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#11
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For those that are interested a very well written piece of Open Source
software for decoding METARs is called PHPWeather and is available at http://phpweather.sourceforge.net/. PHP is a script language that runs on a web server and outputs HTML to your browser. As computer languages go, it is not very intimidating to anyone with basic programming skills. For an example of its output here is the translations for the following METAR from Reid Hillview Airport: KRHV 230149Z 20008KT 10SM SCT045 SCT065 BKN150 15/07 A2990 "This is a report for San Jose / Reid / Hillv, United States. The report was made one hour and 3 minutes ago, at 01:49 UTC. The wind was blowing at a speed of 4.1 meters per second (9.2 miles per hour) from south/southwest (200°). The temperature was 15 °C (59 °F), with a dew-point at 7 °C (45 °F). The atmospheric pressure was 1013 hPa (29.90 inHg). The relative humidity was 58.7%. There were scattered clouds at a height of 1372 meter (4500 feet), scattered clouds at a height of 1981 meter (6500 feet), and broken clouds at a height of 4572 meter (15000 feet). The overall visibility was 16.1 kilometers (10.0 miles). " I have had a lot of fun with this software. An early version of an application that uses it, that I am working on can be seen on my webpage(http://www.brenorbrophy.com/). It is called Micro Wx - it outputs a small (both screen image and bytes) current weather summary suitable for a web capable cell phone. Before anyone chimes in with how this has been done before - I know, but it hasn't been done exactly the way I want it and my version has. Funnily enough, I would have originally agreed strongly with the OP - why the hell do we still work with these abbreviations invented for the bandwidth of a telex machine in the era of the Internet. Well now it appears your typical wireless cellphone connection (and tiny screen) has taken us back to telex style. -Brenor "Nathan Young" wrote in message ... On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 14:35:52 -0400, Peter Clark wrote: On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 12:37:54 -0500, wrote: KHSV 221553Z 19009KT 6SM BR FEW020 BKN035 OVC100 19/18 A2986 RMK AO2 TSE00RAE11 SLP104 TS MOV NE P0000 T01890178= I know, and I can read it. And someone is going to say that they prefer it that way. I can just see an ASR-33 Teletype machine jumping up and down and saying that 10 characters per second is what God made for us. How about FDL uplinks? I think they're only around 30K/s. I'd rather see that used uploading the Nexrad info rather than English form METAR. The translation of the raw data is trivial to do in the client end of the system (a-la the Bendix KDR510/810, or the XM weather in the G1000, it shows both decoded and raw-data TAF and raw-data METAR if available for the reporting stations). It is not as trivial as it should be. METAR decoder software is difficult to write because of the special weather statements that can be included in a METAR entry (things like RVR, multiple precip types, etc). Simple parsers can grab winds, date, time, and cloud conditions. But to be all-encompassing requires a bit more. I found a package (via NOAA?) that would do METAR decodes, and it included approximately 30KB of source code, which seemed like a lot for the extra bit of functionality it provided. |
#12
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On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 18:14:47 GMT, Nathan Young
wrote: On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 12:37:54 -0500, wrote: KHSV 221553Z 19009KT 6SM BR FEW020 BKN035 OVC100 19/18 A2986 RMK AO2 TSE00RAE11 SLP104 TS MOV NE P0000 T01890178= I know, and I can read it. And someone is going to say that they prefer it that way. I prefer it this way. Once you are used to it, it is shorthand, and is quicker to read than the longhand version, which would read something like this... Huntsville International Airport, April 22, 1553Z weather. Winds 190@09kts, 6 statute miles visibility in mist. Few clouds at 2000 feet, broken cloulds at 3500 feet, overcast clouds at 10,000 feet. Temperature 19 deg C, dewpoint 18 deg C, Altimeter 29.86... Good job, so far... I noticed you didn't decode the remarks portion, which is what I found far from easy to read. Shorthand is great, but in this case there were severe thunderstorms approaching the field. Mike Weller |
#14
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On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 03:02:23 GMT, "Brenor Brophy"
wrote: For those that are interested a very well written piece of Open Source software for decoding METARs is called PHPWeather and is available at http://phpweather.sourceforge.net/. PHP is a script language that runs on a web server and outputs HTML to your browser. As computer languages go, it is not very intimidating to anyone with basic programming skills. A buddy of mine wrote a simple PHP script that does the same thing except it creates an image file for the output on the web site. I now use it on my web site for my students to show the current METAR for COS and PUB. The biggest difference between his and PHPweather (except for the HTML/Image difference) is PHPWeather is about 2.8 megs large, where the one I use is only 2KB and the image that it creates is about 500 bytes. Since I don't care about weather clear on the other side of the world this works fine and all I have to do is pull up my web site and its there. I don't have to select what airport I want. Scott D To email remove spamcatcher |
#15
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Agreed, PHPWeather does everything - so it is usually a lot more than anyone
