Q1.1
How
long
does it take to install AvnFPS OB9.2?
From the time the "installAVNFPS.sh" command is issued to the time
forecasters can start using AvnFPS OB9.2, is about a minute, barring
any difficulties.
[Return to Top] Q1.2
I
am
getting warning messages about my CAC rules. What is that
about?
[This is likely to happen with WFOs that were participating in ATAN
945]
It just a cautionary message to encourage your Aviation Focal Point
to examine the METAR monitoring rules for this airport(s) and make
sure they're correct. Four to six rules is probably
okay. If there are more than six rules implemented for the
'cat' indicator, you need to seriously look at whether there are
duplicate or otherwise misconfigured rules present.
Your Aviation Focal Point or ITO should use the AvnFPS Configuration
GUIs to create the required files for each TAF. Here are the
steps to perform:
Start the AvnFPS Configuration Main Menu GUI via the AWIPS
Root Menu by selecting 'AvnFPS->Configuration' option.
Start the AvnFPS configuration GUI "TAF Site Info" by clicking
on that button in the Main Menu to start creating the necessary
configuration file for your new TAF(s). Click on the
'Update' button and be sure to fill in all required text fields,
especially the AFOS and WMO ID text fields. Look at other
TAF sites if you are unsure of what these identifiers look
like. Once completed, press the 'Save' button to create
the new file. Repeat this step for each new TAF you
want to appear in AvnFPS. Press 'Close' button when
finished creating the new TAF configuration files.
Start the "TAF Products" GUI from the Main Menu button to
either add your new TAF(s) to an existing group or create a
separate, new group with the new TAF(s). Enter the TAF ID
into the "Idents" field and press enter to add it to a group.
When pressing the Save button, the WMO ID of the TAFs listed in
this group are compared with fxa's A2A file to ensure
compatibility. If there are problems or inconsistencies,
messages will appear in the 'gutter' bar and you should correct
the discrepancies before attempting to save the TAF product
again. Once you have saved the list of TAF, including the
new ones just added, to a group name, go ahead and 'Close' out
this GUI.
Now use the AvnFPS configuration GUI "Trigger Editor" to add
the new METAR and TAF triggers to your text database. Make
sure the TAF and METAR text fields are filled in for the new TAF
and press "Make" to create the database triggers. Click on
Close button to exit this GUI.
Finally,
for
all
these changes to take effect, restart the AvnFPS servers.
You will need to be user 'fxa' on any Linux workstation to do
that:
Restarting or bringing up a new AvnWatch GUI will show the new TAF
site--if its in the DEFAULT group, otherwise, use the "Backup"
button to select the group your new TAF(s) is (are) in.
Initially the TAF button will be red and the monitoring lights
greyed out due to the absence of metars and a TAF to decode for that
site. Either be patient for the next observation for
your new TAF to arrive, or request it from the text database using
the avntrigger.sh script, or, as any user, run the command:
%
/awips/adapt/avnfps/bin/fetchText.sh
At this point, AvnFPS Monitoring GUI should begin monitoring
the new TAF(s) if already issued, via another application,
otherwise, monitoring will not occur until the new TAF is issued and
stored in the FXA text database. If you don't want to
disseminate the TAF right away, see Q5.1 for
instructions to block its transmission to the outside world.
[Return to Top] Q2.2
How to create 'short cuts' to launch AvnFPS applications to bypass
the workstation's AWIPS Root Menu ?
If you wish to launch an AvnFPS application by clicking on an
workstation icon instead of using the AWIPS root menu:
Use KDE desktop menu to create a "Link to Application..."
icon.
Under the "Application" tab, enter into the "Command:" text
field for:
Attributes of the AvnFPS Desktop links, their appearance, location,
etc., are left as an exercise to the reader.
[Return to Top] Q2.3
Where can we download the climate files? With the delivery of AvnFPS OB9.2, a new GUI was added to
allow WFOs to create new climate files and update existing ones as
often as desired. See the User's Guide for more information on
this new feature, here.
[Return to Top] Q2.4
How to create climate files for TAF QC checks?
