2/encoder.htm

8. Degrib: What can it do? • Download NDFD Data • Inventory GRIB and GRIB2 files • Convert GRIB and GRIB2 data to other formats • ESRI .shp (point, small polygon, large polygon) files • .flt files (used by GrADS and ESRI Spatial Analyst) • netCDF files • .csv files • Probe GRIB and GRIB2 data at a given point. • Interpret the meta-data provided in the GRIB and GRIB2 files. Note: Both a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and command line interface are provided. See “c:/ndfd/degrib15/docs/degrib.txt” for information on the command line interface.

9. Degrib: Installation • Degrib can be downloaded from: • http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/NDFD_GRIB2Decoder/register.htm • On the download page, MS-Windows users should get “ndfd-demo.exe”, which contains: • An installation wizard • Compiled code • Source code for the libraries, and the “degrib” and “tkdegrib” programs (superImageGen and htmlmaker source code are not provided) • Documentation • Unix users should get “degrib-unix.tar.gz”, which contains: • Source code for the libraries and the “degrib” and “tkdegrib” programs • Documentation. • To compile the code you need: • FORTRAN (g77 should work) : for the decoder library • C (gcc should work) : for the “drivers” and projection library • Optional : Tcl/Tk (free from http://scriptics.com) : for the Graphical User Interface

10. Degrib: Data download • Step 1: Download some data. • The GUI version of degrib, “tkdegrib”, provides an interface to get NDFD either via ftp or http. • Highlight the desired sector • Click on either “Download by ftp” or “Download by http” • Alternatively, you can get the data directly from: • http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/ • ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/

11. Degrib: Data download • Step 1 continued: • The GUI version of degrib now provides a “custom” sector, which you control by: • Use the “file->configure” menu. • Choose the “Custom” tab. • Enter in the desired area, press ok. • In addition there is a command line method to download various sectors and variables, using: • cd C:\ndfd\degrib15\bin\ • tcldegrib web.tcl

12. Degrib: Convert to .shp file • To convert to .shp format: • Double click on the GRIB2 file (top pane) • Select message to convert (middle pane) • Choose an “output file name” • Click on “Generate .shp file” • “Small Polygon” creates better images in ESRI and is easier to manipulate, but it is larger than the “Point .shp” • “Large Polygon” merges polygons together to create smaller files, but makes grid to grid comparison more difficult. • “Include Missing Values” allows you to study the entire grid, or limit the result to where data exists

13. CONUS MaxT in ArcView After converting the grid, start up ESRI ArcView, then load the layer (.shp file) that you just created. Use the color legend found in: C:/ndfd/degrib15/arcview/poly_legend (for polygon shapefiles) C:/ndfd/degrib15/arcview/point_legend (for point shapefiles)

14. Polygon vs Point, DC area

15. NDFD CONUS Map Projection • For CONUS (continental U.S.), NDFD uses a Lambert Conformal Conic Map Projection: • Tangent latitutude 25, orientation longitude -95, mesh latitude 25, mesh size 5079.406 m. • In ESRI ArcMap that would be: • 1st Parallel = 2nd Parallel = 25 degrees north (tangent latitude) • Lon of center of projection = -95 degrees (orientation longitude) • Lat of center of projection = 25 degrees (tangent latitude) • False easting = 0 m, False northing = 0 m, X Shift = 0, Y Shift = 0 • In addition, NDFD uses a spherical earth with radius 6371.2 km • To assist ESRI ArcView 3.x, degrib creates a .ave (ArcView Avenue script) to set the projection and radius correctly. • For ArcGIS, please see /degrib/arcview/prj.adf, and ndfd.prj

16. Un-projected vs Projected

17. Degrib: Convert to .flt file • To convert to .flt file (for use with GrADS or ESRI Spatial Analyst): • Double click on the GRIB2 file (top pane) • Select message to convert (middle pane) • Choose an “output file name” • Click on “Generate .flt file” • “Grid” allows you to select what kind of interpolation to do (or keep the original projection). • “GrADS .ctl file”: creates a control file which GrADS can use to access the .flt file • “M.S.B. first”: creates the .flt files in “Big Endian” format.

