metaf2xml / News: Recent posts

The processing of message files from NWS was improved. 'M' is recognised as missing in METAR. The METAR remark for a phenomenon can have multiple phenomena. Several smaller improvements were made and a few bugs were fixed.

This release contains changes to adapt to the new NOAA AWC Data API. A few other small improvements were made.

The decimal separator can be configured for each language. Consecutive cloud groups in METAR remarks are now grouped in one XML node "remark". Embedded/associated cloud types are now in a separate XML node "remark". Parsing of AMDAR and various other groups was improved and a few bugs were fixed.

Temperatures in the summary view can also be shown in °F. Decoding of binary BUFR messages now requires Geo::BUFR 1.37+ and ECC BUFR table files from ECWMF. Parsing of METAR and translations were improved. Various other small improvements were made, and a few bugs were fixed.

HTML5 is now used for HTML output and the HTML generation functions of CGI.pm are not used anymore. Escaping special characters was improved when the output is shown as text. Parsing of TAF amendments and various other groups was improved and a few bugs were fixed.

Processing of the WMO code table 0700 was improved. @rn/@rp is used for the temperature. Five more AMDAR (BUFR) groups are processed. noaa.gov, SourceForge and CoD URLs were switched to HTTPS. The dependency of the parser on POSIX (floor) was removed. Various other improvements were made and a few bugs were fixed.

The project web pages are now served via HTTPS (sourceforge.io) instead of HTTP (sourceforge.net). All pages are expected to work as before, requests with HTTP URLs should be redirected to the HTTPS equivalent.

The period g0 for the SYNOP group 54g0sndT (section 3) defaults to the W1W2 period; timeBeforeObs is used instead of hoursFrom, hoursTill (not backwards compatible). Various additional METAR, SYNOP and BUFR groups are recognised, changes for FMH-1 (2017) were incorporated, and a few bugs were fixed.

Perl 5.14.4 or newer (was: 5.10.1) is required. The summary view for clouds now also shows their compass direction. The original message and parts information is included in the data for BUFR messages with multiple observations. Processing of SAO AMOS/RAMOS was improved. The new option -P for install.pl can be used to remove the "use lib ..." pragma from scripts. The Makefile was removed. Files are not linked/copied anymore to dedicated web server directories; instead, the Apache configuration uses their original location. A separate Apache configuration is provided for Apache 2.4+.

BUFR messages with multiple observations are split into one report per observation. Multiple observations of past weather (with different time periods) are allowed (not backwards compatible). A few minor bugs were fixed and several smaller improvements were made.

Starting with the next version, metaf2xml will split BUFR messages with multiple observations (i.e. taken at different times) and generate one report per observation. Therefore the callback function configured via start_cb() will possibly be called with data from more than one report during one call of parse_report() or process_bufr(). If the callback function does not process the data immediately (or at the latest at the end of a report) it needs to be made capable of storing multiple reports which need to be processed after parse_report()/process_bufr() finish.

The URL for fetching data from NOAA/IWS and NOAA/NWS was adapted, the search in data files was optimised and/or fixed. The friction coefficient for the runway state in METAR is allowed to be 0, all values are now decoded.

Processing of decoded BUFR messages was extended. BUFR decoding of section 4 (data) can be skipped depending on fields in BUFR sections 1..3 with Geo::BUFR 1.33+. Multiple observations in an AMDAR message are allowed. The pseudo-BUFR (text) format was improved. Missing BUFR values are not reported as unprocessed. The CGI script recognises BUFR report types (IOB, IUA, ...). Decoding of binary BUFR messages was moved to src2raw.pm. Precipitation and cloud information is shown as list in one field instead of using 1..3 fields in the summary. Many smaller improvements were made and a few minor bugs were fixed.

The processing of meteorological reports from aircrafts (AMDAR) was added. Several minor improvements were made and a few minor bugs were fixed.

Perl 5.10.1 or newer (was: 5.8.1) is required. BUFR processing was extended. The download of data from Ogimet and NOAA/NWS dataserver was adapted. Several smaller improvements were made.

To prevent the accidental download of old released files (e.g. via links on web sites providing outdated information about the project), Files will contain files for the latest release, only.

To get a ZIP archive for releases 1.47 or newer, go to the "Code" page, select the desired release tag (e.g. "r1.47"), and click "Download Snapshot". Or, from the command line, execute:... read more

The next release will require Perl version 5.10.1 or newer. If you have to use an older version of Perl please tell me which version you need (via sourceforge.net ticket, forum, or message).

The processing of pre-analyzed BUFR messages was prepared. Pipe opens in the CGI script have been improved. Pod::Usage is used for the usage information. The Makefile was reduced to a bare minimum. The option -n (dry run) was added for install.pl. Several minor improvements were made and a few minor bugs were fixed.

The translation files were renamed from .xsl to .xml. The translation for weather was improved. The functions finish_cb() and finish_xml() of metaf2xml::parser were merged to finish(). Some minor bugs were fixed and some smaller improvements were made.

According to the plan (from 2010) for the migration from traditional alphanumeric codes (TAC) to BUFR (see www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/WMOCodes/MigrationTDCF.html), the parallel distribution of SYNOP and BUOY as TAC and BUFR will stop in November. metaf2xml cannot decode BUFR, so it cannot be used to process SYNOP and BUOY messages encoded as BUFR. If you depend on having up-to-date SYNOP and BUOY information after the migration is completed please check alternative software (e.g. on the web site above).

The message prefixes SYNOP and BUOY are deprecated. TAF reports are now also fetched and displayed for mode summary. The QNH and temperature forecast for TAF is processed. Several minor improvements were made and a few minor bugs were fixed.

Five more groups are processed for SYNOP sections 3 and 9. The summary also shows the direction for wind gusts and the offset to the exact observation time. If a DB is used as message source, station information is also fetched from this DB. In the UIs, SYNOP stations are now distinguished by station type instead of source. The GUI demo now works with browsers based on WebKit. The check for the exact Perl module version was improved. Style information for the UI was moved to a CSS file. The installation script was improved. Some minor bugs were fixed anda few smaller improvements were made.

The module XML.pm was merged into parser.pm. XML output is now buffered. Changes to the standard effective from November were implemented. Many smaller improvements were made and a few minor bugs were fixed.

In the next version, the code from the module XML.pm will be merged into parser.pm. This simplifies some code and maintenance. This change also removes the "internal interface" between them, a variable containing the parsed data. The use of this variable other than by XML.pm was never intended and advised against, its structure undocumented and susceptible to changes without notice and backwards compatibility. If you are using this variable and need help with switching to the callback mechanism, please say so. In the request, please specify how the data should be provided to fit your software best, and if any of the examples in metaf2xml.pl comes close to your expected solution.

SAO processing was extended further. FMH rules are now used for cloud bases in METAR, TAF and SYNOP from the US. Many smaller improvements were made and a few minor bugs were fixed.