UPDATE!
UPDATE: The monthly files for TAF climate QC check are
regenerated whenever the climate files are updated and validated
using the Climate Data
Tool thus,
this step is done automatically for you. However, the
instructions are provided below for completeness should you want to
do this manually for whatever reason.
The monthly files for TAF climate QC check are files that have the
".##.nc" extensions in /data/adapt/avnfps/climate
directory and are generated from the avnqcstats utility.
Depending on the permissions of the /data/adapt/avnfps/climate directory, you can
do create these files as a ordinary user, or if it's more
restrictive, as user fxa.
Where TafID is the usual four-character ID of the TAF in
question. If you have many sites and/or months to do, you can
place this command in double loops.
If you use C-shell as your intepreter (as user fxa does), then the
following bit of shell programming will work:
% foreach site ( TafID1 TafID2
... )
foreach month ( 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 )
/awips/adapt/avnfps/bin/avnstart.sh
avnqcstats
$site $month
echo
Done
with $site for month $month ... `date`
end end
Or if you use a borne-shell derivative, this will work:
$ for site in TafID1 TafID2
... ; do for
month in 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 ; do
/awips/adapt/avnfps/bin/avnstart.sh
avnqcstats
$site $month
echo
Done
with $site for month $month ... `date` done done
Normally to do all twelve months of TAF climate QC files for a large
dataset (>15MB) takes appropriately 2 to 4 minutes, roughly 10 to
20 seconds per month. If avnqcstats utility is quickly going
through the months--taking just a few seconds for each
one--investigate the /data/logs/adapt/avnfps/avnqcstats_DOW (DOW ==
Day-Of-the-Week) log file on the machine where you're running the
script. There's likely a problem with the utility and or data
files.
[Return to Top] Q2.5
What about the old climate files? Can they be
removed now?
Yes. The climate files associated with the first-generation
climate tool can and should be removed now. These are files
with the following file extensions: ".gz.tar", ".gz", or no
extension at all. HDF5 formatted files are needed for
the current suite of climate tools and have a file extension of
".hd5" For the TAF QC functions, these files have the
".##.nc" extension (where ## corresponds to the month, e.g. 01 ==
Jan, 02 == Feb, etc) and should be kept in the /data/adapt/avnfps/climate
directory.
[Return to Top] Q2.6
How to view climatology from other locations other than
my TAF sites?
Create the new HDF5 files for the site(s) using the Climate Data Tool under
the AvnSetup GUI. Once validated, you can start any of the
climate tools to view the new site(s). The new sites you've
added should appear in the 'Site' window in each of the climate
tools.
[Return to Top] Q2.7
How to update LAMP thresholds for my TAF sites?
With the delivery of OB9, all GFS MOS stations now have thresholds
for all 24 cycles of LAMP. The thresholds are static in
nature and are likely not to change in the near future. If the
LAMP team redevelops the regression equations and subsequently the
thresholds, we will announce that, and the new threshold files will
be posted here.
You
will
need to download the files for your sites and place them in the /awips/adapt/avnfps/data/thresholds
directory. These files are in HDF5 format. No
uncompression or untarring of files are required for these datasets.
They are ready for immediate use.
[Return to Top] Q2.8
What is this new "Climate Data" button in the AvnSetup GUI?
This is a new function to allow you to update and create new AvnFPS
HDF5 climate files as often as desired. See the new section in the
User's Guide for more details.
[Return to Top] Q2.9
I have questions about the NCDC archived data. Who should I
contact?
For questions about the data itself, you should send e-mail to the
following address, ncdc.orders@noaa.gov.
This
mailing
address goes to several people at NCDC who will redirect the
question/problem to cognizant individual for resolution.
[Return to Top] Q2.10
I
can
connect to the NCDC FTP server but cannot access the archived data
from our computers here in the office. What is wrong?
NCDC's FTP servers do a reverse DNS lookup on your requests to
validate that your machine belongs to the ".gov" domain.
