Problems reading BUFR file

dan.swank Dan.Swank at NOAA.GOV
Thu Sep 21 09:55:52 EDT 2006


It is worth noting that if your BUFR files are utilizing the
  evil BUFR compression described here:
http://www.wmo.ch/web/www/WDM/Guides/Guide-binary-1B.html#Chapter4
It is essentially unusable by GrADS, since the decompression
algorithm is not implemented in either GrADS or bufrscan.  AFAIK, it
don't even check to see if the bufr message uses the compression.

Seeing the numbers bufrscan is returning, this very well may
be whats going on.

It took me quite some time and frustration to figure out this was the
   problem with the BUFR files I had to decode.

-Dan



Diane Stokes wrote the following on 9/20/2006 8:31 PM:
> Guess #2:
>
> If your ob times are not exactly 13:00Z01SEP2006, try a time window, eg:
>
> set time 12:30Z01sep2006 13:30z01sep2006
>
> If that doesn't work, hope that someone more knowledgeable chimes in soon.
>
>    Diane
>
> Bob Kuligowski wrote:
>> Diane,
>>
>>    Good catch...though, unfortunately, I still get the same result.
>> Another of those cases where the process of debugging reveals bugs that
>> one wasn't looking for in the first place :-)  Thanks!
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Bob
>>> Here's a quick guess...
>>>
>>> You have in your gribscan output:
>>>
>>>   0 05 002  (numeric) CLAT     Latitude (coarse accuracy)
>>>   0 06 002  (numeric) CLON     Longitude (coarse accuracy)
>>>
>>>
>>> but in your ctl file:
>>>
>>> xvar 6,1
>>> yvar 5,2
>>>
>>>
>>> Try changing that xvar definition in your ctl file to:
>>>
>>> xvar 6,2
>>>
>>>
>>>    Diane
>>>
>>>
>>> Bob Kuligowski wrote:
>>>>    I am attempting to read and display a BUFR file in GrADS.  When I
>>>> run 'bufrscan' the output is the attached 'headers.txt' file.  I tried
>>>> to follow the directions in the BUFR entry of
>>>> http://www.iges.org/grads/gadoc/gadocindex.html to produce a GrADS
>>>> control file, which is attached as 'testbufr.ctl'.  I can open the .ctl
>>>> file in GrADS with no problem, but when I try 'set gxout print'
>>>> followed
>>>> by 'd ' of any of the variables in the .ctl file, I always get
>>>> "Printing
>>>> stations -- 0 Reports -- Undef = -979".  My presumption is that the
>>>> variables in the .ctl file are pointing at the wrong X and Y, but I'm
>>>> using the files that I found in headers.txt.
>>>>
>>>>    Any thoughts?  Thanks in advance...
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Bob Kuligowski, Ph.D.
>>>> Meteorologist
>>>> NOAA/NESDIS/Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR)
>>>>
>>>> Mailing Address:
>>>> E/RA2   RM 712 WWBG
>>>> 5200 Auth Rd.
>>>> Camp Springs, MD  20746-4304
>>>>
>>>> Phone:  (301) 763-8251x192
>>>> Fax:    (301) 763-8580
>>>>
>>>> http://www.orbit.nesdis.noaa.gov/smcd/emb/bobk/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>    < top of gribscan output snipped - dcs >
>>>
>>>> 3 61 118  (sequence)
>>>>   0 04 043  (numeric) JULDAY   JULIAN DAY
>>>>   0 04 004  (numeric) HOUR     Hour
>>>>   0 04 005  (numeric) MINU     Minute
>>>>   0 60 006  (numeric) SCSTTM   SCAN START TIME
>>>>   0 60 003  (numeric) SCANUM   SCAN NUMBER
