Hiya,
I'm in the process of modifying a surface (METAR) decoder that stores the
results in a netCDF file. It would be good if the variables names followed
the CF conventions to get the benefit of standardized names, etc. Currently
the CF conventions don't have all the variable names needed to represent
the METAR data. So I made an attempt to expand/modify a CF convention name to
represent a needed variable name. For instance, the CF convention name
wind_speed was used to create the needed variable wind_gust. Following is a
list of new variable names needed to represent the METAR data. I would
appreciate if the names would be added to the CF conventions so others
writing decoders would have standard set of names. Also, in the future my
plan is to modify the other decoders in the Unidata decoders package to use
the CF conventions.
Thanks,
Robb...
// Report time information
char datetime( station, interval, time_len ) ;
datetime:long_name = "Observation time";
datetime:_FillValue = "\0";
// units YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ssZ (ISO 8601)
long time_observation( station, interval ) ;
time_observation:long_name = "time of Observation";
time_observation:_FillValue = -99999;
time_observation:units = "seconds since 1970-01-01 00 UTC";
long time_nominal( station, interval ) ;
time_nominal:long_name = "time nominal";
time_nominal:_FillValue = -99999;
time_nominal:units = "seconds since 1970-01-01 00 UTC";
// Wind
float wind_gust( station, interval ) ;
wind_gust:long_name = "Wind Gust";
wind_gust:_FillValue = -99999.f;
wind_gust:units = "m/s";
int wind_from_direction_min( station, interval ) ;
wind_from_direction_min:long_name = "wind from direction minimum";
wind_from_direction_min:_FillValue = -99999;
wind_from_direction_min:valid_range = 0, 360;
wind_from_direction_min:units = "degrees";
int wind_from_direction_max( station, interval ) ;
wind_from_direction_max:long_name = "wind from direction maximum";
wind_from_direction_max:_FillValue = -99999;
wind_from_direction_max:valid_range = 0, 360;
wind_from_direction_max:units = "degrees";
int wind_peak_from_direction( station, interval ) ;
wind_peak_from_direction:long_name = "Peak wind direction";
wind_peak_from_direction:_FillValue = -99999;
wind_peak_from_direction:valid_range = 0, 360;
wind_peak_from_direction:units = "degrees";
float wind_peak_speed( station, interval ) ;
wind_peak_speed:long_name = "Peak wind speed";
wind_peak_speed:_FillValue = -99999.f;
wind_peak_speed:units = "m/s";
char wind_peak_time( station, interval, time_len ) ;
wind_peak_time:long_name = "Peak wind time";
wind_peak_time:_FillValue = "\0";
// units YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ssZ (ISO 8601)
// Visibility
char visibility_in_air_direction( station, interval, vis_len ) ;
visibility_in_air_direction:long_name = "visibility in
air direction";
visibility_in_air_direction:_FillValue = "\0";
//visibility_in_air_direction:units = "degrees";
float visibility_in_air_vertical( station, interval ) ;
visibility_in_air_vertical:long_name = "Vertical visibility in air";
visibility_in_air_vertical:_FillValue = -99999.f;
visibility_in_air_vertical:units = "meters";
float visibility_in_air_surface( station, interval ) ;
visibility_in_air_surface:long_name = "Visibility in air at surface";
visibility_in_air_surface:_FillValue = -99999.f;
visibility_in_air_surface:units = "meters";
// Clouds
float low_cloud_area_fraction( station, interval ) ;
low_cloud_area_fraction:long_name = "Low cloud area fraction";
low_cloud_area_fraction:_FillValue = -99999.f;
low_cloud_area_fraction:units = "fraction";
float low_cloud_base_altitude( station, interval ) ;
low_cloud_base_altitude:long_name = "Low cloud base";
low_cloud_base_altitude:_FillValue = -99999.f;
low_cloud_base_altitude:units = "meters";
float middle_cloud_area_fraction( station, interval ) ;
middle_cloud_area_fraction:long_name = "Middle cloud area fraction";
middle_cloud_area_fraction:_FillValue = -99999.f;
middle_cloud_area_fraction:units = "fraction";
float middle_cloud_base_altitude( station, interval ) ;
middle_cloud_base_altitude:long_name = "Middle cloud base";
middle_cloud_base_altitude:_FillValue = -99999.f;
middle_cloud_base_altitude:units = "meters";
float high_cloud_area_fraction( station, interval ) ;
high_cloud_area_fraction:long_name = "High cloud area fraction";
high_cloud_area_fraction:_FillValue = -99999.f;
high_cloud_area_fraction:units = "fraction";
float high_cloud_base_altitude( station, interval ) ;
high_cloud_base_altitude:long_name = "High cloud base";
high_cloud_base_altitude:_FillValue = -99999.f;
high_cloud_base_altitude:units = "meters";
// Weather
char weather( station, interval, weather_len ) ;
weather:long_name = "Weather phenomena";
weather:_FillValue = "\0";
weather:reference = "WMO #306, code table 4658";
// Precipitation
float snowfall_amount_last_hour( station, interval ) ;
snowfall_amount_last_hour:long_name = "Snow fall amount last hour";
snowfall_amount_last_hour:_FillValue = -99999.f;
snowfall_amount_last_hour:units = "inches";
float precipitation_amount_hourly( station, interval ) ;
precipitation_amount_hourly:long_name = "Hourly precipitation amount";
precipitation_amount_hourly:_FillValue = -99999.f;
precipitation_amount_hourly:units = ".01 inches";
float precipitation_amount_24( station, interval ) ;
precipitation_amount_24:long_name = "24 hour precipitation amount";
precipitation_amount_24:_FillValue = -99999.f;
precipitation_amount_24:units = ".01 inches";
===============================================================================
Robb Kambic Unidata Program Center
Software Engineer III Univ. Corp for Atmospheric Research
rkambic at unidata.ucar.edu WWW:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/
===============================================================================
Received on Tue Feb 24 2004 - 14:35:54 GMT
