Problems with downloading data and automatic plotting

[LocoAko]

OK. I'm trying to automaticaly import data, plot it, export it, and send it off to an FTP. After weeks of trying things, I finally got the exporting and FTP thing working (I'm not relaly sure what it wasn't working before).

I'm having a problem with the data importing. At first I was having trouble when you import the data and you have to list where to store it - I could not access my D:\ drive, so under "data" in C:\ I duplicated incoming.asc and made "fronts" "obs" etc.

It actually worked once. The entire process.

However, the next time I told it to do that, it would not import the new data (or it would but it would not overwrite the file). When I downloaded it manually, I went to plot surface obs and it only gave me some buoy data (I made sure multiple times to make sure I was downloading ONLY METAR. It would not plot surface obs anymore.

NOW when I download data, even manually, it won't download any METAR. It skips right over it even when it's checked (I've tried every source listed), and when it goes to plot it it plots the wrong time and nothingk shows up.

I've been trying to get this working for over 2 months and it's really frustrating because it just stopped working on it's own. I tried "Clear Data Directory" but I think all that did was cause more problems.

Does anyone know how ot make it import data, and at this point, import any data AT ALL?!

[wxforecaster]

Post the script and i will look at it. See what is wrong OR see what is right!

[LocoAko]

I actually guess I shouldn't have posted this in the scripting forum, since I got the script working fine.

Even now when I MANUALLY download the data, it just doesn't do the METAR. When I go to plot, it doesn't plot anything.

I downloaded the .TXT file from the NWS and imported it manually and that worked but I can't constantly be doing that.

Here is the script, although nothing is wrong with it.

erase
load,Northeast.DMF
download,http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussion ... C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\incoming.asc
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\fronts.asc
product,wxp,0,fronts
download,http://www.atmos.albany.edu/weather/dat ... C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\incoming.asc
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\incoming.asc
product,plf,0,surface plots
product,slp,0,surface pressure
analyze,HILO CONT CINT=4 LINE=1 COLOR=0:0:0 SLPR
stamp
export,c:\neobs.gif
load,Southeast.DMF
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\fronts.asc
product,wxp,0,fronts
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\incoming.asc
product,plf,0,surface plots
product,slp,0,surface pressure
analyze,HILO CONT CINT=4 LINE=1 COLOR=0:0:0 SLPR
stamp
export,c:\southeast.gif
load,Southwest.DMF
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\fronts.asc
product,wxp,0,fronts
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\incoming.asc
product,plf,0,surface plots
product,slp,0,surface pressure
analyze,HILO CONT CINT=4 LINE=1 COLOR=0:0:0 SLPR
stamp
export,c:\southwest.gif
load,Northwest.DMF
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\fronts.asc
product,wxp,0,fronts
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\incoming.asc
product,plf,0,surface plots
product,slp,0,surface pressure
analyze,HILO CONT CINT=4 LINE=1 COLOR=0:0:0 SLPR
stamp
export,c:\northwest.gif
load,SouthCentral.DMF
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\fronts.asc
product,wxp,0,fronts
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\incoming.asc
product,plf,0,surface plots
product,slp,0,surface pressure
analyze,HILO CONT CINT=4 LINE=1 COLOR=0:0:0 SLPR
stamp
export,c:\southcentral.gif
load,NorthCentral.DMF
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\fronts.asc
product,wxp,0,fronts
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\incoming.asc
product,plf,0,surface plots
product,slp,0,surface pressure
analyze,HILO CONT CINT=4 LINE=1 COLOR=0:0:0 SLPR
stamp
export,c:\northcentral.gif
load,Rockies.DMF
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\fronts.asc
product,wxp,0,fronts
import,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\incoming.asc
product,plf,0,surface plots
product,slp,0,surface pressure
analyze,HILO CONT CINT=4 LINE=1 COLOR=0:0:0 SLPR
stamp
export,c:\rockies.gif
upload,ftp://***:***@ftp.americanwx.com/public ... \neobs.gif
upload,ftp://***:***@ftp.americanwx.com/public ... theast.gif
upload,ftp://***:***@ftp.americanwx.com/public ... thwest.gif
upload,ftp://***:***@ftp.americanwx.com/public ... thwest.gif
upload,ftp://***:***@ftp.americanwx.com/public ... entral.gif
upload,ftp://***:***@ftp.americanwx.com/public ... entral.gif
upload,ftp://***:***@ftp.americanwx.com/public ... ockies.gif

As I said, it worked once. I'm not sure why I can't access my D:\ drive, it puts up a recovery partition when I try to enter it. I went into "data" and copied incoming.asc and renamed it, but that has since stopped working, along with all METAR's. When I download the fronts manually it works, but when I put it in the script, send it to fronts.asc, and import it, it didn't work.

GRR.

[LocoAko]

OK. Now I'm relaly going crazy. It just plotted the 22Z surface data that I imported before I believe manually by the NWS, although I can't remember if I did that. The fronts are old, but that may be because they only update every 3 hours. They plotted but I think it's old data, since it should be on 23Z right now, right?

Oh damn, with Daylights Savings Time maybe I'm off. But still, I'm really lost. I know I didn't just solve my problem.

[Fred]

Hello

Your script is not completely correct. A few hints.
- combine all the downloads in the beginning
- change import into INGEST
- remove ALL other imports from the script.

The beginning of the script can look like this:
erase
download,http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussion ... C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\fronts.asc
download,http://www.atmos.albany.edu/weather/dat ... C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\surface.asc
INGEST,C:\Program Files\DigitalAtmosphereWS\data\*.asc
load,Northeast.DMF
product,wxp,0,fronts
etc.

You can make a copy from the script and copy the above into it. Don't forget to remove the trailing spaces.
I'm not sure if the first download will work: I am missing the filename on the server.

Success

Fred

[LocoAko]

Thanks. I'm using my other computer that I'm not running the FTP on (my brother is using it) so I can't try out the script right now, but do you think changing IMPORT to INGEST will allow new data to be plotted? Something was wrong with my computer, with Daylights Savings Time, but I believe I got that fixed. It is downloading data again (I think - it was last night) but it was still plotting old data. Maybe changing it to INGEST will help, along with your other suggestions.

[Fred]

IMPORT is the command to import a map, INGEST for importing the data to be plotted. See page 110-111 of the manual.

Combining all downloads in the beginning and use a *.asc in the INGEST has the effect that for the whole script all data is present to plot. Therefor you can remove all the other imports (which are already useless).

Greetings

Fred