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Home of WINGRIDDS and PCGRIDDS32
What are WINGRIDDS and PCGRIDDS32???
WINGRIDDS is a Microsoft Windows 32-bit implementation of the DOS-based PCGRIDDS written by Dr. Ralph Petersen and Jackie Lord, both of who work for the National Weather Service but Dr. Petersen has since retired. Dr. Petersen was gracious enough to give me, Jeff Krob, the code and allow me to create WINGRIDDS/PCGRIDDS32.
PCGRIDDS32 is a 32-bit program, however, it is not a full Windows, ‘point-and-click’ GUI program. PCGRIDDS32 stands for Personal Computer based GRidded Interactive Display and Diagnostic System. WINGRIDDS is the full MS Windows compliant ‘point-and-click’ GUI version which stands for WINdows based GRidded Interactive Display and Diagnostic System. With the release of WINGRIDDS, PGRIDDS32 development has frozen and will not be enhanced or improved in any way.
WINGRIDDS/PCGRIDDS32 is a software package that allows the user to view meteorologically significant fields of gridded analysis and numerical weather prediction model output (GRIB files). The fields are displayed in either contour or vector format, whichever is appropriate for a particular field. This package also allows the user to extract a variety of information from meteorological diagnostic parameters computed from the gridded data fields.
The flexibility of WINGRIDDS allows the package to meet the needs of users with a wide range of skills and requirements. The novice can quickly learn to display a wide variety of predefined products using the WINGRIDDS Menu system. More advanced users can develop specialized products to meet their individual needs using the programmable WINGRIDDS Command language, including the creation of customized menu options to meet specific user needs.
This page is, at the time, very basic and is my first try at Web authoring. This will be the central place where updates to WINGRIDDS are released so stay tuned!! WINGRIDDS has been and will be freeware.
Thank you for your support and pass the word about WINGRIDDS!!!
Jeff Krob
NOAA/NESDIS
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DOWNLOADS
*** NOTICE *** NOTICE *** NOTICE *** NOTICE *** NOTICE
WINGRIDDS v2.0 has been released!!! See below the images for download information.
Here are some teaser screen shots...(click for full images)
WINGRIDDS Beta Release 4.1
7-15-2008 This release is to fix some bugs found in the WINGRIDDS v2.0 and NGRB2PCG32 GRIB Ingest utility. Please read the Release Notes for full details
WINGRIDDS Beta 4.1 Release Notes
WINGRIDDS Version 2.0
This is release of WINGRIDDS Version 2.0. This is a major release with many improvements over Version 1.2. The WINGRIDDS Users Guide has a tutorial to guide you through the new operations. As you can see from the screen shots, 3 major additions have been added to WINGRIDDS operations:
1) WINGRIDDS can now have either a single window or be divided into 4 separate windows with independent operations in each window
2) WINGRIDDS can process and display both surface and upper-air observation data and all diagnostic commands work with the observation data as it does with the model data
3) WINGRIDDS now has the ability of 4 different color contour-fill operations
If you participated in the beta testing and were up-to-date with the releases, you only need to download the Executable file and unzip it in the WINGRIDDS Directory. If you were not up-to-date with the beta testing, it is best to just uninstall the WINGRIDDS beta version you have, download the complete installation & reinstall. Of course, if you are a PCGRIDDS32 user or are new to the whole program, just download the complete installation file and follow the installation directions in the WINGRIDDS User Guide.
So give it a try and see the future of GRIB display and diagnostics!!
WINGRIDDS Version 2.0 Complete Installation File
WINGRIDDS Version 2.0 Executable File
WINGRIDDS Version 2.0 Release Notes.doc
WINGRIDDS Documentation
WINGRIDDS Documentation (online)
(If Needed)
Microsoft Installer 2.0 for Win 95, 98, ME
Microsoft Installer 2.0 for Win NT, 2000, XP
There are situations when the WINGRIDDS Download utility URL2FILE.EXE is flagged by security scans as a virus or an infected file. URL2FILE is a free upload/download utility available on the Internet at http://www.chami.com/free/url2file_wincon.html . The file is a clean and safe program *however* it is often used along with malicious viruses, spyware, malware, etc. to do transfers to/from the victims computer. It has therefore been labeled as a bad file but it is a case of "guilty by association". If there are situations where the WINGRIDDS copy is deleted by security-scanning software, feel free to either download the replacement copy from it's home site or from the WINGRIDDS link below. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience this issue may cause.
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PCGRIDDS32 Version 3.3
PCGRIDDS32 V 3.3 is the latest operational release of PCGRIDDS32. This release, which is a culmination of the previous beta testing, incorporates two major improvements as well as many bug fixes. The two improvements are 1) GRIB2 file processing for GRIB2PCG32, NGRB2PCG32 and NMOSGRB2PCG32 and 2) Ensemble GRIB processing for GRIB2PCG32 and NGRB2PCG32. Please read the release notes for details concerning these improvements as well as the listing of bug fixes.