needs. It is really made as a set of programming tools (classes really) that you can pick and choose from to create your own weather application. For example, I just use it to fetch the METAR and parse it into a form my own code can easily use to determine if the conditions are VFR/MVFR/IFR/LIFR and then color code the airport name and weather graphic I display on a radar map. The 2.8M doesn't get downloaded - it stays on the web server (so the size of teh script really doesn't matter - web hosting companies are not that stingy on space anymore - at least they shouldn't be). The only thing that gets downloaded is whatever the output of the script is - and this can be very compact indeed. -Brenor Scott D. wrote in message ... On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 03:02:23 GMT, "Brenor Brophy" wrote: For those that are interested a very well written piece of Open Source software for decoding METARs is called PHPWeather and is available at http://phpweather.sourceforge.net/. PHP is a script language that runs on a web server and outputs HTML to your browser. As computer languages go, it is not very intimidating to anyone with basic programming skills. A buddy of mine wrote a simple PHP script that does the same thing except it creates an image file for the output on the web site. I now use it on my web site for my students to show the current METAR for COS and PUB. The biggest difference between his and PHPweather (except for the HTML/Image difference) is PHPWeather is about 2.8 megs large, where the one I use is only 2KB and the image that it creates is about 500 bytes. Since I don't care about weather clear on the other side of the world this works fine and all I have to do is pull up my web site and its there. I don't have to select what airport I want. Scott D To email remove spamcatcher |
#16
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On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 12:37:54 -0500, wrote:
Kind of like the farmers here who said that we were messing with God's time when we went to daylight savings time. Are you suggesting that they were wrong? Or can your cows read a clock? -- all the best, Dan Ford email (put Cubdriver in subject line) Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com Piper Cub Forum: www.pipercubforum.com the blog: www.danford.net In Search of Lost Time: www.readingproust.com |
#17
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On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 19:55:22 GMT, Nathan Young
wrote: It is not as trivial as it should be. METAR decoder software is difficult to write because of the special weather statements that can be included in a METAR entry (things like RVR, multiple precip types, etc). Simple parsers can grab winds, date, time, and cloud conditions. But to be all-encompassing requires a bit more. I found a package (via NOAA?) that would do METAR decodes, and it included approximately 30KB of source code, which seemed like a lot for the extra bit of functionality it provided. My memory was hazy. I found the original link from which I grabbed the source code. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oso/metardcd.shtml The link is broken, but it lists the source code as 49k compressed or 413k uncompressed source code. Either way, that's a ton of code! |
#18
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On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 05:32:07 GMT, "Brenor Brophy"
wrote: Agreed, PHPWeather does everything - so it is usually a lot more than anyone needs. It is really made as a set of programming tools (classes really) that you can pick and choose from to create your own weather application. For example, I just use it to fetch the METAR and parse it into a form my own code can easily use to determine if the conditions are VFR/MVFR/IFR/LIFR and then color code the airport name and weather graphic I display on a radar map. The 2.8M doesn't get downloaded - it stays on the web server (so the size of teh script really doesn't matter - web hosting companies are not that stingy on space anymore - at least they shouldn't be). The only thing that gets downloaded is whatever the output of the script is - and this can be very compact indeed. Well, true. I just didnt need all the features and the hassels of setting it up, so this smaller one workes just fine. I just wished I had time to dink around with it so it would skim off TAFs as well. I just never seem to find enough time to mess with code anymore. Scott D To email remove spamcatcher |
#19
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On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 06:21:42 -0400, Cub Driver
wrote: On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 12:37:54 -0500, wrote: Kind of like the farmers here who said that we were messing with God's time when we went to daylight savings time. Are you suggesting that they were wrong? Or can your cows read a clock? Dan, these folks don't understand that both farmers and the farm animals are conditioned to listen to the Farm Report on the radio first thing every morning, where the local version of Les Nessen reads the day's futures prices for sow bellies and so forth. It gives the farmers some hope they're going to be able to pay off this year's loans, and for the animals, well, it's like the way silverbacks like you and I read the obituaries. Now along comes daylight savings time, and they're getting the news an hour later. It's unsettling. Don |
#20
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On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 06:21:42 -0400, Cub Driver
wrote: On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 12:37:54 -0500, wrote: Kind of like the farmers here who said that we were messing with God's time when we went to daylight savings time. Are you suggesting that they were wrong? Of course not! Especially after the lightning stroke that I took right after I posted the original message. Or can your cows read a clock? No, but my dogs sure can. It confuses the crap out of them (literally) when the 6 o'clock news gal, and her music, are out of sync with their stomachs. -- all the best, Dan Ford Mike Weller |
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