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The Weather Processor

David A. Curry

The Weather Processor (WXP) is an integrated set of meteorological tools developed by the Purdue University Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Ernest M. Agee. With the help of Dan Vietor from that department, ECN Sun workstation users now have access to the WXP software, enabling a wide variety of weather-related queries, both text- and graphics-based, to be performed.

The Text Interface

The text-based interface to WXP is called wxptxt. It is capable of displaying current weather data for U.S. and foreign cities, normal and extended forecasts for U.S. cities and aviation terminals, zone forecasts for individual states, hourly and daily weather summaries for U.S. cities, severe thunderstorm and tornado watches for individual states, severe thunderstorm, tornado, and flood warnings for individual states, hurricane advisories for the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific, and earthquake information.

The wxptxt program is called using the syntax "wxptxt type" where type indicates the type of data you want to see. If type is not given, or is given as help, a list of available types and how to interpret them will be displayed. Some useful values for type include:

data_laf        current weather for Lafayette
fore_laf        zone forecast for Lafayette
fore_ext_laf    extended forecast for Lafayette

data city       current weather for city
fore city       metro forecast for city
fore_ext state  extended forecast for state

The Graphics Interface

The graphics-based interface to WXP is called wxpplt. It displays information such as maps and satellite images on a bitmapped screen. You must be running the X11R5 or OpenWindows window systems in order to use wxpplt. Using wxpplt, it is possible to view visible and infrared satellite images, surface plots (temperature, wind, pressure, cloud cover, etc.), surface contours (temperatures, pressures, dewpoints, wind), meteograms (time series of surface data), upper air plots, upper air contours, radar plots, and weather forecast model output.

The wxpplt program is called using the syntax "wxpplt type" where type indicates the type of data you want to see. If type is not given, or is given as help, a list of available types and how to interpret them will be displayed. Some useful values for type include:

• rad midwest radar summary
• sfc_map just like the weatherman's map
• sat_vis visible satellite image
• sat_ir infrared satellite image _
• sat_ir_loop 7-hour infrared satellite loop
• sat_vis_loop 7-hour visible satellite loop
• met_LAF meteogram for Lafayette

To exit the display of wxpplt, press the "ENTER" or "RETURN" key in the wxpplt window. The wxpplt programs work on both color and monochrome displays.

Other Interfaces

Other programs available in the WXP package include:

wxp_wx

Display a small X window containing the temperature, dewpoint, wind barb, and cloud cover for Lafayette.

wxpnews

Displays current information about the WXP system including news about new features, problems, etc.

wxproot

Loads the most recent infrared satellite image into the root window of your X11R5 or OpenWindows display.

Reporting Problems

The WXP software is in use at several sites and thus has been pretty well debugged. However, if you encounter problems, send electronic mail to the login "wxp" and someone will look at it.

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