18. CONUS MaxT in GrADS

19. Degrib: Convert to netCDF file • To convert to netCDF file: • Double click on the GRIB2 file (top pane) • Select message to convert (middle pane) • Choose an “output file name” • Click on “Generate NetCDF (.nc) file” • This creates a netCDF file according to the “CF” metadata conventions. • This converts 1 GRIB message to 1 netCDF file. • An improvement would be for multiple GRIB messages to go to 1 netCDF file.

20. CONUS MinT in NetCDF

21. Degrib: Convert to .csv file • To convert to CSV file: • Double click on the GRIB2 file (top pane) • Select message to convert (middle pane) • Choose an “output file name” • Click on “Generate .csv files” • This creates a comma separated text file which can be worked with in excel. • Note: Excel has problems loading the CONUS NDFD, as it appears to be limited to 65,536 records, while the NDFD typically has 739,297 records

22. CONUS MinT in .csv in Excel

23. Degrib: Probe point • Degrib also provides the ability to probe a GRIB file at a set of latitude longitude locations. It computes the value at that spot, and returns a text message. Note: this is not available in the GUI. To do so from the command line: • C:\ndfd\degrib\bin\degrib maxt.bin –P –pnt 38.99,-77.03 • C:\ndfd\degrib\bin\degrib maxt.bin –P –pntFile point.txt • The first example probes just 1 point, while the second reads a file which is of the form: StationID, lat, lon per line. The second form allows for numerous stations. • By default, probe chooses the “nearest” grid cell, but using the “-Interp” option, causes it to perform bi-linear interpolation. • See (/degrib/docs/degrib.txt for more help)

24. Probe point (MaxT, MinT, PoP) element, unit, refTime, validTime, (38.993600,-77.022400) PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307220000, 39.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307221200, 39.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307230000, 50.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307231200, 50.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307240000, 50.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307241200, 50.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307250000, 20.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307251200, 20.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307260000, 14.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307261200, 5.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307270000, 5.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307271200, 11.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307280000, 11.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307281200, 21.000 PoP12, [%], 200307212300, 200307290000, 21.000 • element, unit, refTime, validTime, (38.993600,-77.022400) • MaxT, [F], 200307212300, 200307230000, 86.882 • MaxT, [F], 200307212300, 200307240000, 82.375 • MaxT, [F], 200307212300, 200307250000, 85.233 • MaxT, [F], 200307212300, 200307260000, 87.753 • MaxT, [F], 200307212300, 200307270000, 89.395 • MaxT, [F], 200307212300, 200307280000, 87.775 • MaxT, [F], 200307212300, 200307290000, 86.800 • element, unit, refTime, validTime, (38.993600,-77.022400) • MinT, [F], 200307212300, 200307221200, 72.625 • MinT, [F], 200307212300, 200307231200, 73.165 • MinT, [F], 200307212300, 200307241200, 69.025 • MinT, [F], 200307212300, 200307251200, 65.965 • MinT, [F], 200307212300, 200307261200, 67.945 • MinT, [F], 200307212300, 200307271200, 69.745 • MinT, [F], 200307212300, 200307281200, 69.025

25. NDFD, GRIB2 & Weather • To encode Weather (Wx), NDFD disseminates “weather strings”. • Advantage: A flexible format that can encode a description of weather such as “Chance of thunderstorms and chance of heavy rain showers” • Difficulty: A “weather string” is not a number, so it is challenging to store in GRIB2. • Solution: Use GRIB2 section 2 to provide an ASCII look up table, and store the numeric values in the regular GRIB2 • Note: each weather grid, for each forecast projection, has a different ASCII look up table, so without section 2 it has no meaning. • Some Questions: • What does “Chc:T:<NoInten>:<NoVis>:^Chc:RW:+:<NoVis>:” mean, and how, for example, is an Emergency Manager supposed to know that? • What can be done for the .flt file?

26. Degrib: Future? • Maintain the program by keeping up with NDFD as more variables / sectors are introduced. • In order to inform users of updates, degrib has an “announcement mailing list”, which at the last release had 434 people on it. • Improvements: Based on user feedback, current thoughts are: • Create some form of graphical probe point capability • Add some way for UNIX users (without GrADS) to plot the images • Add some way for users to zoom in on a map • Improve the NetCDF and GrADS file outputs to contain multiple GRIB messages.