New Forecast Soundings Online - SHARPpy

[Greg Blumberg]

Not right now. Overall, we've been quite satisfied in keeping with Python 2. We've discussed extending support to Python 3, but we currently have some bigger fish to fry. I also believe there are some issues with the dependencies and Python 3, but I don't remember exactly what the issue is.

 

[Andy Berrington]

Any plans to extend SHARPpy support to Python 3.5?

PySide (one of the requirements) doesn't exist for Python 3.5 yet.

 

[Kelton Halbert]

PySide (one of the requirements) doesn't exist for Python 3.5 yet.

The problem is that PySide is not Python 3 compatible, and the other option, PyQt, uses different Qt bindings for Python2 than it does for Python 3, meaning the code is not portable.

It's possible this has changed, but this was the case the last time I looked into this.

However, I'm slowly but surely re-writing the GUI code in openGL code to utilize the GPU for graphics instead of the CPU, which should greatly improve performance. The nice thing is that both PySide and PyQt have openGl wrapper support, meaning it might re-open the possibility for Python 3 support.

Can sharppy open bufkit files?

Yes, it can and does open bufkit files.

 

[Brian G]

Yes, it can and does open bufkit files.

Thanks for the response. I was asking because I've tried opening several bufkit files via File | Open and I keep getting the error "IOError: Could not figure out the format of the file..." All other aspects of SHARPpy are working perfectly though.

 

[David Williams]

I was wondering if there was a SHARPpy legend, key, or tutorial for understanding all of the information on the sounding/hodo. There are a few boxes where I don't entirely understand what information is being represented. Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated. Btw, I do not have the downloaded SHARPpy. I see it on CoD. They do not have the options available on the site that are accessible in the downloaded version. Therefore, the information I am hoping to get from a legend or key or tutorial is solely for identifying and deciphering the information presented in each box of the SHARPpy layout; not in understanding how to use the program. Thanks!

 

[Jeremy Perez]

I was wondering if there was a SHARPpy legend, key, or tutorial for understanding all of the information on the sounding/hodo. There are a few boxes where I don't entirely understand what information is being represented. Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated.

I was just looking for info on this yesterday. Particularly trying to find info on the red/blue/magenta lines in the “SR Winds vs Height” box. I did find this page that had good info for coming up to speed on that one:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/mesoanalysis/help/begin.html

 

[Shane Eagan]

Given that it's largely based on NSHARP, the SPC help page for their soundings has some useful information too: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/soundings/help/index.html

 

[rdale]

This may help somewhat.

https://www.wdtb.noaa.gov/buildTraining/nsharp-interactive/interactive.html

 

[Greg Blumberg]

I figured I ought to comment as one of the developers...

At this moment, the README is the best guidance we can provide specifically for the use of the program, and we'd like to provide an overall guide explaining the colors and different windows that are included in the program. It’s been a part of a long TODO list for us. Unfortunately, our development of SHARPpy slowed down recently due to both school and job commitments, but we have been picking it back up.

Until we are able to produce a guide of some sort, I’d highly suggest the websites mentioned by those above me as they refer to the program (NSHARP) that we derived heavily from when we wrote SHARPpy. When we wrote the program, we worked closely with SPC and took many cues from those websites when we couldn't meet with them (e.g. with the red, blue and purple bars in the SR-winds with height panel). These websites will provide guidance for most of what you find on the SHARPpy GUI (I’ve recopied them below):

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/mesoanalysis/help/begin.html
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/soundings/help/index.html
https://www.wdtb.noaa.gov/buildTraining/nsharp-interactive/interactive.html

You can think of the program as a subset of tools considered to be important to analyzing, diagnosing, and forecasting the implications of different environments that support deep convection. The subset of tools included in in the program are a direct result of work and experiences of people within both the operational and research community. They will largely acknowledge that no one tool works 100% of the time. The tools are redundant in that often when one calculation or algorithm or tool lights up, others will too. All tools are based off of some calculation of the four primary ingredients: shear, instability, moisture, and lift. Not all functions of the program are explained or validated in the scientific literature (e.g. the Possible Hazard Type Box, the Storm Slinky), but most are described and tested in the literature (e.g. STP, CAPE, SARS) as tools that have some known ability to explain different environments. If you’d like to read those papers, we have a list of those references. We really recommend others to read those papers and learn those concepts. Getting to code SHARPpy and read the papers its functionality derives from gave us an insight into when certain tools may work and when they may fail. Reading the papers can give you a leg up on becoming a SHARPpy power user, I guess. Here's the list of papers many of the program's functions refer to:

http://sharppy.github.io/SHARPpy/references.html

Unfortunately, we can’t comment on CoD's implementation of the SHARPpy program on their website. They deviated significantly from our original color scheme (that we pulled from the SPC operational version of NSHARP), so I would ask them directly what their colors correspond to.

 

[Mark Blue]

Does this work with Windows 10 64 bit? I read the entire thread and looked around the Git hub for awhile, but didn't see a build for W10. Hope I didn't overlook something. Thanks in advance.

 

[Caleb Grunzke]

Does this work with Windows 10 64 bit? I read the entire thread and looked around the Git hub for awhile, but didn't see a build for W10. Hope I didn't overlook something. Thanks in advance.

I downloaded and installed the SHARPpy executable on Windows 10 64-bit and it works.

 

[rdale]

Yes, https://github.com/sharppy/SHARPpy#installing-a-pre-compiled-binary

 

[Mark Blue]

Success! It took some persistence with the Anaconda command prompt and commands, but I can now cross one more thing off the endless to do list before Chasecation 2016 begins.

 

[rdale]

Any prospects in getting MPAS?

 

[George Michailidis]

Hi, i have downloaded SHARPpy and i find it very nice, good looking, with good features, etc, but it's completely useless to me for just one reason:
The lack of soundings for my area.

I live in Greece and in SHARPpy there is just one place to choose from a sounding, some 500 kilometers from here
So my questions are:

1)Can i upload to SHARPpy a "manual" sounding from a model, like for example from http://ready.arl.noaa.gov/READYcmet.php ?
That would make SHARPpy usable for me as also for every other person in every place. You get the sounding forecasting for your area from GFS, you put it on SHARPpy and voila! You get your sounding for your area.

2)If the answer to the above is negative, and because i have RAOB that has a module(http://www.raob.com/mod_encoder.php) to encode to BUFKIT format, i'm thinking about the procedure: Take a sounding for my place from NOAA_READY(GFS forecast), import it to RAOB, export from RAOB to BUFKIT format and then open it to SHARPpy.
Is this gonna work?
I ask since the aforementioned module is not free and costs 50$ so it's not a cost-free test.
So i have to be sure before i buy it. Since this module will make usefull SHARPpy(as also BUFKIT for the same reasons of lack of soundings for my area) for me.