FSL ACARS Web Change Details

7-Nov-00

For the CONUS display, fixed a bug that did not correctly rotate the winds to match the projection, Changed routines: cdfacars.pro, barbs.pro

3-Aug-00

Fixed a y2k bug(!) that prevented satellite backgrounds from being loaded. Also chose a different color for the map background so that it will (I hope) show reasonably well both with and without a satellite background. Changed routine: cdfacars.pro, get_latest_satellite.pl

20-Apr-00

added processing of 'format' info, to print out when a private FSL user is accessing the page. Changed routine: cdfacars.pro, loadacars.pro

15-Feb-00

Fixed a problem with sounding information not being generated if the number of total points loaded exceeded 32767. Routine changed: cdfacars.pro

13-Oct-99

Can now read files with encrypted tailnumbers. (This change only effects internal use.) Changed routine: loadacars.pro

17-May-99 Made Y2K compliant (I hope!). Changed routines i4todate.pro, loadacars.pro, and reply-acZoom.cgi, and Welcome.cgi. Also corrected the ingest of pre-generated dewpoints to set missing dewpoints to -99.9. (Correcting an error that caused missing dewpoints to be plotted at the temperature value on soundings since 29-Apr-99.) Changed makesoundings.pro

29-Apr-99

If dewpoint is available in the QC data file, this dewpoint is used in plots and printout. Otherwise, dewpoint is calculated from water vapor mixing ratio, WITHOUT any corrections.

25-Jan-99

Moved to a new web server that is several times faster than the old one.

22-Jun-98

Now reads data files from FSL Facility Division's QC processing if the primary files are unavailable.

15-Jun-98

Installed Scott Carroll's new version of his helicity program in the 'Local Support Software' page
Changed background color of pages to white.

7-May-98 (30-Apr-98 locally)

Added support for new turbulence format for eddy dissipation rate (EDR). For EDR-reporting aircraft only, his format generates up to 3 interpolated reports for each 'real' report. Each interpolated report has good EDR data, but missing wind and temperature data, and interpolated lat/lon and altitude. Supporting this required the following changes:

When the aircraft selection option is changed to 'eddy dis. rate' aircraft, the color coding is adjusted so that maxTurbulence values greater than 2.0 are coded with the 'bad data' color. (Values > 2 are used as bad data flags.)
On sounding plots, data with missing wind and temperature information are correctly NOT plotted.
On sounding plots, the vertical (4 mb) average now correctly does not include points with missing temperature data.

The QC processing was changed to flag as bad all data higher than 75,000 ft.

10-Apr-98

Added a link on the top level page to DOS software to calculate helicity from ACARS soundings, graciously provided by Scott Carroll of the Miami WSFO.
added a wind speed plot to soundings
added a time stamp to the bottom of soundings, to better support small screens.

7-Apr-98

Corrected and improved sounding data in the format for input to the SHARP program. Wind speeds are now correct, and soundings are readable. However, not all soundings can be modified in SHARP. See our SHARP page for details.

30-Mar-98

Added links to the ACARS Forum, a place where you can post questions, suggestions and answers about this web site, and about the NWS ACARS Assessment Project.
On the sounding plot page, we added a link that will bring up an interactive MAPS sounding for the appropriate time and airport location. (Only about the latest 16 hours are available.)
On the sounding plot page, we added the bearing (true) and range from the airport for each data point, in the text below the plot.
All distances are now reported in nautical miles.
The 'Data Descriptor' (see Help) is now listed more prominently in the text below the sounding plot. A value of 'X' indicates that the data failed quality control.

10-Mar-98

Added an additional UPS aircraft that measures water vapor.

4-Mar-98

On sounding plots that include the dewpoint, the dewpoint is forced not to exceed the temperature. In the textual data under the plot, the water vapor quality control flag is set to '9' in such cases, unless the flag is already '3'. The 'raw' value of the dewpoint is shown in the text below the plot.
Some slight changes were made to the layout in the lower left of the plan-view plots so that legends show more clearly.

25-Feb-98

Small bug corrected in logging. (Yesterday's date was occasionally entered in the log file.)

13-Feb-98

Federal Express en-route data available since 17 UTC on 12-Feb-98.
Fixed a bug that started with an undocumented 'minor' (!) change made on 2345 UTC on 6-Feb-98 that broke only the 'center poke' option. This affected only MIT and ETL, I believe.

2-Feb-98

American Airlines data are now displayed. (AA gathers data every 7 minutes en-route and every 1 minute on descent.)
The current Infrared Satellite Image (11 micron band) is optionally added to all plan-view images for time periods that include the current time. This option is set on the first page under 'Initial Map Parameters'. (Thanks to Kevin Brundage for this addition.)
Temperature plots on the Sounding page now have a 4-mb running filter applied to them.
An option has been provided to download sounding data in the FAA 604 format used by the SHARP sounding analysis package. (Thanks to Mark Govett for this addition.)
A file called location.dat, needed by the SHARP program to process data from non-traditional RAOB sites such as airports, is available for downloading.

6-Jan-98

Default sounding plot is now surface to ~400 mb
Full sounding plot is available via a link, and comes up quickly in a separate window
The algorithm that finds ascent/descent legs for soundings now works correctly when the end-point of a leg is clicked upon.

