will lvl2 radar data ever be available to the public, free?

[MClarkson]

any guesses?

 

[John Diel]

Technically, the files are already free. You can get the archived data sets from NOAA right now. It's the "real-time" data that costs.

I don't see it becoming available to the general public anytime soon though. At least not via public servers. They have enough trouble handling the relatively small files of Level 3 data, could you imagine trying to pump Level 2 data through those same servers? It all costs money and the NOAA budget is subject ot reduction just like any other agency's. They have to recoup it somewhere.

 

[Chris DeRosier]

Not too long ago, I made an inquiry to my NWS office re: archived radar images of recent significant weather (or increased radar loop times) and the person I corresponded with via email said that they were going to be getting some new "super duper servers" in the not so distant future.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

That's true, bandwidth is a significant issue. However I've already been amazed by what the NOAA is doing (what other country freely gives away raw model output and a storehouse of historical Doppler data?), so I have faith they'll get to it when the plumbing gets upgraded.

Tim

 

[Ben Cotton]

That's true, bandwidth is a significant issue. However I've already been amazed by what the NOAA is doing (what other country freely gives away raw model output and a storehouse of historical Doppler data?), so I have faith they'll get to it when the plumbing gets upgraded.

I'm not so sure about that. Right now, there's several vendors of real-time Level 2, both in the education and private sectors. Granted the universities can only charge "cost recovery", but I imagine there'd be a lot of outcry if the government decided to make L2 available for free. Would it be enough to stop them? I don't know.

 

[Robert Dewey]

Yeah, it's pretty much the cost to distribute that keeps it from being "free". But, I still don't understand why some sites aren't producing GIF images for every station in the U.S., much like L3 data. Some universities have extensive LDM servers with large hard disks and a huge internet connection, and it wouldn't be too hard to setup.

I take in several sites from TAMU via LDM, and get quite a few NEXRAD stations from NIU and COD. I was distributing it to Rob Dale for a few weeks, but since I am only running on a connection with 5Mbps down and 256Kbps up, it wasn't too quick.

With 5Mbps down, this is my latency and volume::

http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/rtstats...ideopenwest.com
http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/rtstats...ideopenwest.com

But remember, the latency is strongly dictated by other datasets, and I bring in about 740MB of OTHER data every hour:

http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/cgi-bin/rtstats...ideopenwest.com

I guess the guy to ask would be Tyler Allison (sp?)... He would know how much server stress is for FTPing the files, as well as ingesting the data via LDM...


EDIT: I see Tyler has just responded
8)

 

[Tyler Allison]

That's true, bandwidth is a significant issue.

More than significant..it's gigantic.

A SINGLE radar station worth of L2 data takes up 3x more bandwidth than the same L3 data.

The NWS public servers cant even handle what they have now. You want them to tripple capacity? Aint gonna happen. As it is the top tier L2 providers have to use Internet2 just to get the data reliably.

 

[Tyler Allison]

I guess the guy to ask would be Tyler Allison (sp?)... He would know how much server stress is for FTPing the files, as well as ingesting the data via LDM

And I'm happy to discuss the stress with anyone who wants to attempt to make it available for free. Drop me an email.

My hope is that one day I'll be out of business...honestly. Im doing this for fun...not as a living. Probably why my wife has forbidden me from running my own company. I've lowered the price 4 times in 6 months since I thought I was making too much money.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

A SINGLE radar station worth of L2 data takes up 3x more bandwidth than the same L3 data.

Get an OC3 pipe... piece of cake.

Tim

 

[Tyler Allison]

A SINGLE radar station worth of L2 data takes up 3x more bandwidth than the same L3 data.

Get an OC3 pipe... piece of cake.

I hear ya!

Anybody who has won the lotto and wants to be the poster child for weather nuts drop me an email 8)