It's Bug Racing Time (US)

[[email protected]]

February 5th,
Pennsylvania, USA
Light wind, 45=B0F max temperature, TOL 2000AGL at best

I know only 3 glider pilots crazy enough to take the time to learn to
reproject images for bug races. So with the others in mind I keep a
lookout for free, lat long grid images with known corner coordinates.

Bug races would look much better with clouds. Grayscale cloud images
are now available hourly for last 4 days at 1km resolution. Color
images of earth and clouds are available once or twice a day for the
last couple years at 250m resolution. The grayscale 1km images are too
huge for dial-up (whole 50-80MB image or nothing), too coarse, and they
aren't publishing the other 3 images per hour. The color clouds are
not nearly timely enough for looking at racing decisions. But it is
fun to see where we are headed in the bug racing future.

Some links:

GOES 4km or 1km resolution grayscale clouds hourly, plus some other
interesting data:

http://www.gis.ssd.nesdis.noaa.gov/index.html
ftp://gp16.ssd.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/GIS/GOESeast/
ftp://gp16.ssd.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/GIS/GOESwest/

**********

Thanks to Denis Flament and Eric for showing me these!

MODIS 2km,1km,500m, or 250m resolution color with clouds and earth
once or twice per day:

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/aeronet/?GSFC
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/aeronet/?CCNY

**********

LANDSAT images (4 versions):
global_mosaic_base layer is 30m resolution
global_mosaic layer is 15m, but with the colors muddied
visual style is realistic, but dim
pseudo style adds IR details and fake bright colors
adjust WIDTH and HEIGHT to desired size up to 4000*cos(LAT) by 4000
set BBOX to edge coordinates: leftLON, bottomLAT, rightLON, topLAT

http://wms.jpl.nasa.gov/gis-wms.cgi?SERVICE=3DWMS&VERSION=3D1.1.1&REQUEST=
=3DGetMap&LAYERS=3Dglobal_mosaic_base&STYLES=3Dvisual&SRS=3DEPSG:4326&BBOX=
=3D-101.953125,26.71875,-56.953125,49.21875&WIDTH=3D512&HEIGHT=3D256&FORMAT=
=3Dimage/jpeg

http://wms.jpl.nasa.gov/gis-wms.cgi?SERVICE=3DWMS&VERSION=3D1.1.1&REQUEST=
=3DGetMap&LAYERS=3Dglobal_mosaic_base&STYLES=3Dpseudo&SRS=3DEPSG:4326&BBOX=
=3D-101.953125,26.71875,-56.953125,49.21875&WIDTH=3D512&HEIGHT=3D256&FORMAT=
=3Dimage/jpeg

http://wms.jpl.nasa.gov/gis-wms.cgi?SERVICE=3DWMS&VERSION=3D1.1.1&REQUEST=
=3DGetMap&LAYERS=3Dglobal_mosaic&STYLES=3Dvisual&SRS=3DEPSG:4326&BBOX=3D-10=
1=2E953125,26.71875,-56.953125,49.21875&WIDTH=3D512&HEIGHT=3D256&FORMAT=3Di=
mage/jpeg

http://wms.jpl.nasa.gov/gis-wms.cgi?SERVICE=3DWMS&VERSION=3D1.1.1&REQUEST=
=3DGetMap&LAYERS=3Dglobal_mosaic&STYLES=3Dpseudo&SRS=3DEPSG:4326&BBOX=3D-10=
1=2E953125,26.71875,-56.953125,49.21875&WIDTH=3D512&HEIGHT=3D256&FORMAT=3Di=
mage/jpeg

**************

TERRASERVER Extreme close up Grayscale images (color in some urban
areas):

http://www.terraserver-usa.com/OgcWms.aspx?version=3D1.1.1&request=3DGetMap=
&Layers=3Ddoq&Styles=3DGEO_Grid_Cyan&SRS=3DEPSG:4326&BBOX=3D-77.355,39.755,=
-77.345,39.760&width=3D696&height=3D425&format=3Dimage/jpeg

Jonathan Gere

[[email protected]]

Jonathan,

As I recall one of the PDA soaring programs claimed to predict thermal
location based on past logs, sun angle, wind, etc. Would it be tough to
write a program that paints in semi-opaque thermals based on, say, 10
or 20 logs from a given area, like a race site?