To install the PCGRIDDS32 Complete file, download the zip file and, using Winzip or some other unzip program, unzip the file from the root directory on the hard drive which you wish to operate PCGRIDDS32 from. While unzipping the file, the directory PCGRIDDS32 and all subdirectories will be created.
To install the PCGRIDDS32 Executable zip file, download the zip file and, using Winzip or some other unzip program, unzip the file from within the PCGRIDDS32 directory.
Enjoy!!
PCGRIDDS32 V3.3 04-04-2007 Complete
PCGRIDDS32 V3.3 04-04-2007 Executables
Hi Resolution Maps (Restored!!!)
PCGRIDDS32 Utilities Update 01-10-2008
For all you die-hard PCGRIDDS32 fans out there, an updated version PCGRIDDS32 GRIB ingest utilities (NGRB2PCG32, NMOSGRB2PCG32 & GRIB2PCG32) is available. All of the GRIB ingest utilities have been converted to handle GRIB2.
On 01-08-2008, the NWS GRIB ingestor NGRB2PCG32 needed a quick bug fix for proper operation dealing with GRIB2 grid 003 (Global Lat/Lon) data being up-side-down.
On 01-10-2008, the WAFS GRIB ingestor GRIB2PCG32 needed an emergency bug fix for proper operation dealing with WAFS GRIB2 messages which were less than 1000 bytes and causing the utility to crash.
Download the PCGRIDDS32 Utilities file for the new version.
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PCGRIDDS32 Documentation
PCGRIDDS32 Documentation (online)
Thanks to Mike Davison at NCEP International Desk for providing these Spanish translations:
Spanish PCGRIDDS32 Release Notes
Spanish GRIB2PCG32 Release Notes
Spanish NGRB2PCG32 Release notes
GRIB Files:
I'm sure this question "...where do I get GRIB files from?" will come up at some point. Below are pointers to the various NWS/NCEP FTP Servers where NWS GRIB files can be downloaded. For information concerning the GRIB file naming convention, go to:
For information describing the model datasets available on the NCEP and OOS (NWS) Servers, go to:
http://strc.comet.ucar.edu/gribmaster/modeldatasets.htm
NWS GRIB
ftp://ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/data/nccf/com
ftp://weather.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.opnl
ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.opnl
WAFS GRIB
ftp://weather.noaa.gov/SL.us0080001/ST.opnl/MT.gfs_CY.{CC}/RD.{YYYYMMDD}/PT.grid_DF.gr1
ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us0080001/ST.opnl/MT.gfs_CY.{CC}/RD.{YYYYMMDD}/PT.grid_DF.gr1
Search for a file name of fh.###_tl.press_ar.octant* where '###' is forecast hour and '*' is the octant letter (I-P)
ftp://ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/data/nccf/com/gfs/prod/gfs.{YYYYMMDDHH}
Search for a file name of wafs_*_tHHz_intdesk### where '###' is forecast hour, '*' is the octant letter (I-P) and
"HH" is the model run hour.
WAFS ENSEMBLE GRIB
ftp://ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/data/nccf/com/mrf/prod/ens.{YYYYMMDD}
Search for a file name of wafs_*_tHHz_ens### where '###' is forecast hour, '*' is the octant letter (I-P) and
"HH" is the model run hour.
Canadian Meteorological Center (CMC) GRIB
http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/grib
Global 00Z, 12Z GRIB1 format, low resolution
http://dd.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/grib/public/lores/CMC_glb_00
http://dd.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/grib/public/lores/CMC_glb_12
Regional 00Z, 12Z GRIB1 format, low resolution
http://dd.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/grib/public/lores/CMC_reg_00
http://dd.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/grib/public/lores/CMC_reg_12
CMC also offers a number of larger data sets but to access those files you must register using the registration form accessible at http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/grib/index_e.html or http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/grib/index_f.html to obtain a free username and password.
Users should note that cmcens data referred to at:
ftp://ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/data/nccf/com/mrf/prod/cmcens.{YYYYMMDD}
is CMC ensemble data that has been repackaged and
made available by NCEP
047 GLB
to the content of the file c:\ [pcgridds32, wingridds ] \GRIB\GRIBMODL.DAT
(2) Add the following line
255 A CMC POLAR STEREOGRAPHIC
to the content of the file c:\[pcgridds32, wingridds ]\GRIB\GRID.DAT
There is a chance a similar type of line referring instead to a lat long grid may have to be added for the global grib data.
(3) Put your sample CMC GRIB1 data files into directory C:\[pcgridds32, wingridds]\GRIB\NWS
( 4 ) Start [pcgridds32, wingridds] and using appropriate menus, decode grib data into [pcgridds32, wingridds ] data format
( 5 ) Your CMC GRIB1 data should now be available for viewing.
For further information:
If after having reading the info available on the pages available at http://www.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/grib you still require more information, send an email to: production-info@cmc.ec.gc.ca
Email Support:
(spam blocker...replace 'at' with '@')
Jeffrey.A.Krob at noaa.gov
Last updated on: 09-21-2008