Access to RUC20 gridded data

Inventory of all RUC files from NCEP at http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/products/ruc2

All RUC GRIB and BUFR data available from NCEP ftp site at: ftp://ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/data/nccf/com/ruc/prod/

For almost all RUC data, go to 
   ftp://ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/data/nccf/com/ruc/prod/ruc2a.yyyymmdd/,

     ****** OR  *******
FOR RUC analyses at 0000 and 1200 UTC that use complete raob data:

   ftp://ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/data/nccf/com/ruc/prod/ruc2b.yyyymmdd/,

   where yyyy=year, mm=month, dd=day,
   One finds the following classes of files, with the following filenames
      and subdirectories of form




RUC native (hybrid) level files 
--------------------------------
      ruc2.thhz.bgrb20anl
      ruc2.thhz.bgrb20fhh
         RUC native output on hybrid levels at 20km resolution
         anl=analysis, and fhh=forecast time hh hours after
            initial.
         These are ~52Mb in size.  I believe these are the bgrb files at
            full 20km50L resolution.  
         For variables included, see
          see http://ruc.fsl.noaa.gov/ruc2vars.html

      ruc2.thhz.bgrbanl
      ruc2.thhz.bgrbfhh
         same as above but thinned to 40km output grid.  NOTE:
          THESE 40KM NATIVE GRIDS NOW HAVE 50 LEVELS INSTEAD OF 40.
          Also, they have the same 38 2-d variables as from the
          RUC40 but also 8 extra 2-d variables.

Isobaric grid files
---------------------
      ruc2.thhz.pgrb20anl
      ruc2.thhz.pgrb20fhh
         anl=analysis, and fhh=forecast time in hours.
         isobaric 25mb plus 88 2-d fields
         files are about 28Mb.  These are the native horizontal
            grid (20km spacing) and 37 isobaric levels, plus sfc fields.

      ruc2.thhz.pgrbanl
      ruc2.thhz.pgrbfhh
         Same as above except for 40km output thinned from 20km grids
         These files are about 7Mb.  
            Besides the anal, there are 1,2,3,6,9,12h fcsts.   
         pgrb  = RUC isobaric output

Surface grid files
------------------
 
      ruc2.thhz.sgrb20anl
      ruc2.thhz.sgrb20fhh
         anl=analysis, and fhh=forecast time in hours.
         20km 'surface' files - 25 2-d fields - sfc, precip, prec type, stability, etc.
         These files average about 1.7Mb, xcpt for the .anl which are
            closer to 1.4Mb.  

      ruc2.thhz.sgrbanl         
      ruc2.thhz.sgrbfhh
         same as above but thinned to 40km output grid
         These files are about 420Kb, xcpt for the .anl files, which are
            ~350Kb.           

BUFR sounding files
-------------------
      
      Stations files with hourly output
      --------------------------------
      bufrsnd.thhz
         This subdirectory contains BUFR sndgs for hour hhz.  Files are
            of form bufr.nnnnnn.yyyymmddhh, where nnnnnn = 6-digit stn
            number (see sm info on Eta BUFR sndgs in ~jmbrown/ncep_news/eta
            for station details), yyyy=year, mm=month of year, dd=day of month,
            hh=hour of day in UTC.

         There is one of these files for each initial time for each stn.
            There is hourly output for a number of variables, including all
               variables needed for a sounding, also the RUC hydrometeor
               mixing ratios.  Also precip, stability, surface, soil, etc.
               size - 15 KB for 3h fcsts
                    - 26 KB for 12h fcsts
            Note that these files have, according to note frm Geoff Maniken,
               all our soil levels in them.  Since we have one more than
               Eta, Geoff sez  "All of the mnemonics are exactly the same 
               between the two models [RUC20 and Eta, 
               but the RUC does indeed have an extra soil layer,
               and this must be accounted for in unpacking tables." 

      ruc2.thhz.class1.bufr.tm00
         monolithic BUFR sndg file, about 16Mb.
         -------------------------
         all stations, all output times from a given RUC analysis/model run
         As with the files in the bufrsnd.thhz subdirectory, these files 
            at the 3-h syn times are longer (15863Kb) than at the other 
            times (4888Kb).  They all have the tm00 suffix.

AWIPS output files
------------------

      ruc2.thhz.grb2anl
      ruc2.thhz.grb2fhh
         anl=analysis, and fhh=forecast time in hours.
         AWIPS output files for thinned 40km RUC grid - 236 grid
         These are gnly just under 1.4Mb each.
         Forecast times are 1,2,3,6,9,12h.

         g236xtrn = FAA output extracted from pgrb

FAA output files
----------------

      ruc.thhz.g236xtrn.anl
      ruc.thhz.g236xtrn.fhh
         anl=analysis, and fhh=forecast time hh hours after
            initial.
         For FAA usage.
         output files on AWIPS 236 grid (equivalent to 40km RUC grid)
           (not sure if these are also used for AWIPS)
         Subset of RUC isobaric (pgrb) files, includes some isobaric
            as well as 2-d variables (e.g., sfc, precip, etc.)
         These are about 6.5mb in size.  
         Files exist for 0 (anl), 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,12h fcsts.