I'm sure first attempts would be too simplistic, but playing with the
program over time might yield the kind of analysis you're looking for.
Limited use, I grant you. But potentially interesting.

OC (not a bug racer)

[Stewart Kissel]

Ok, I'll bite....

I assume this topic is related to soaring...but am
completely mystified on what 'bug racing' is. I may
be off the back of the pack here, can only assume it
has something to do with flight logs?

[[email protected]]

Stewart Kissel wrote:
> Ok, I'll bite....
>
> I assume this topic is related to soaring...but am
> completely mystified on what 'bug racing' is. I may
> be off the back of the pack here, can only assume it
> has something to do with flight logs?

"Bug Racing" - Disparaging term for the popular pastime of watching
flight logs from a task playback on a computer screen.

[[email protected]]

I just want to see the clouds that pilots are targeting during
playback. Clouds from the wrong 15 minutes don't suit me, much less
analysis of "house thermals" throughout the task area.

Wouldn't it be sad if in fact, one can't do well without the computer
thermal map of the task area for reference. Sort of like not being
able to play competitive chess without memorizing the first 10 moves of
all the good openings. Of course, one should use thousands of logs for
each weather situation taking into account not just the factors
WinPilot patented ?!?!?!?, but also time of day, date, frontal
situation, sounding/shear map for the time, cloud
type/amount/distribution, soil moisture map, snow cover map, ground
cover map....

[Andy Blackburn]

At 02:00 06 February 2005, wrote:

>Wouldn't it be sad if in fact, one can't do well without
>the computer
>thermal map of the task area for reference. ...
>Of course, one should use thousands of logs for
>each weather situation taking into account not just
>the factors
>WinPilot patented ?!?!?!?, but also time of day, date,
>frontal
>situation, sounding/shear map for the time, cloud
>type/amount/distribution, soil moisture map, snow cover
>map, ground
>cover map....

The you could plug it all into an autopilot, sit back
and eat your lunch.

9B

[Marian Aldenhövel]

Hi,

> Would it be tough to write a program that paints in semi-opaque thermals
> based on, say, 10 or 20 logs from a given area, like a race site?

http://www.akaflieg-frankfurt.de/thermikkarte/index.html

This analyses OLC-Entries to create a map of thermals.

> I'm sure first attempts would be too simplistic

Well, yes :-).

Ciao, MM
--
Marian Aldenhövel, Rosenhain 23, 53123 Bonn. +49 228 624013.
http://www.marian-aldenhoevel.de
"Wir brauchen keine Opposition, wir sind bereits Demokraten."

[Pete Reinhart]

All,
Take a look at the program Tom Waits is working up.
His web site is soaringtools.com
He's got a workable program in beta version that compiles many logs to map
regular thermal sources.
The one for Hobbs is remakable.
Cheers!
> wrote in message
oups.com...
> I just want to see the clouds that pilots are targeting during
> playback. Clouds from the wrong 15 minutes don't suit me, much less
> analysis of "house thermals" throughout the task area.
>
> Wouldn't it be sad if in fact, one can't do well without the computer
> thermal map of the task area for reference. Sort of like not being
> able to play competitive chess without memorizing the first 10 moves of
> all the good openings. Of course, one should use thousands of logs for
> each weather situation taking into account not just the factors
> WinPilot patented ?!?!?!?, but also time of day, date, frontal
> situation, sounding/shear map for the time, cloud
> type/amount/distribution, soil moisture map, snow cover map, ground
> cover map....
>