National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Snow Continues in the Great Lakes; Above Normal Temperatures in the West

Lake effect snow will continue into the weekend as two more quick moving systems will bring widespread snow to the Upper Great Lakes. High winds are expected across portions of Montana through the weekend. Below normal temperatures will remain in place across much of the southern and eastern U.S., while the western U.S. will experience above normal temperatures. Read More >

 

WSR-88D Product Files

Gateway File Services

Data-Specific Collective Files

Introduction

The U.S. National Weather Service provides anonymous FTP access to files containing collectives of coded observations and forecasts.  The collectives are in the same format as exchanged on the GTS and Family of Services.  The internal format of the files is described in the document OSO File Name Standards. The naming conventions for the files are described in the document File and Directory Name Standards.  The data is directly available at the server tgftp.nws.noaa.gov via anonymous FTP.


Information Available

The following code forms are available on the server.  The set of data available includes all of the data types listed here that are received at the NWS Telecommunication Gateway. However, these files do not include additional data as defined by WMO Resolution 40.

Data Types List:

  • AIREP
  • AMDAR
  • DRIBU
  • DROP Sonde
  • METAR
  • PILOT
  • PILOT SHIP
  • Profiler (BUFR)
  • RECCO
  • SHIP
  • SIGMET
  • SPECI
  • Supplementary Climatological Data (ASOS)
  • SYNOP
  • TAF
  • TEMP
  • TEMP SHIP

File and Directory Descriptions

See Directory and File Naming Standards for information about directory and file name formats.

Directory Name Contents
SL.us008001/ Data root - for NWS Telecommunication Gateway Server
    DF.an/ Data in WMO character format
        DC.sflnd/ Data category: surface data - land
            DS.metar/ Data subcategory: aviation - METAR
            DS.synop/ Data subcategory: surface synoptic - SYNOP
            DS.sclim/ Data Subcategory: Aviation - Supplementary Climate Data
            DS.tafst/ Data subcategory: aviation forecast - TAF (Terminal Area Forecast)
        DC.sfmar/ Data category: surface data - sea
            DS.dbuoy/ Data subcategory: drifting buoy - DRIBU
            DS.ships/ Data subcategory: ship synoptic - SHIP
        DC.sluan/ Data category: single-level upper-air data other than satellite
            DS.airep/ Data subcategory: AIREP
            DS.amdar/ Data subcategory: AMDAR
            DS.recco/ Data subcategory: RECON
            DS.sigmt/ Data subcategory: SIGMET
        DC.vsndn/ Data category: vertical sounding other than satellite
            DS.dropw/ Data subcategory: DROP sonde
            DS.prflr/ Data subcategory: Profiler - BUFR codeform
            DS.raobf/ Data subcategory: Rawinsonde - fixed land (TEMP, PILOT)
            DS.raobs/ Data subcategory: Rawinsonde - ship (TEMP SHIP, PILOT SHIP)

Delivery Details

Data is updated on the FTP server every five minutes with the latest information received from NWS communications sources. File names within each data subcategory directory have the format sn.nnnn where nnnn is a four-digit number ranging from 0000 to 0300. Files are written in sequence with the file sn.0000 following sn.0300. This scheme provides unique file names for at least the previous 24 hours of data receipt.

The first line of the file is the time when the file was last updated and consists of the abbreviated day of the week, abbreviated month name, day of month, hour, minute, second, time zone, and year.  All remaining lines in the file have the form:

path [tab] name

where path is the data subcategory path, starting at the data root and name is the name of the most recently written file for that subcategory.

Data files are written only when data of that subcategory type is available.

Further questions or comments concerning data in SL.us008001 path may be directed to NWS.ISG@noaa.gov.