>>>>   0 60 004  (numeric) NUMSCEN  NUMBER OF SCENES IN SCAN
>>>>   0 05 002  (numeric) CLAT     Latitude (coarse accuracy)
>>>>   0 06 002  (numeric) CLON     Longitude (coarse accuracy)
>>>>   0 60 005  (numeric) SCENEN   SCENE NUMBER
>>>>   0 60 093  (numeric) RF1      Rain Flag 1 (Odd Scan)
>>>>   0 60 094  (numeric) RF2      Rain Flag 2 (Odd Scan)
>>>>   0 60 162  (numeric) RR       Rain Rate
>>>>   0 60 090  (numeric) SURFTG   SURFACE TAG
>>>>   0 60 163  (numeric) LSURFTY  L Surface Type
>>>>   0 60 175  (numeric) SNWDPTH  SNOW DEPTH
>>>>   0 60 165  (numeric) LSOILM   L Soil Moisture
>>>>   0 60 166  (numeric) LSURFTM  L Surface Temp
>>>>   0 60 167  (numeric) ICSNEDG  Ice/Snow Edge
>>>>   0 60 168  (numeric) ICONC    Ice Concentration
>>>>   0 60 169  (numeric) ICEAGE   Ice Age
>>>>   0 60 170  (numeric) OSWSF    Ocean Surface Wind Speed Flag
>>>>   0 60 171  (numeric) OWV      Ocean Water Vapor
>>>>   0 60 172  (numeric) OSWS     Ocean Surface Wind Speed
>>>>   0 60 173  (numeric) OCW      Ocean Cloud Water
>>>>   0 60 174  (numeric) OCA      Ocean Cloud Amount
>>>>   0 60 164  (numeric) SSWC     Surf Snow Water Content
>>>>
>>>
>>>    < bulk of gribscan output snipped - dcs >
>>>
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> dset ^../Data/NPR.EDEB.SA.D06263.S0549.E0735.B1508081.NS
>>>> title Test BUFR description file
>>>> undef -979
>>>> dtype bufr
>>>> stid 1,198
>>>> xvar 6,1
>>>> yvar 5,2
>>>> tvar yr 4,1 mo 4,2 dy 4,3 hr 4,4 mn 4,5
>>>> stid 1 1
>>>> tdef 1 LINEAR 13:00Z01SEP2006 1hr
>>>> vars 20
>>>> slon 0 6,2 Station longitude
>>>> slat 0 5,2 Station latitude
>>>> scenen   0 60,005 Scene number
>>>> rf1      0 60,093 Rain flag 1
>>>> rf2      0 60,094 Rain flag 2
>>>> rainrate 0 60,162 Rain Rate
>>>> surftg   0 60,090 Surface tag
>>>> lsurty   0 60,163 L Surface type
>>>> snwdpth  0 60,175 Snow depth
>>>> lsoilm   0 60,165 L Soil moisture
>>>> lsurftm  0 60,166 L Surface temp
>>>> icsnedg  0 60,167 Ice/snow edge
>>>> iconc    0 60,168 Ice concentration
>>>> iceage   0 60,169 Ice age
>>>> oswsf    0 60,170 Ocean surface wind speed flag
>>>> owv      0 60,171 Ocean water vapor
>>>> osws     0 60,172 Ocean surface wind speed
>>>> ocw      0 60,173 Ocean cloud water
>>>> oca      0 60,174 Ocean cloud amount
>>>> sswc     0 60,164 Surf cnow water content
>>>> endvars
>>>
>>> --
>>> Diane Stokes
>>> Environmental Modeling Center
>>> National Weather Service/NOAA
>>
>>
>> --
>> Bob Kuligowski, Ph.D.
>> Meteorologist
>> NOAA/NESDIS/Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR)
>>
>> Mailing Address:
>> E/RA2   RM 712 WWBG
>> 5200 Auth Rd.
>> Camp Springs, MD  20746-4304
>>
>> Phone:  (301) 763-8251x192
>> Fax:    (301) 763-8580
>>
>> http://www.orbit.nesdis.noaa.gov/smcd/emb/bobk/
>
> --
> Diane Stokes
> Environmental Modeling Center
> National Weather Service/NOAA

--
Dan Swank <dan.swank at noaa.gov>
NOMADS Project:  Software & Data Management
Contractor - STG, Incorporated
Veach-Baley Federal Building
151 Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801-5001
Phone: 828-271-4007



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