Questions About Grlevelx Products

[Bill Tabor]

Seems there should be a FAQ that includes all this info, but I couldn't find it and digging around the Trial Forums is scattered. I have some basic questions here about these products as a friend and I are considering purchasing.

1) Does GRlevel3 only work with level3 data?
a) I understand that is free NWS or a paid Allisonhouse source right?
2) What all does Grlevel2 support? Will it work with live level2 data as well as archive level2 data? Will it still work with level3 data?
3) What are the feature differences between Grlevel2 / 3? Does GR2 not have radar attribute table information and icons for hail, meso, tvs, etc? What other differences?
4) What about the analyst version - is it like 2 or 3 mostly? What data will it work with (level 2, 3, or both)? Does it support attribute table stuff?
5) Any other obvious differences you care to add...

Thanks

 

[Tyler Allison]

Seems there should be a FAQ that includes all this info, but I couldn't find it and digging around the Trial Forums is scattered. I have some basic questions here about these products as a friend and I are considering purchasing.

1) Does GRlevel3 only work with level3 data?

Yes..thus the "3" at the end

a) I understand that is free NWS or a paid Allisonhouse source right?

yes

2) What all does Grlevel2 support?

Level 2 data

Will it work with live level2 data as well as archive level2 data?

Yes

Will it still work with level3 data?

No...thus the "2" at the end

3) What are the feature differences between Grlevel2 / 3?

GRlevel2 is for level 2 data...Grlevel3 is for level 3 data. The difference is primarily the difference between level 2 data and level 3 data...and the lack of GPS support in GR2.

Does GR2 not have radar attribute table information and icons for hail, meso, tvs, etc? What other differences?

Level 2 data doesn't have that information so no..it doesn't have it.

4) What about the analyst version - is it like 2 or 3 mostly?

GRLevel2 Analyst Edition is for level 2 data

What data will it work with (level 2, 3, or both)?

Level 2

Does it support attribute table stuff?

No..see above about level 2 data.

 

[Bill Tabor]

Ok, thanks Tyler. It sounds like you thought some of those were kind of stupid questions, but I and others were thinking that Grlevel2 was a superset of Grlevel3 in the sense that it would do what Grlevel3 does plus it will handle level 2 data. That's why the confusion.

We were thinking level 2 data in the field might be nice, but sounds like Grlevel2 isn't really the product for chasing as no attributes and no gps. Plus I suppose the level2 data files are quite a bit larger.

So to be covered properly for chasing and level2 archives / live data it seems both products would be required.

 

[Tyler Allison]

99% of chasers will use GR3...many of us with GR2 wish it had GPS then we could use it..but it doesn't

If it were me...I'd buy GR3 and GR2AE as GR2AE has the 3D cool stuff

 

[John Wetter]

99% of chasers will use GR3...many of us with GR2 wish it had GPS then we could use it..but it doesn't

If it were me...I'd buy GR3 and GR2AE as GR2AE has the 3D cool stuff

As for file size, you're talking 100-200KB vs. 3-4MB. Unless you chase in EVDO Rev. A coverage, you'll probably want GR3. I chased a couple times last year with level3 data and while it was nice, it was a pain as any signal blip would start you into needing another download.

-John

 

[Paul Townsend]

Where do you all get your road shapefiles? I have been tediously downloading county after county of road data from the arcdata TIGER 2000 site. But there have been wholesale changes in roads and even an interstate quality highway that have been built in my area that are not represented in the data. The assumption is that all over this type of thing has occurred, so I have absolutely no trust in the road data as presented from the arcdata site, for places in which I may be chasing. Can I get current road data from somewhere, that is able to be imported into GRL3? Thanks.

Paul

 

[rdale]

The road & shapefiles section of the GR forum.

 

[Tony Laubach]

I have downloaded level 3 radar archives and am curious how to view them on GRLevel3?

Also, does GRLevel3 auto-archive radars? EDIT - Skip this one, I see the button now...

 

[Dan Cook]

IIRC you just click and drag the files onto the GR3 window.

 

[Bob Hartig]

I read a posting in another thread in which someone--I forget who--wrote of running both GRLevel3 and StormLab. I use GRL3 and I'm wondering why one would use both programs. Aren't the features pretty much the same?

 

[Tony Laubach]

I read a posting in another thread in which someone--I forget who--wrote of running both GRLevel3 and StormLab. I use GRL3 and I'm wondering why one would use both programs. Aren't the features pretty much the same?

That was me who wrote that. There are differences in the programs; for instance, its easier to navigate through multiple radar sites in StormLab (multiple windows at once). StormLab, which at the time, had easier archiving controls and did a better job updating radar images to my website. Basically, I ran that one in the background unless I wanted to see multiple sites if a storm was between radars.

 

[John Diel]

Here's a tip for GRLevel3....
You can run more than one instance of it. Hence, you can view more than one radar site at once! When you have one open to your radar site, simply open another one and select your second radar site and so on.

Beware though, GRLevel3 uses quite a bit of memory. I have a full Gig of memory on mine and don't run into many issues. Also my video card is not the standard "on the mobo' card. That helps a lot.

GRLevel3 ingests the raw data files and does all the calculations to create the image you see on screen. That's part of the reason it uses up some CPU time and some memory. It also loads all those GIS files, backgrounds, etc. into memory as well, so even more memory gets chewed up.

As far as the differences between Level II and III data? I tend to look at it this way. I'm using GRLevel3 to help get me in close to the storm and position myself for the best view or best location to report it. Level III information is perfectly adequate to do this. I'm not there to analyze the storm. That's for the scientists of the group to do. I'm there to Observe, Record and Report. I don't really need to know what the storm is doing at all levels and try to inspect it. I want to watch the storm, not the radar screen!

Yes, I want to know where the couplet it. Yes, I want to know the VIL so I can avoid the hail core I certainly want to know where the hook is, so I can avoid that and get to watch it rather than be part of the debris showing up as a high Dbz level. L III is more than enough to get me where I need to be. I can also tell with the available mesonet data, what happening in locations near me. If I need a second opinion, I fire up another instance of the program and look from another angle (radar site). All in all, it works out pretty well.

I would examine why I wanted L II data and what I am really going to use it for. Same conditions apply with Mobile Mesonet set ups, Lightbars, Radios, etc. (ad nauseum!). Take a look at your uses for it. Is it really going to help you any more than what your using now? No need to answer me on this one. I certaibnly don't want to hijack the thread or start yet anotehr flame war, Just simply ask yourself, "What am I going to do with this information? Is it really going to help me find and photograph the once ina lifetime Supercell?". It's really as simple as that.

 

[Tony Laubach]

IIRC you just click and drag the files onto the GR3 window.

Nope, doesn't seem to work... the files I downloaded are .tar files... not sure if that helps or not...

 

[JF Massicotte]

Nope, doesn't seem to work... the files I downloaded are .tar files... not sure if that helps or not...

try decompressing them

 

[Skip Talbot]

A TAR file is a compressed archive, like a ZIP file. You must extract it first. WinRAR, shareware available from www.download.com, can extract this type of archive. You can then drag and drop the extracted files into GRLevel3. Although I believe it will only render about 20 scans at a time?