DATA MENU Frontal depiction

This option allows plotting of georeferenced fronts, highs, and lows. The features are georeferenced, therefore you can always plot them later even if you zoom in or quit the program. You will lose your frontal depictions if you again create a depiction or if you import original ASUS1 data.

An important word about frontal positions! Computers cannot be used to automatically "create" frontal positions!  There are only two possible ways of displaying frontal positions: through an analysis entered by you (see Toolbox section under Fronts) and through weather bulletins created from human-derived frontal positions.  The ability for a computer to independently analyze for fronts does not exist except perhaps in experimental form, and it is a poor method for analyzing the subtleties and complexities of the atmosphere. One of the reasons Digital Atmosphere was created is to help forecasters analyze all aspects of the atmosphere rather than provide a shortcut to finding fronts.  Even if you use frontal positions obtained by someone else, you still may get contradictory positions that may not work well with your own analysis. A good cautionary essay on centralized analysis charts can be found in "A Case for Detailed Surface Analysis", by Doswell and Sanders, at http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/~doswell/sfcanal/surface_analysis.html .

Using original sources of data. Raw sources of data consist only of the ASUS1 KWBC numerical text bulletin produced by the National Weather Service. This bulletin must have been imported and found with its headers intact before it can be plotted. The bulletin is usually found on Unidata servers under data/surface/front or a similar directory, or by the bulletin header name itself. A couple of links are provided in Digital Atmosphere's Internet > Retrieve Data window, which should be used if possible. Note that the presence of this bulletin does not imply thatMaking your own maps. By using the Create or Append options above, you can create your own frontal depiction maps. To pull up the drawing commands, simply right-click on the map and choose "frontal depiction tools". You will see a menu like the one below.

Sample of ASUS bulletin If your frontal depiction does not deliver the correct results, you can go in and hand edit this bulletin in QUEUE.FRT using any text editor.

515
ASUS1 KWBC 111919
CODSUS
VALID 111118Z
HIGHS 1030 41165 1030 38154 1027 45135 1025 31138 1035 6143 1022 3730 1033
5589 1030 6286
LOWS 979 46169 1017 38139 997 4257 997 3865 980 63172 987 66144 998 75113
1005 36102 1013 35112 998 7168
OCFNT WK 46169 46170 45171
COLD WK 45171 44170 42169 40169 40169 39168
WARM WK 45171 46172 47174 46178
COLD WK 38139 36140 33144 31149 31153
STNRY WK 4418 4525 4531 4741 4748 4653 4457 4160
TROF 4257 4151 3647 3145 2845
COLD WK 3865 3763 3463 3164 2869 2673 2478 2384
COLD WK 66144 64142 62142 59142 53145 48149 45153 42156 40162
STNRY WK 55116 59117 62121 65129 67138 69144 69155 68167 68176
STNRY WK 6291 6395 64101 64110 63117
OCFNT WK 76114 77111 78104 7895 7786 7680
COLD WK 36102 34103 32104 31106
TROF 36101 35101 32100 30101 28102 26102
COLD WK 7680 7574 7168 6866 6565 6365 5969 5672
STNRY WK 37103 38104 40106 40109 41111 43114 44117
WARM WK 38101 3999 3897 3795 3791
TROF 48112 51112 55112
TROF 5294 5095 4896 4498 4199
TROF 5571 5270 4968 4767
NNNN