The National Weather Service has a central collection of 42 different WSR-88D radar products
(level III data) in process. The data can either be obtained by directly connecting to the Gateway
for an immediate receipt of the products through a "multicast" flow or via standard
anonymous FTP from the Gateway file servers. The documentation on the products and instructions
on download procedures for the client receiving software needed for the multicast dissemination
can be found below.
Documentation on the WSR-88D data central collection and dissemination process used at the Gateway.
- File Transfer documentation on how to
FTP data from the Gateway file servers
- Gateway FTP description of the radar
data products on the file server (subdirectories and file names for
retrieval)
- Directory & File Standard used for
establishing Gateway file server product subdirectories and file names
- Data
Formats of radar products are found in the following NEXRAD ICDs 2620001F - ICD For RPG To Class 1 User and 2620003F - ICD For Product Specification. The suffix letter “F” in this example, refers to the RPG software build the ICDs were released with. The ICDs are updated with each RPG software release (normally the end of March and end of September). A WMO header is the first 30 bytes of the product. In addition, information concerning Run-Length Radar (WSR-88D) Product Decoders can be found at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/tdl/iwt/runleng.htm.
- Upcoming WSR-88D Software Changes
that may impact RPCCDS users
Agreement
and Fee Schedule (pdf) for the access to the "Radar Products Service" via
dedicated line connection to the RPCCDS.
Users can access the "Radar Products Service" via dedicated T1
communications line to the NWSTG. All radar products that the NWS is centrally collecting are available through the RPS. The RPS became operational with the termination of the NEXRAD Information Dissemination Service (NIDS) on January 1, 2001.
Users may obtain a second IP address to allow them to simultaneously
feed the data stream to a second server. The one time connection fee for users
choosing a second IP address is $1,000. The recurring maintenance fees are
twice the fees listed in the agreement. Users also have the option of
ordering two separate T1 communications lines to access the RPS. Users with two
T1 accesses will be assessed two one-time connection fees ($2,000) and twice
the recurring maintenance fees.
Any user interested in subscribing to the RPS should first contact
Julie.Hayes@noaa.gov at (301) 713-0864
x120.
Available Radar Products:
Software needed to receive the Multicast data
stream from the Gateway:
- Software Implementation a guide for
installing the client software used for the multicast services of the Gateway
- Download the WSR-88D Multicast Client
Software for multicast receiving in realtime
The Office of Operational Systems has a major web site for
information on the NEXRAD WSR-88D at the NEXRAD Radar Operations Center (ROC)
located in Norman, Oklahoma. The web site has a large amount of information on
site locations, data generation, and general operations.
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