29 October 2012
REGARDING WIFS DIRECTORY CHANGES EFFECTIVE 28 NOVEMBER 2012
Effective 1500 UTC on 28 November 2012, the following changes will be made to the WIFS directory structure.
1) Sub-directory SIGWX will be added under the BUFR directory. The SIGWX directory will contain KWBC and EGRR sub-directories. The Significant Weather forecast products (JU.... KKCI) issued by WAFC Washington will be stored under the BUFR/SIGWX/KWBC directory. The Significant Weather forecast products issued by WAFC London (JU.... EGRR) will be stored under the BUFR/SIGWX/EGRR directory. For a period of not less than 60 days the files will be available under both the BUFR directory and the BUFR/SIGWX/EGRR and BUFR/SIGWX/KWBC directories in order to give users time to adjust their software.
2) Sub-directory SIGWX will be added under the PNG directory. The SIGWX directory will contain KWBC and EGRR sub-directories. The Significant Weather forecast products (PG.... KKCI) issued by WAFC Washington will be stored under the PNG/SIGWX/KWBC directory. The Significant Weather forecast products issued by WAFC London (PG.... EGRR) will be stored under the PNG/SIGWX/EGRR directory. For a period of not less than 60 days the files will be available under both the PNG directory and the PNG/SIGWX/EGRR and PNG/SIGWX/KWBC directories in order to give users time to adjust their software.
3) Sub-directory TROP will be added under the PNG directory. The TROP directory will contain graphical tropical cyclone advisory products.
4) Sub-directory VOLC will be added under the PNG directory. The VOLC directory will contain graphical volcanic ash trajectory and dispersion graphics.
5) The ISCS_ADMIN_MSG will be removed. This directory has been replaced by ADMIN_MSGS.
If you have any questions please contact the WIFS Help Desk at +1(877)280-2811 or wifs.admin@noaa.gov.
12 June 2012
REGARDING ISCS SATELLITE TERMINATION ON 1 JULY 2012
Effective 0400 UTC on 1 July 2012, the FAA will terminate the broadcast over the International Satellite Communications System (ISCS). At that time WIFS will be the primary means of WAFS data distribution. Please see the following Service Change Notice for more information:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/notification/scn12-21iscs_end.htm
To support users during this transition, the WIFS Help Desk will operate continuously beginning at 1200 UTC on 29 June 2012 and ending at 2000 UTC on 2 July 2012.
12 June 2012
REGARDING GRIB1 AND GRIB2 SCHEDULE CHANGES ON 5 JULY 2012
Effective 1200 UTC on 5 July 2012, the transmission times for the WAFS Upper Air Forecasts in GRIB1 and GRIB2 will change. Currently the GRIB1 products are available first followed by the GRIB2 products. Beginning 1200 UTC on 5 July the order will be reversed. The GRIB2 products will be available first followed by the GRIB1 products. This will result in a delay of about 45 minutes for the GRIB1 products. Please reference the following Technical Implementation Notice for more details:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/notification/tin12-20grib_priority.htm
5 July 2011
REGARDING USE OF TRAILING SLASH FOR WIFS DIRECTORY LISTINGS AND RECURSIVE REQUESTS
An issue was found related to the structure of wget requests when requesting a directory listing or multiple files via the recursive option. When making a request where the destination is a directory, the trailing slash must be used. For example, in order to recursively get all of the Administrative Messages, you need to issue a command with this format:
wget --user=<usr> --password=<password> -r --no-check-certificate https://www.aviationweather.gov/wifs/data/ADMIN_MSGS/
If you have any questions please contact us.
WIFS Customer Support
wifs.admin@noaa.gov
+1(877)280-2811
1 July 2011
REGARDING GRIB2 DATA PROBLEM BEGINNING APPROX 30 JUNE, 2011.
A problem with our primary data server was causing the WIFS GRIB2 files to contain duplicate records. The problem has been found and a fix has been implemented. We expect the problem to be fixed in the 18Z issuance at approximately 2230Z today.
We appreciate your understanding. If you have any questions please contact us.
