Details

Introduction:
This data on the AB/CPC Data Page are the work of many people at NCEP. It was named the AB/CPC Data Page because I expect that in the future a "NCEP Data Page" and a "CPC Data Page" will be maintained by the web-masters of the NCEP and CPC home pages, respectively. Anyways, I work at the AB of CPC. [Note: CPC has reorganized and the Analysis Branch (AB) is gone.]

Warning:
The data that is available from the previous page are primarily research datasets. People who need "time-critical", "must-have", or "official forecasts" datasets should not use this site. These people need to go through official channels (see disclaimers). If this site crashes of Friday evening, I won't be around to reboot it until Monday morning. If a power surge fries this computer while I'm on vacation, there is simply nobody around to recreate the site. Even if I were not on vacation, it would still take much time to get a new machine, install the operating system, read the backup tapes and reconfigure the system. A similar situation exists if workstation "sgi62" dies.

Control and Index files:
Most of the data files include GrADS control files (.ctl). In addition, the GRIB files also have an index or map file (often .idx or .map). However the control and index files will only work for the full dataset. If you obtain a subset, you will need to remake these files. Personally I would use grib2ctl to make the control files but I'm biased. After you make the control file, you have to run gribmap which is part of the GrADS distribution.

If you pick up some GrADS control files, you may notice some strange comments (lines that begin with an asterisk). These comments are actually directives to the web plotter on how to create various plots. All the customization of the plots are contained in the control files.

New datasets:
If any NCEP people would like to make your data available on this page, contact me (WNE).

Bugs:
Send bug reports to Wesley.Ebisuzaki@noaa.gov

Plot package:
The plots are produced by GrADS, written by Brian Doty, doty@cola.iges.org.

New Plot Features (PNG version only):

Future Plot Features:

  • surface observations
  • comparison between operational analyses and CDAS/Reanalysis

New FTP2You Features:

  • geographic subregions for lat-lon grids
  • Fair usage limits

contact: Wesley.Ebisuzaki@noaa.gov