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Updated metar.dat

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Updated metar.dat

Postby f-ojac » Fri Jul 22, 2016 2:26 pm

Hi all,
I've worked on an update metar.dat than you can get from http://pastebin.com/ExviPAuE
It uses the May 2016 update from the METAR weather stations list from NOAA.
It make the number of stations grows of about 40%, while deleting removed weather stations and adding new. So it should probably enhance the weather accuracy in FG and avoid network queries of non existing METARs.
This file hasn't been updated for years.
If you feel OK with this file, I'll post a short info on the devel list and then ask for the replacement of the current metar.dat.gz by this file.
I will not update stations in this file, if some are wrong, as I want to use a official reference. You should wait for an downstream update from NOAA.
Best,
Oliver
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Re: Updated metar.dat

Postby wkitty42 » Fri Jul 22, 2016 8:01 pm

i thought i might test it out on my system but i haven't found the original one, yet :(
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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Re: Updated metar.dat

Postby sanhozay » Sat Jul 23, 2016 1:48 pm

I haven't been on the development list much recently but I wrote a script to update metar.dat.gz prior to 2016.2 and discussed with Torsten the possibility of including it in the quarterly release process. It's in FGMETA. Maybe you could look at that script, see if it matches your thinking and raise it with Torsten?
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Re: Updated metar.dat

Postby wkitty42 » Sun Jul 24, 2016 5:04 am

i see "create_metar_dat.py but it doesn't help me/others know where to place the file for fgfs to use it... grep hasn't found it for me/us yet :(
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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Re: Updated metar.dat

Postby Gijs » Sun Jul 24, 2016 8:43 am

It lives under Airports/ in fgdata.
Airports: EHAM, EHLE, KSFO
Aircraft: 747-400
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Re: Updated metar.dat

Postby wkitty42 » Sun Jul 24, 2016 10:43 pm

thanks! i see how i goofed up, too... this was a job for "find -type f -name *metar*" instead of "grep -ir --include "*" "metar" ." :lol: :roll:


[edit]

wow, that's a lot of work there... 144 removed and 8454 added for a new total of 8857 versus the old total of 5099 (don't count the two lines at the top)...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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Re: Updated metar.dat

Postby biloute974 » Mon Jul 25, 2016 12:00 am

Hi,

in test on a FG 2016.3. At this time, all works fine.
Intel I7 7700 - 16Gb DDR4 - Nvidia GTX970 - FG 2017.4.0 from D&C
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Re: Updated metar.dat

Postby f-ojac » Mon Jul 25, 2016 3:24 pm

@sanhozay, thanks, I'll definitely have a look at it.
And yes, it's a big update !
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Re: Updated metar.dat

Postby f-ojac » Mon Aug 01, 2016 11:04 am

@sanhozay Your python script is a better solution, as it also checks that the station has been sending METAR data recently. Do you want me to ping Torsten about it?
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Re: Updated metar.dat

Postby sanhozay » Wed Aug 03, 2016 11:28 am

Would you? I'm really busy with other things at the moment and I have no Flightgear time. :(

The idea of the script is to automate updates to metar.dat.gz as part of the quarterly release process. As you pointed out, this file has not been updated for years.

I wrote the script because I was having problems with nil weather at startup at some airports. Flightgear uses this file to determine the nearest weather station to request METAR but it only checks the nearest one. If that station has gone offline, e.g. the airport has closed IRL, nil weather results. Once you are into a flight, it's not so bad because the weather just stays as it was if there is no response from a station.
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Re: Updated metar.dat

Postby sanhozay » Mon Aug 08, 2016 6:09 pm

@f-ojac: Could you have a look at the devel list?

For anyone trying to run the create_metar_dat.py script in fgmeta, it is currently throwing an exception because the format of the NOAA web page has changed as well as the URL. This is intentional behaviour in response to the page changing and I have a modified version under test. I expect to submit it for merge tomorrow.
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Re: Updated metar.dat

Postby f-ojac » Tue Aug 09, 2016 5:25 pm

Oh that's great, thanks, I was just looking at this right now. Thanks, I'll wait for your merge.
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Re: Updated metar.dat

Postby f-ojac » Tue Aug 16, 2016 2:59 pm

Hi all, sanhozay.
I'm happy to tell you Torsten updated the metar.dat.gz file in fgdata. If everything is ok and his time permitting, hHe should be putting this into the Jenkins process for future builds as well.
That's a great news. Thanks to him and sanhozay for the script.
Oliver
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