Quick Help for Weather and Climate Toolkit
Data:
NOAA's Weather and Climate Toolkit is an application that provides simple visualization and data
export of weather and climatological data archived at NCDC. The Toolkit also provides access to
weather/climate web services provided from NCDC and other organizations.
The Viewer provides tools for displaying custom data overlays, Web Map Services (WMS),
animations and basic filters. The export of images and movies is provided in multiple formats.
The Data Exporter allows for data export in both vector point/line/polygon and raster grid formats.
Current data types supported:
- CF-compliant Gridded NetCDF
- Generic CF-compliant Irregularly-Spaced/Curvilinear Gridded NetCDF/HDF
- GRIB1, GRIB2, GINI, GEMPAK, HDF (CF-compliant) and more gridded formats
- GOES Satellite AREA Files
- NEXRAD Radar Data (Level-II and Level-III)
- U.S. Drought Monitor Service (from the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC))
- OPeNDAP support for Gridded Datasets
To order archived NEXRAD Radar data, go to the
NCDC NEXRAD Inventory ( https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/nexradinv ).
The NCDC NEXRAD Data Inventory online search tool is accessable through the Viewer's "Data - Order NEXRAD Data" menu option.
The webpage will be opened from the default browser. Data may be ordered
directly from the inventory. The user will recieve an email and "HAS Job Number" when
an order is complete. The data may then be accessed through the "Load NEXRAD Data" menu
item.
To order archived GOES Satellite data, go to the
NOAA CLASS System ( http://www.class.noaa.gov ), select 'GVAR_IMG' and order in 'AREA' format.
CLASS is NOAA's online facility for distribution of Polor-orbiting (POES) and Geostationary (GOES) data.
Select the 'GVAR_IMG' product and order the data in 'AREA' format and accept all other default options.
Controls:
Zoom: Use mouse wheel to zoom in or out, drag out zoom box with left mouse button, or use page-up/page-down keys.
Pan: Select Pan tool (hand icon) and drag the map or use arrow keys.
NEXRAD Data Filename Format:
YYYY = year, MM = month, DD = day, HH = hour, MM = minute, SS = second
Level-II (uncompressed, UNIX .Z or GZIP .gz compression):
AAAAYYYYMMDD_HHMMSS or 6500AAAAYYYYMMDD_HHMMSS - where AAAA = 4-letter Radar ID
AAAAYYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_Vvv or 6500AAAAYYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_Vvv - where AAAA = 4-letter Radar ID and vv = data version number (> build 10 NEXRAD software)
Example: KHTX20020424_164107 or 6500KHTX20020424_164107 or KHTX20020424_164107_V03.gz
Level-III: (uncompressed NIDS format)
ABBB_CCCCCC_EEEAAA_YYYYMMDDHHMM or 7000ABBB_CCCCCC_DDDAAA_YYYYMMDDHHMM
Where: AAAA = 4-letter ID of source Radar, BBB = 3-letter ID of transmitting Radar,
CCCCCC = WMO code, EEE = Level-III Product Code.
Example: KMHX_SDUS52_N0RMHX_200309182020 or 7000KMHX_SDUS52_N0RMHX_200309182020
Level-III: (uncompressed NIDS format from NWS FTP Site)
sn.last or sn.XXXX
Where: XXXX = Repeating file index number
Example: sn.last, sn.0001, sn.0002, sn.0003
Stage-III XMRG:
xmrg_MMDDYYYY_HHz_XX
Where: XXXX = 2-letter initials for RFC Region
Example: xmrg_09192004_00z_SE (Southeast Region)
GOES AREA Files from CLASS:
goesAA.YYYY.DDD.HHMMSS.BAND_BB
Where: AA = GOES satellite ID (09, 12, etc...), DDD = Julian Day, BB = Band
Band 01 = Visible, 02 = Short Wave, 03 = Infrared Water Vapor, 04 = Infrared Window, 05 - Infrared Split Window, 06 - Infrared CO2
Example: goes12.2008.213.204514.BAND_01 ( GOES 12 Visible )
Features:
Load Data (from NCDC, Local Disk or Custom URL): Data > Load Data.
