From HerbM@LearnQuick.Com Wed Dec 19 01:58:51 2001 Path: cygnus.com!enews.sgi.com!howland.erols.net!feed2.news.rcn.net!rcn!dca6-feed2.news.digex.net!intermedia!newsfeed1.cidera.com!Cidera!cyclone.tampabay.rr.com!cyclone.austin.rr.com!typhoon.austin.rr.com.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: "Herb Martin" Newsgroups: rec.aviation.student Subject: How to FULLY decode a TEXTUAL Weather Radar Summary -- RAREP Lines: 66 X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Message-ID: Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 03:40:56 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.160.1.34 X-Complaints-To: abuse@rr.com X-Trace: typhoon.austin.rr.com 1008733256 24.160.1.34 (Tue, 18 Dec 2001 21:40:56 CST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 21:40:56 CST Organization: Road Runner - Texas Xref: cygnus.com rec.aviation.student:197784 How to FULLY decode a TEXTUAL Weather Radar Summary -- RAREP The title says it all except I have the BASICS but cannot locate a document that gives the FULL STORY. Notice that I said the TEXT reports, not the "graphical maps". You will SOMETIMES see these summaries in your DUATS briefing perhaps following the PIREP section (my comes through Cirrus) and it might look like this: ******** Radar Summaries ******** GRK 1735 AREA 4TRWXX 310/113 318/103 16W C1841 CELL TRWX 334/119 D3 CELL TRWX 289/90 D10 CELL TRWX 88/35 D3 CELL TRWX 358/75 D3 AREA 3RW++ 350/120 194/84 186W AREA 4R- 93/111 117/115 18W AUTO ^HJ533243 II24223432 JI66 JL451 JP2 KH2432331 LH253222 LO24 MI5132 MO54 NK22 NO42 NS1 OK1 OM34421 PN422 QN12 ******* (next section)************** Ok, GRK is the station (Gray/Ft.Hood,TX), time 17:35Z 4TRWXX is an AREA 4=4/10 covered in RW-Rain/shoWers XX-EXTREME with T-Thunderstorms located between 310/113=310deg@113 Nautical miles AND 318/103=318 degrees@103 miles 16W= 16 miles wide (area) and the C1841=Cell movement is FROM 180 degrees at 41 kts. [The FROM seems unlikely but this confirmed by an ON DUTY weather briefer AND the DUATS translator.] Apparently you treat the MOVEMENT like you do with WIND, look to the bearing to see the APPROACHING weather. The 4 CELL lines are similar but there is ONLY a POINT for the cell location, e.g., 334/119 D3 which means bearing 334 degrees at 119 miles and with a D3=Diameter of 3 nmiles. According to my friendly WX Briefer: ^HJ533243 II24223432 JI66 JL451 JP2 KH2432331 LH253222 LO24 MI5132 MO54 NK22 NO42 NS1 OK1 OM34421 PN422 QN12 Everything after the "^" requires that you have a CODED GRID OVERLATY for the radar station. E.G., find Grid HJ and then the numbers will tell us about the echos from that grid but I don't have the REAL docs on that at all. Sources: Radar Analysis http://earthlab.meteor.wisc.edu/el-radar.html 1-800 WX Brief Working with DUATS.com translations The following doesn't help my question ABOVE, but it is a pretty good summary if you are new to Weather reports: Pilot's Weather Brochure http://205.156.54.206/om/brochures/pilot.htm ======================= From HerbM@LearnQuick.Com Fri Dec 28 00:26:20 2001 Path: cygnus.com!enews.sgi.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!netnews.com!xfer02.netnews.com!newsfeed1.cidera.com!Cidera!cyclone.tampabay.rr.com!cyclone.austin.rr.com!typhoon.austin.rr.com.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: "Herb Martin" Newsgroups: rec.aviation.student Subject: How to FULLY decode a TEXTUAL Weather Radar Summary -- RAREP? More... Lines: 142 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Message-ID: Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 04:36:07 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.160.1.34 X-Complaints-To: abuse@rr.com X-Trace: typhoon.austin.rr.com 1009427767 24.160.1.34 (Wed, 26 Dec 2001 22:36:07 CST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 22:36:07 CST Organization: Road Runner - Texas Xref: cygnus.com rec.aviation.student:198385 So far I have received no responses to my requests for info on decoding RAREPs, but in the process of posting what I know much of it became clearer so here is a bit MORE (than I originally posted).... Even my FRIENDLY weather briefer couldn't decode the RAW data at the end of the RAREP, e.g., .... ^HJ533243 II24223432 JI66 JL451 JP2 KH2432331 LH253222 LO24 MI5132 MO54 NK22 NO42 NS1 OK1 OM34421 PN422 QN12 [TENTATIVE EXPLANATION -- PLEASE correct any errors you know...] The LETTER PAIRS represent a GRID system centered on the radar location and with each sqrare 22 nautical miles wide by 22 nautical miles high. J K L>>>>>>>>>JL451 M ________________X <<<< Newsgroups: rec.aviation.student Subject: PPI Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 15:48:27 -0800 Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Lines: 14 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: 40.9c.e4.e4 X-Server-Date: 27 Dec 2001 23:49:50 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Xref: cygnus.com rec.aviation.student:198464 Herb et al, (second try to send) PPI stands for Plan Position Indicator it is the circular view you look at for a radar picture with the transmitter/receiver in the center. Previous pictures were single lines through the middle of the screen. The PPI scope was a tremendous advance in radar presentation. Not sure of its origin but probably MIT. Gene Whitt