Forecast Model Output/Sounding Archive?

Hi Erik,

Walt Rogers WX here...

I have a source of archived model soundings (BUFR) from the NWS Science and Training Resource Center http://strc.comet.ucar.edu/index.htm

Unfortunately, they do not go back to your 2007 date.

Archives are for the NAM, RUC (RAP) and GFS models at many hundreds of locations (see the Penn State http://www.meteo.psu.edu/bufkit/CONUS_NAM_00.html Bufkit web site for the sounding locations). The archive in the comet.ucar..edu server goes back to July 1 2009 for NAM; July 30 2010 for GFS; July 1, 2010 for RUC (RAP).

BUFR soundings contain the high resolution model output that can be displayed in the two programs I use called BUFKIT and RAOB. Converting the binary data BUFR soundings to a text format called BUFKIT requires a decoder. I use a program called BUFRGRUVEN. It's freely available, runs on Linux and can be downloaded from the above comet.ucar.edu site.

If you ever need this archive data, let me know and I'll send you the decoded BUFKIT files.

I routinely run BUFRGRUVEN to extract the BUFR soundings so that I can display them and assist with soaring forecasts. Several years ago I created a virtual image of a Linux Centos OS with the necessary programs and libraries to run BUFRGRUVEN. It runs as a virtual machine on Virtualbox within my Windows 7 environment. If you are anyone else is interested, I can make available the virtual image which is about 1.3GB in size. Once set up, the downloaded files are pulled in directly from NWS NCEP servers and other backup servers. That's far more reliable than using web sites like the Penn State Meteorology department. An additional benefit is that I can download and decode earlier model run times all the way back to these archived dates.

Walt Rogers WX