Plotting synops
Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 12:41 am
Tim, good move with the new BB. Great interface!
Some bugs and suggestions with surface plots. I'm working with the data file at
http://www.australianweathernews.com/di ... 112322.SYN which contains data for southeastern Australia, plotting it on the preset location map for Australia (NSW) and I'm using V0.32a. 866mhz 'puter running Win2000Pro.
fonts
I cannot adjust the fonts using preferences. I presume this hasn't yet been activated.
Is it possible to allow user specification of the colour of fonts used for individual plot parameters; e.g. red for pressure, blue for dew point. I know this would be fiddly, but it hugely improves the readability of densely plotted data.
symbols
Cloud, pressure tendency, weather and cloud amount symbols work fine
ICAO indicator
Doesn't plot, though WMONO does.
If the ICAO indicator can be made to plot, it is possible to put dummy abbreviated names as the ICAO id in digatmos.stn, then include them as part of the plot. Even a 4-letter station name abbreviation is a lot easier for non-meteorologists to identify with than the WMO code number. It would be even sweeter if you could plot, say, the first 8 or 10 letters of the station name field in digatmos.stn.
In DA2000, ship/buoy ids plot when WMONO is selected, but not when ICAO is selected. It would be nice if they plotted whichever of WMONO or ICAO was selected.
Visibility
Plots // in the VV code as -9999.
Is it possible to plot in kilometres rather than metres -- currently most visibility plots take 5 digits most of which are zeros. Could the visibility be in whole kilometres for 5km and above, and metres when below 5km? This would take less screen real estate, would draw attention to the lower visibilities and match the gradation of the reported data.
Rainfall
Rainfall in millimetres plots to two decimal places which also wastes screen space and is overkill. Again, could it follow the gradation of the code, reporting to one decimal 0.0 to 0.8, then in whole mm >=1
A few problems with analysing the chart referred to above
1. Remove last product doesn't work with various anaylses (msl pressure, temp/dp in C...)
2. Precipitation analysis temporarily locks the whole computer (about 15 seconds) then locks the DAWS screen, and program must be closed using Task Manager. Last status shown is "Preparing to expand grid". The data file above contains 24 hour data, including lots of 24 hour rainfall reports (6xxx4). The same happens with a similar file containing 6-hour (6xxx1) rainfall. Chart sizes tried are 2000x1500 and 1500x1100. Analysis type: Nearest neighbour, smoothing 0.25 and 2.
Some bugs and suggestions with surface plots. I'm working with the data file at
http://www.australianweathernews.com/di ... 112322.SYN which contains data for southeastern Australia, plotting it on the preset location map for Australia (NSW) and I'm using V0.32a. 866mhz 'puter running Win2000Pro.
fonts
I cannot adjust the fonts using preferences. I presume this hasn't yet been activated.
Is it possible to allow user specification of the colour of fonts used for individual plot parameters; e.g. red for pressure, blue for dew point. I know this would be fiddly, but it hugely improves the readability of densely plotted data.
symbols
Cloud, pressure tendency, weather and cloud amount symbols work fine
ICAO indicator
Doesn't plot, though WMONO does.
If the ICAO indicator can be made to plot, it is possible to put dummy abbreviated names as the ICAO id in digatmos.stn, then include them as part of the plot. Even a 4-letter station name abbreviation is a lot easier for non-meteorologists to identify with than the WMO code number. It would be even sweeter if you could plot, say, the first 8 or 10 letters of the station name field in digatmos.stn.
In DA2000, ship/buoy ids plot when WMONO is selected, but not when ICAO is selected. It would be nice if they plotted whichever of WMONO or ICAO was selected.
Visibility
Plots // in the VV code as -9999.
Is it possible to plot in kilometres rather than metres -- currently most visibility plots take 5 digits most of which are zeros. Could the visibility be in whole kilometres for 5km and above, and metres when below 5km? This would take less screen real estate, would draw attention to the lower visibilities and match the gradation of the reported data.
Rainfall
Rainfall in millimetres plots to two decimal places which also wastes screen space and is overkill. Again, could it follow the gradation of the code, reporting to one decimal 0.0 to 0.8, then in whole mm >=1
A few problems with analysing the chart referred to above
1. Remove last product doesn't work with various anaylses (msl pressure, temp/dp in C...)
2. Precipitation analysis temporarily locks the whole computer (about 15 seconds) then locks the DAWS screen, and program must be closed using Task Manager. Last status shown is "Preparing to expand grid". The data file above contains 24 hour data, including lots of 24 hour rainfall reports (6xxx4). The same happens with a similar file containing 6-hour (6xxx1) rainfall. Chart sizes tried are 2000x1500 and 1500x1100. Analysis type: Nearest neighbour, smoothing 0.25 and 2.