Adjust Map Overlays: Data > Layer Selector.
Load Local Shapefile: Data > Layer Selector > Load Local Data.
Export Data to Shapefile, ESRI Grid, GrADS, etc: Data > Load Data > Export.
Save Image: File > Save Image.
Web Map Services (WMS) Backgrounds
WMS data such as road maps, topo map, aerial photography, shaded relief and landsat7
can be loaded directly into the Viewer.
To use this feature, select the "WMS" tab from the "Layer Selector" window.
The WMS layers will automatically refresh with a change in the zoom extent or by pressing "Refresh".
More information on currently supported data:
1. Nexrad Level-II
Nexrad Level-II contains the three base data moments (Reflectivity, Velocity and Spectrum Width).
2. Nexrad Level-III
Nexrad Level-III are products derived from Level-II data.
Currently the following Level-III Products are supported:
N0R,N1R,N2R,N3R - Reflectivity
N0V,N1V,N2V,N3V - Velocity 124 nm
N0S,N1S,N2S,N3S - Storm Relative Velocity
N0W - Velocity 32 nm
NSP - Spectrum Width 32 nm
NSW - Spectrum Width 124 nm
NCO - Composite Reflectivity 248 nm 8-levels
NCR - Composite Reflectivity 124 nm
NCZ - Composite Reflectivity 248 nm
NLL - Low Layer Composite Reflectivity 124 nm
NML - Mid Layer Composite Reflectivity 124 nm
NHL - High Layer Composite Reflectivity 124 nm
NVW - VAD Wind Profile
NVL - Vertical Integrated Liquid
NET - Echo Tops
NST - Storm Tracking
NHI - Hail Index
NME - Mesocyclone
NTV - Tornadic Vortex Signature
NSS - Storm Structure
N1P - One Hour Precipitation Total
N3P - Three Hour Precipitation Total
NTP - Storm Total Precipitation Total
DPA - Digital Precipitation Array
RSL - Radar Status Log
GSM - General Status Message
NCF - Clutter Filter
3. Stage-III XMRG Data
Stage-III XMRG Data is produced at the River Forecast Centers by mosaicking the Level-III DPA product
from multiple NEXRAD sites into defined regions. Manual QC and gauge data is integrated to form hourly
regional precipitation estimates. For more information go to:
http://dipper.nws.noaa.gov/hdsb/data/nexrad/nexrad.html
4. GOES Satellite Imagery
GOES Satellite Imagery (GVAR_IMG) is supported as AREA files from CLASS.
http://www.class.noaa.gov
External APIs Used:
This viewer uses several external Open Source API's to expand the functionality.
NetCDF for Java http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf-java/ -- NetCDF and Common Data Model Library
GeoTools http://www.geotools.org -- Mapping Environment
VividSolutions' Java Topology Suite (JTS) http://www.vividsolutions.com -- Open GIS Geometry Library
JGoodies http://www.jgoodies.com -- Custom Look and Feel
Open Source Physics http://www.opensourcephysics.org -- Animated GIF and Apple Quicktime Export
Faidon Image Toolkit http://www.cs.hut.fi/~framling/JVG/ -- Image Export in PNG, PICT, BMP, TIFF, Targa Formats
JFreeChart http://www.jfree.org/jfreechart/ -- Graphing library
Apache Commons http://commons.apache.org/ -- Reusable Java components
SwingX http://swinglabs.org/ -- Swing component extentions
ncWMS http://www.resc.rdg.ac.uk/trac/ncWMS/ -- 2-D coordinate system processing
Contact Information:
This viewer was developed at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov).
To order NEXRAD data go to: NCDC NEXRAD Inventory ( https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/nexradinv ).
To order GOES Satellite data go to: NOAA CLASS System ( http://www.class.noaa.gov ), select 'GVAR_IMG' and order in 'AREA' format.
For more information, questions and/or comments please contact:
Steve Ansari
Physical Scientist
Center for Weather and Climate
NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
steve.ansari@noaa.gov
Or
NCEI Customer Service
828-271-4800
ncei.orders@noaa.gov