16-Dec-97

Sounding plots now have pressure altitude indicated on the right side

15-Dec-97

(internal) Log file changed to include sounding airport, elapsed clock time, and other changes made to the Log to facilitate usage reports.
Tailnumbers for turbulence-measuring aircraft changed. Now there are four.

16-Oct-97

Second humidity-measuring aircraft added
Log file now includes first letter of aircraft selection option. ('a' = all, 'v' = vapor-measuring, 'g' = g-measuring, 'e' = eddy dissipation rate measuring)

16-Sep-97

Eddy-dissipation-rate data provided as an option. (Shows data only from aircraft that measure this.)
'Turbulence' option changed to 'g' option. (Shows data only from aircraft that measure vertical acceleration.)
Origin and Destination airports added to the textual putput.
Latutude and Longitude reported only to nearest hundredth of a degree.

27-Aug-97

The hour of the day and the number of hours to process can now be fractional.

16-July-97

Color coding of plan view plots can now be by altitude (default) or temperature.

16-July-97

The dynamic range of the color coding is now determined only by data in the time/altitude/lat/lon window. Previously, it had been determined by all data in the time/altitude window, whether or not the data appeared on the plot.

14-July-97

Sounding portions that are more than 100 nautical miles (161 km) from the ground point are now coded in gray.

6-Jun-1997

Fixed a roundoff problem with negative altitudes

5-Jun-1997

Default minimum pressure altitude changed from 0 to -999 ft, to allow low true altitude reports during high pressure regimes.

29-May-1997

Added a 'save this image' link on the sounding page, to make it easier for users to save just the .gif image of the sounding.

23-May-1997

When the water vapor QC flag is greater than 3, or '-', set the water vapor mixing ratio to missing (and hence, the dewpoint to '-99.9'). Also, added an explation of the QC flag values to the 'help' page.

21-May-1997

When the water vapor QC flag is '3', set the water vapor mixing ratio to missing (and hence, the dewpoint to '-99.9').

19-May-1997

QC processing and data ingest changed to include all UPS high-resolution ascent reports. (Some data had been missing for the water-vapor sensing aircraft.)

24-Apr-1997

Changed the format of WVMR (water vapor mixing ratio) to be a.bc-z, where z is the exponent. E.g, "5.67-2" corresponds to 5.67 x 10^-2 g/Kg.

14-Apr-1997

Changed the map projection for North America to Lambert Conformal Conic. (This is only a slight change from the previous cylindrical projection, but matches RUC/MAPS and most other meteorological plots.)

1-Mar-97

Added an option on the top level page to only show water-vapor-measuring aircraft. Also added a dew point calculation from water vapor mixing ratio, and show this on sounding plots, and in the text under the sounding plot.
Note also that two changes occured yesterday in the ACARS quality control software that produces the data these web pages use:

High-resolution ascent data is included again (this had been gone since 13-Dec-96).
Wind speeds of zero reported by Delta MD88 aircraft are flagged as bad.

27-Feb-97

Corrected the water vapor mixing ratio, so that it correctly reports in g/Kg (for the one aircraft that currently reports water vapor), and improved the formatting of the water vapor quality control flag printout. (This can be seen in the text under sounding plots.)

5-Feb-97

Added an explanation that the data may not be shared with 3rd parties, and changed makesounding.pro to not crash on soundings with more than 200 points. (Only the first 200 points will be ploted, but such soundings are probably bogus.)

20-Dec-96

Added a link to the old version, which gets data from a (slightly) different source, and may have data when this version doesn't.

13-Dec-96 (See Help for more information.)

Started using Paul Hamer's excellent new decoding software. This provides as much as 50% more data, provides some acceleration data, and provides a slot for water vapor mixing ratio.
Added vertical acceleration data for the 5 or so aircraft that support it. This shows up in two places:
1. As a color coding, if desired, where the colors range from black for zero incremental g's (smooth flight) to red for +/- 0.2g's, and
2. In the textual data, where the total (not incremental) apparent gravity (centered around 1.0 g) is indicated.
(We are aware that one aircraft is providing g values centered around -2.7 g. We assume this is in error.)
Added a slot for water vapor mixing ratio to show up, when it becomes available experimentally from one aircraft in January. The values (currently all zero) show up in the textual data. The quality flag, currently '-' shows up immediately after the value. So, you will see a column in textural data labeled WVMR (for water vapor mixing ratio) in gm/Kg, with contents '0-' (and, we hope, with real values starting sometime in mid January, from 1 aircraft). For further info, see Rex Fleming's article in the November 1996 Bulletin, American Meteorological Society, p 2229.
Eliminated the 'latest' file. (This is an internal change to make the code simpler,)

17-Nov-96

Changed the wind barb routine. Barbs should be more readable. (Thanks to Mark Govett of FSL for this.)
Changed the sounding routine to show the distance between the lowest point on the flight track and the nearest 'major' airport. Note that the distance shown in the sounding plot title is the straight-line distance between the lowest and highest point in the sounding. The distance shown in the text below the plot is the distance between each data point and the airport.
Also changed the text below the plot to indicate that the altitude listed is a pressure altitude.
Added the capability to set initial default values in a bookmark. See the Set Defaults Form for more details.
Changed to a less ambiguous form for displaying the date.

Prepared by Bill Moninger 303-497-6435
Last modified: Tue Nov 7 14:48:15 2000