GRLevX comparison

[Steve Dedman]

I haven't been able to find anything that compares LevII and LevIII features. They're the same price. If LevIII is better, why would you bother with LEVII? Is it because there is a free access to LevII data and not LevIII?

I'm going to get one of these, just not sure which one.

 

[rdale]

Both have free data access.

L2 is for meteorologists or those highly trained in radar interpretation. L3 data is more for the general stormchaser / public / etc. L2 data requires MUCH more bandwidth than L3.

 

[Tim Shriver]

With level 3 you will have storm attributes
along with many different types and levels of radar
products. Most computer derived. Not as fine
as the current Level 2.

With Level 2 you get a finer resolution then you
do with Level 3. No attributes. BR, BV, SR, SW
are the views with all the tilts. The data files
are much larger thus not used widely in the field.
Also more advanced types of radar manipulation
are done with Level 2. See GrLevel 2 and Analyst Edition
and its 3D renderings.

Tim

 

[Steve Dedman]

Thanks guys.

Since there is a free 21-day trial period, I downloaded them both yesterday and was able to really put them through the paces (such as I know them). On the fly, I was much happier with the L2. However, I need to dig into the bells & whistles on L3 to decide which one I will like better over the long term. I read on the GR website that the L3 uses my computer's GFX hardware to render the smoothing. That didn't happen, so I'm wondering if my GFX card isn't up to the job. The L2 smoothing was fine. That's probably why I liked it better on the first cut - the smoothed L2 readability was far superior to the L3 un-smoothed returns. But I really liked the cross-section and 3D capabilities in the L2 as well. I actually learned some about storm structure yesterday using the cross-section tool.

Since I won't be doing any chasing around Knoxville, I am just buying for the pure enjoyment of it. Thus I will be using my desktop rig and not a laptop in the field, making the size of the data files a non-issue.

I have 20 more days to work them out, and there will likely be plenty of chances to do it given the way the season has perked up.