Sierra Mts. (USA) summer soaring forecasts

For those flying the Sierra Mts. or Minden/AirSailing this summer,
I will be producing daily high-resolution (4km/1km) soaring forecast
BLIPMAPs for those regions, which you can read about at
http://www.drjack.info/RASP/INFO/rasp_summer_plan.html
Please pass along this information to any others who would be
interested.

Jack

I was reminded that some may confuse these new "RASP" BLIPMAPs with
the existing RUC/ETA ones, so will briefly clarify. These Sierra
"RASP" BLIPMAPs are being produced by a process entirely different
from the existing RUC/ETA BLIPMAPs (which is why resolution of 4km/1km
can be obtained). They are a byproduct of my personal R/D effort. As
such, they are freely available to all. The downside to that is that
I am not willing to put the same amount of time into making them more
"user friendly" as I did for the existing BLIPMAPs, so some may prefer
to just continue to use the existing RUC/ETA BLIPMAPs. Also, since I
have no intention of making this a commercial product, these forecasts
are being run only for this summer. At this point I have no intention
of running them next year. They would only be continued if someone
else would step forward to volunteer their own time and computer
resources to continue the runs. That implies that they will have been
found by experience to be significantly more useful than the existing
RUC/ETA BLIPMAPs. But that is not certain - the additional resolution
provided by RASP runs will _not_ provide significant "added value" if
the forecast accuracy is limited by factors _other_ than terrain
resolution (e.g. such as limited "ground type" resolution or initial
humidity values). The RASP Sierra forecasts I personally will be
particularly interested in are the "convergence" (BL Max Up/Down
Motion) forecasts since the resolution of the existing RUC/ETA BLIPMAPs
is too small for good convergence forecasts. The RASP forecasts are
being provided primarily for those pilots especially interested in
weather and the mental puzzle it provides - they may not be of
value/interest to other pilots.

Jack

Jack Glendening writes:

RUC/ETA BLIPMAPs. But that is not certain - the additional
resolution provided by RASP runs will _not_ provide significant
"added value" if the forecast accuracy is limited by factors _other_
than terrain resolution (e.g. such as limited "ground type"
resolution or initial humidity values). The RASP Sierra forecasts I
personally will be particularly interested in are the "convergence"
(BL Max Up/Down Motion) forecasts since the resolution of the
existing RUC/ETA BLIPMAPs is too small for good convergence
forecasts. The RASP forecasts are being provided primarily for
those pilots especially interested in weather and the mental puzzle
it provides - they may not be of value/interest to other pilots.

Are you using the SRTM-1 data for you base terrain data?

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