Best source for forecast soundings?

[Tango Eight]

I need to update links. What I was using last year seems to have moved or be no longer available. Looking for hourly forecasts.

TIA,

Evan Ludeman / T8

[Tony[_5_]]

rucsoundings.NOAA.gov is what I like

[kiwiindenver]

On Wednesday, May 13, 2015 at 7:29:06 AM UTC-6, Tango Eight wrote:
> I need to update links. What I was using last year seems to have moved or be no longer available. Looking for hourly forecasts.
>
> TIA,
>
> Evan Ludeman / T8

I use my Android Skew-t app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ajw.skewt) which uses the data from rucsoundings.NOAA.gov

[Tony[_5_]]

I like that app too!

[[email protected]]

Has anyone use the SkewT or Roab apps on the iPhone ?

If so, how well do they work ?

Todd Smith
3S

[Tango Eight]

On Wednesday, May 13, 2015 at 9:56:34 AM UTC-4, Tony wrote:
> rucsoundings.NOAA.gov is what I like

that's what I was trying to find, thanks.

-T8

[[email protected]]

On Wednesday, May 13, 2015 at 1:20:30 PM UTC-4, Tango Eight wrote:
> On Wednesday, May 13, 2015 at 9:56:34 AM UTC-4, Tony wrote:
> > rucsoundings.NOAA.gov is what I like
>
> that's what I was trying to find, thanks.
>
> -T8

This site has a lot of info.

http://rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/HRRR/Welcome.cgi?dsKey=hrrr_ncep_jet&domain=t3&run_time=13+May+2015+-+15Z

[Papa3[_2_]]

On Wednesday, May 13, 2015 at 9:29:06 AM UTC-4, Tango Eight wrote:
> I need to update links. What I was using last year seems to have moved or be no longer available. Looking for hourly forecasts.
>
> TIA,
>
> Evan Ludeman / T8

Depends on your time horizon. If you want longer range (GFS and NAM) in addition to RUC, then READY is where I go:

https://ready.arl.noaa.gov/READYcmet.php

[Tony[_5_]]

just started using that page, after seeing Ward Hindmann's paper about it in the latest Technical Soaring.

I also started using BUFKIT over the winter with some nudging from Walt Roger's and after seeing that our local NWS Forecasters use it to develop their forecasts. Great tool, pretty easy to use, free to download, and plenty useful for soaring forecasting.

[WaltWX[_2_]]

On Thursday, May 14, 2015 at 7:54:50 AM UTC-7, Tony wrote:
> just started using that page, after seeing Ward Hindmann's paper about it in the latest Technical Soaring.
>
> I also started using BUFKIT over the winter with some nudging from Walt >Roger's and after seeing that our local NWS Forecasters use it to develop their forecasts. Great tool, pretty easy to use, free to download, and plenty useful for soaring forecasting.

1) rucsoundings.noaa.gov is probably the most straight forward to use for soaring thermal analysis. With modern browsers, you don't have to use a java plugin. HRRR model soundings out 15hrs doesn't work for some reason. You can download radiosonde observations, overlay 24hr comparisons or comparison with model soundings.

2) BUFKIT is my favorite choice for fast loading of model soundings (bufkit text format data). The beauty of BUFKIT once you've mastered the UI is that in addition to Skew-T plots, time series hourly cross sections show thermal heights, moisture, rh, precip and winds aloft. Longer range gfs model predictions are available out to 180hrs; NAM model out to 84hrs. As Tony Condon said, the program is freely downloadable (compiled visual basic) http://wdtb.noaa.gov/tools/BUFKIT/index.html The trickiest thing is getting the data. Use: http://www.meteo.psu.edu/bufkit/CONUS_NAM_12.html
Once BUFKIT is loaded there are video trainings that help a lot (see top right corner). Best to have someone who has used it for soaring contest (myself Walt Rogers, Dan Gudgel or Tony Condon) to demo it. Here are some resources:

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/8x504zylggdx4z6/Sample_NAM_BUFKIT_RAOB_graphics.pdf?dl=0

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/0twel956nsx1h8k/Initial_Explanation_Setup_BUFKIT.pdf?dl=0


3) RAOB raob.com - A commercial program well supported that can do just about anything with sounding data that can be imagined. Problem is the cost.. $100 for basic program and another $50 Analytic Module $120 Advanced Cross Section Module. Recently I've created some bash shell scripts in Cygwin for Windows (you'll only know what I'm talking about if you talk a Linux/Unix guy). With those scripts I can create beautiful time series plots of thermal heights with hourly data (rap, hrrr, nam4km, nam) and 3 hour data (gfs) models. They were used at the PAGC by Tony and last year I used them at the 15M/Open Nats Yreka, CA. During a contest you don't have a lot of time to be creating these graphics with a manual UI. The scripts can be run... although awkwardly... from a Windows box and a cron (scheduled) job.

Here's an example Time Series plot of thermal heights. It show Mixed Layer height at TI=0, +2 and -2:

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/joyfyphpu0mc13v/Sample_RAOB_TimeSeries_2015050200.nam_kpmd.jpg?dl= 0

4) READY - Real-time Environmental Applications and Display System
https://ready.arl.noaa.gov/index.php

Ward Hindman wrote a paper in a recent OSTIV about this. I've only recently experimented with it. It works... providing 2D and Time Series plots from the rap, nam and GFS model. A bit difficult to interpret because all heights are in km. Provides much of the same functionality as DrJack.net ...and then some...but in a way that requires a lot of UI manual setup to pull out the graphics.

5) DrJack.net - No charge; only a login needed. Well worth learning the user interface. I recommend the using the Univiewer and learning how it works.. You can get model Skew-Ts by checking BLIP Skew-T

6) XCSkies - $40 per year... but well worth and the best UI out there for soaring information. You can get rucsoundings.noaa.gov type Skew-Ts, but it requires a Java plugin. With security issues these days, java use in a browser is getting more problematic.

Chris Ghali, the main developer, is about to release a new UI version late Spring 2015. So, stay tuned for future developments. Time Series plots of thermal heights are limited to using the GFS model and they only extend out 72 hours or 3 days.

7) SHARPpy - Python based Skew-T program for displaying soundings. It's in Beta and not recommended for the casual or even motivated soaring forecaster. I only mention it in case you are already a programer involved with Python and a highly motivatd (I haven't used the latest version myself). Some day it might turn into a good soaring forecast tool, but will require development in that direction. If you are interested in a soaring analysis program, this open source community effort shout be looked at.

https://github.com/sharppy/SHARPpy

SUMMARY

Easiest to use and get started: rucsoundings.noaa.gov... followed XCSkies.com, DrJack.net, then BUFKIT and RAOB. All require a fair amount of study and practice to use.

Walter Rogers WX