It is likely this step failed. Your ITO should verify the
following:
On NCDC's whoami
page, enter the IP address of the local machine that can access
the open Internet to determine whether is it being resolved
correctly.
If so, then you could wait and try another time --
occasionally their filesystems are off-line for maintenance.
Or for lengthly outages, contact them and
inquire.
If not, then follow the suggestions given on NCDC whoami
page to resolve the problem.
Q3.1
How do I rearrange the guidance tabs in the TAF
Editor/View? I like to put GFS-MOS first, for instance.
Just about everything in the TAF Editor/Viewer is
configurable. Some aspects of the GUI are customizable by the
individual, like the use of fonts and size of text windows, but
others can only be done via a configuration file. If you want
to change layouts, like the tabs in the TAF viewer, you will have to
coordinate these changes with your operations staff as this is done
via the gui.cfg
file. For the guidance tabs in the viewer, use the AvnFPS text
editor (or your favorite editor and go to the
/awips/adapt/avnfps/etc directory) and open a file called
"gui.cfg". In there, you will find a section labeled "[viewers]", like this:
# viewers: taf and metar must
be present, taf must be first on the list [viewers] tags=taf,metar,gfsmos,gfslamp,tug,nammos,etabuf,grids
The token ordering of the list for "tags" is how the tabs are
arranged in the TAF viewer. So if you want GFS-MOS to the
first MOS guidance tab from the left (note the restriction: taf
token must
be first in the list), a change like this will work
tags=taf,gfsmos,gfslamp,tug,nammos,etabuf,grids,metar
Save the file. Changing this file does not require that AvnFPS
servers be restarted, just the AvnWatch GUI. Under File, there
is a "Restart" option, select that and your changes to gui.cfg will take effect.
See this link
for more details on this and other configuration files in
AvnFPS OB9.2.
[Return to Top] Q3.2
The CCFP monitoring icon is grey for my TAF sites. What is
wrong?
The CCFP is a seasonal product. So if it's wintertime, this is
to be expected. The Aviation Weather Center issues the
product beginning in the early spring through late fall. It is
not available during the winter months. So long as the MKCCFP#
products are arriving into the FXA text database, this indicator
will 'light-up' once AWC begins issuing the product in the spring
and will cease--turn grey--in the fall. The CCFP product
covers the CONUS, but not Alaska or the offshore
offices. These WFOs can remove this indicator from
AvnWatch GUI, freeing up 'real-estate', so to speak, if they wish.
[Return to Top] Q3.3
How do I remove obsolete (or unavailable) guidance buttons in the
Weather Plot GUI?
To change the guidance buttons in the weather plot GUI, use the
AvnFPS text editor (or your favorite editor and go to the /awips/adapt/avnfps/etc
directory) and open a file called "wxplot.cfg". In there, you
will find a section labeled "[viewers]",
like so:
Delete the guidance source tag you wish to remove from the GUI.
[Return to Top] Q3.4
How do I get the weather plot GUI to print directly to the printer?
For the guidance button in the weather plot GUI, use the AvnFPS text
editor (or your favorite editor and go to the /awips/adapt/avnfps/etc
directory) and open a file called "wxplot.cfg." In there, you will
find a section labeled "[print]",
like so:
This will send
the image directly to the printer. The convert program
has lots of options so you may want to explore those in more
detail. What I've found is that the "jpg:-" token *has* to be the last one
to the convert command, or it won't work.
[Return to Top] Q3.5
What is Categorical Amendment Criteria (CAC)? How to enable
it?
Categorical Amendment Criteria is an Aviation Services Branch
initiative to make the TAF a more responsive product, tailored to
regulatory needs of our external users. With this view
in mind, AvnFPS Monitoring GUI behavior will change in significant
ways to alert the forecaster of potential impacts the TAF will have
on our customers' operations. Prior to enabling this concept
within AvnFPS, forecasters and aviation focal points should view
all of CAC training materials to fully appreciate the CAC approach
and the changes to the monitoring behavior of AvnFPS.
