TAMDAR Discussion Board

new sounding criteria, and Canadian data

Posted By: Bill Moninger
Date: 12-January-05 2124Z

[this is a copy of a message that I posted to the ACARS information. I'm posting it here also because its particularly relevant to TAMDAR and GLFE.] Today at 18 UTC, Canadian AMDAR data became available on the FSL Aircraft web display and through FSL's MADIS data distribution system. On the java display at http://acweb.fsl.noaa.gov/java/, you can select to display *only* Canadian data via the 'Select' button. Also, the criteria for "good" soundings (for all aircraft) has been considerably loosened. This is important because only "good" soundings are displayable on AWIPS systems that are ingesting MADIS data. (AWIPS is the NWS Forecaster workstation.) A sounding is now considered "good" if: - the lowest point is within 50 nm of a known airport - the lowest point is not higher than 2000 ft AGL - no gap in altitude greater than 5000 ft exists - the sounding extends to at least 1000 ft MSL Also, for flight tracks that contain soundings, the origin and/or destination airport are corrected if the indicated origin/destination differs by more than 50 nm from the airport(s) nearest the bottom of the sounding(s). (Apparently, it occasionally happens that the pilots reverse the origin and destination airports when they enter these.) Please note that currently, due to different airport abbreviations used by different airlines, the same airport may be indicated in more than one way. For instance, Winnipeg is indicated both as CYWG and YWG. If you display aircraft soundings by using the sounding frame's 'Load Other Sdgs' button, or by using the web site at http://www-frd.fsl.noaa.gov/mab/soundings/java/, you'll have to use *both* abbreviations to display all the soundings. (If this becomes a major problem, let me know and I'll address it in a future upgrade.) Please let me know if you encounter problems. -Bill