APPENDIX
Using tabular weather data
Australian AXF surface data

Digital Atmosphere is capable of importing observations from a comma-delimited database listing. This is excellent for weather observations exported out of a database or a spreadsheet.  It is also suitable for Australian AXF weather data.

If recognized as shown below, the data will be imported and available for viewing as long as it is imported as usual from the data directory or from a specified file.

The rules for this data are:

To take advantage of this capability, you need to open the DIGATMOS.FMT file with a text editor and define the start sequence and the parameters that apply to that type of data.

 

 Start sequence

You define the start sequence by placing a "start sequence" between brackets in the DIGATMOS.FMT file; for example if your database starts out with "Joe's Data" you should start out with this:

[Joe's Data]

No database entries are read in until the start sequence is found.

 

 Parameter list

To actually read the data, you will need to create a parameter list, such as this:

TMP=4
DWP=6

Each entry must be on its own line, and the list ends when the end of the file is reached or another start sequence is found. The example above indicates that the temperature can be found in column 4 and the dewpoint can be found in column 6.

 

 Sample listing

Here is a sample of an entry in DIGATMOS.FMT which is used for Australian Bureau of Meteorology AXF data.

[synopData]
ICA=3
WMO=1
LAT=6
LON=7
ELE=9
TIM=5
DAT=4
TMP=22
DWP=23
WND=11
WNM=12
SKY=10
CIG=26
WXX=14
VIS=13

 

 Valid parameters

ICA=xxx ICAO of the station (for display purposes only)
WMO=xxx WMO number of the station (for display purposes only)
LAT=xxx Latitude, in hundreds of degrees (negative is southern hemisphere)
LON=xxx Longitude, in hundreds of degrees (negative is western hemisphere)
LAX=xxx Latitude, in regular format (negative is southern hemisphere)
LOX=xxx Longitude, in regular format (negative is western hemisphere)
ELE=xxx Elevation in meters (used only for potential temperature calculations)
TIM=xxx Time in UTC (expressed as 450 for 4h50m and 1629 for 16h29m)
DAT=xxx Day of month (expressed as "16" for September 16)
TMP=xxx Temperature in degrees Celsius
DWP=xxx Dewpoint in degrees Celsius
WND=xxx Wind direction in degrees true
WNS=xxx Wind speed in knots
WNM=xxx Wind speed in meters/second
SKY=xxx Total sky cover in oktas (9=obscured, 10=not available)
SLP= xxx Sea-level pressure in millibars< FONT face= Courier>
CIG=xxx Ceiling in hundreds of feet
WXX=xxx Weather code; first and second digit equals ww weather code (e.g. 61 is light rain)
VIS=xxx Visibility in meters
P01=xxx Precipitation total in millimeters (past 1 hr)
P06=xxx Precipitation total in millimeters (past 6 hr)
P12=xxx Precipitation total in millimeters (past 12 hr)
P24=xxx Precipitation total in millimeters (past 24 hr)
PXX=xxx Precipitation total in millimeters (source-defined period; unknown to Digital Atmosphere)
PCP=xxx Precipitation total in millimeters
PCT=xxx Precipitation time period in hours
PTR=x   Pressure trend (equals a in app group)
PTN=xxx Pressure tendency (in tens of millibars)
SNO=xxx Snow depth in centimeters
CLL=x   Low cloud code
CLM=x   Middle cloud code
CLH=x   High cloud code
MAX=xxx Maximum temperature, in degrees Celsius
MIN=xxx Minimum temperature, in degrees Celsius

 

 More on Australian AXF data

Information on Australian AXF data can be found here:
http://www.bom.gov.au/nmoc/Obs/IDY03000.doc
http://www.bom.gov.au/nmoc/Obs/IDY03090.doc
http://www.bom.gov.au/nmoc/Obs/IDY03100.doc

Note that there may be restrictions on the use of Australian data, so look into this before creating commercial products.