WIFS Customer Support
wifs.admin@noaa.gov
+1(877)280-2811
13 June 2011
DEPRECATION OF SITE-SPECIFIC URLS - SECOND NOTICE
The following site-specific URLs are being deprecated.
https://hq.aviationweather.gov/wifs/data
https://srh.aviationweather.gov/wifs/data
https://crh.aviationweather.gov/wifs/data
The need for these URLs has been eliminated. Users must change their software to use the load balanced URL:
https://www.aviationweather.gov/wifs/data
The site-specific URLs will not be available after June 26, 2011.
We appreciate your understanding. If you have any questions please contact us.
WIFS Customer Support
wifs.admin@noaa.gov
+1(877)280-2811
7 June 2011
NOTICE OF POTENTIAL DATA INTERRUPTIONS ON 8 JUNE 2011
The maintenance scheduled for 7 June was postponed to 8 June between 1230 and 1345 UTC. For more details see the 3 June 2011 Advisory below.
3 June 2011
NOTICE OF POTENTIAL DATA INTERRUPTIONS ON 7 JUNE 2011
On June 7 between 1230 and 1345 UTC the National Weather Service Telecommunications Operations Center (TOC) is expecting interruptions to data services due to system upgrades and maintenance. This may affect data availability on WIFS in the following areas: International SIGMETs, TAFs, METARs, and PIREPs.
NOTE: WIFS will still be available for use during this period. Once the TOC restores communications, WIFS will immediately begin making the new data available. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this interruption causes you.
27 April 2011
DEPRECATION OF SITE-SPECIFIC URLS
The following site-specific URLs are being deprecated.
https://hq.aviationweather.gov/wifs/data
https://srh.aviationweather.gov/wifs/data
https://crh.aviationweather.gov/wifs/data
We have taken measures to eliminate the need for these URLs and urge all users to change their software to use the load balanced URL:
https://www.aviationweather.gov/wifs/data
The site-specific URLs will be available for a limited period of time. Users should begin transition to the new URL as soon as possible. Another advisory will be posted when the official deprecation date is known.
30 March 2011
WIFS USERS GUIDE VERSION 4.1 IS AVAILABLE
Version 4.1 of the WIFS Users Guide is now available on the Documents page. Noteworthy changes in this version are:
(1) Modified Section 5 Data Retrieval Process to make it clearer and easier to interpret; this includes removing the site-specific URLs.
(2) Added reference to SADIS User Guide Annexes 1 and 4.
28 February 2011
CHANGE TO GRIB ENCODING OF WAFS PRODUCTS EFFECTIVE MARCH 1, 2011
In the GRIB2 products, Section 1, Identification Section in the GRIB message, Octet 10, which indicates the WMO GRIB Master Table used to encode the data, will be changed from 2 to 6. This change indicates that the products will be encoded and should be decoded using Master Table version number 6. For more information please visit NWS TIN 10-62.
13 October 2010
GRIB2 Trial Forecast data is now available. The data can be retrieved from the /caws/data/wifs/GRIB2/KWBC/trial_forecast/ directory. If you have any questions please email us at wifs.admin@noaa.gov.
PNG file update: The 31-byte header has now been removed. We apologize for any inconvenience this caused you. If you have any questions please email us at wifs.admin@noaa.gov.
The WIFS/ISCS synchronization is still ongoing. We hope to have this synchronization completed by October 29, 2010. IMPORTANT NOTE: The ISCS data feed contains some products that are not yet authorized for distribution over the WAFS. Once a decision is reached these data sets may go away at a yet to be determined date. If you have any questions please send email to wifs.admin@noaa.gov.
6 August 2010
We are in the process of synchronizing the data available on WIFS with what is currently available on ISCS and SADIS. We hope to have this synchronization completed by September 30, 2010. If you have any questions please send email to wifs.admin@noaa.gov.
8 June 2010
The GRIB and GRIB2 data is now available in the concatenated end-state format.
27 April 2010
Due to technical issues, the GRIB and GRIB2 data currently available on WIFS is not in the concatenated end-state format. It's currently being stored in individual WMO files. We're sorry for this inconvenience and hope to have the concatenated format running as soon as possible.