With the installation of OB9.2 software, much of the configuration
work has been done already, only requiring your Aviation Focal Point
to edit a single file, /awips/adapt/avnfps/etc/gui.cfg,
to enable the basic version of CAC. Many WFOs have airports
with special criteria due to ground equipment limitations, nearby
ground obstructions, or topography. Aviation Focal Points
should consult and and read all of the documents on the CAC webpage
for full explanation of determining what is needed to satisfy CAC
for these airports and enable them within AvnFPS.
[Return to Top] Q3.6
What is this TAF/LAMP guidance tab in the TAF Viewer/Editor?
This is a new TAF generating technique for amendments and regular
issued times. Instead of starting from a "blank sheet" when
creating a new TAF, the underlying algorithm uses the current,
official TAF as its starting point. LAMP probabilistic
guidance is then used to examine differences between LAMP and the
official forecast. If the disagreement is significant, then
the TAF is updated appropriately with LAMP guidance. See
this paper
for more details on the algorithm's implementation.
[Return to Top] Q3.7
For a TAF the LLWS indicator is green, although we don't have a
radar or profiler assigned to it. Why?
AvnFPS now examines the ACARS wind profiles, looking for a match
between TAF and departing/arriving destination given in the
file. ACARS wind profiles are derived from appropriately
instrumented aircraft. The wind profile is assigned a
three-letter identifier designating the airport--which is most often
just the leading letter removed from the TAF ICAO ID--for example,
IAD, PIT, or SEA but not always! Check the ACARS profile
in D-2D to determine the proper ID for your TAF sites.
This field is provided in the TAF Site Info Editor. If you
update it, be sure to restart the AvnFPS servers for the change to
take effect. Given the nature of the measurement "system"
(large aircraft), ACARS wind profile data (and the LLWS value based
on it) is not guaranteed to be available at all times at a given
airport. For small airports it is likely LLWS values based on
ACARS will profiles will never be available.
[Return to Top] Q3.8 Why
does AvnFPS use the visibility in the remarks portion and not the
one in the main body of the METAR?
This is due to the visibility information in the remarks being
prefixed with the keywords 'SFC VIS'. In NWS
Instructions 10-813, it states that the TAF shall forecast surface
visibility (ref. NWSI 10-813, pg 3, section 4.2, first sentence),
thus it's a true 'apples-to-apples' comparison when surface
visibility in the observation--wherever it is located--and
forecasted visibility are examined.
Once you have AvnFPS OB9.2 up and running routinely, you should
consult the AvnFPS User's Guide Trouble
Shooting section for more information should problems arise
later.
Q4.1
We experienced px1 (or px2) failover (or failback), and the
server icons on the AvnWatch GUI are red.
This means that the AvnFPS OB9.2 servers were not automatically
restarted. If you cannot be user "fxa" or cannot find someone at your office who
can, call the NCF and tell them you need the AvnFPS servers
restarted. The command to do this is:
/awips/adapt/avnfps/bin/remoteServers.sh
restart
The NCF engineers have received training on AvnFPS, so they should
be familiar with the software and have no difficulties restarting
the servers.
[Return to Top] Q4.2
The AvnFPS server icons are green but we aren't getting any new
metars (or some other real-time text data).
AvnFPS gets its METAR, TAF and CCFP text products from the
Postgres database via triggers as implemented in the fxatext
database's watchwarn table. If you know that your data feeds
from your communications processor (cpsbn1 or cpsbn2 machine) are
okay and can call up these products using the textdb command, then
its likely the trigger entries in the watchwarn table have been
removed. See the AvnFPS User's Guide "Creating Database
Triggers" on how to re-create them, here.
After
you've
re-created them and if the textdb command fetches current,
up-to-date metars, tafs, etc., then you can manually update AvnFPS
by using a nifty little utility to fetch them out of the text
database:
If you do not supply an argument to the script, all products
are fetched out of the text database, which is usually the preferred
option.
[Return to Top] Q4.3
Why do the server indicator lights on AvnWatch change from green to
red and back to green in a irregular fashion? It's
not even Christmas yet.
This behavior is caused by a large time difference (>30 seconds)
in the system clocks between the server machine and the machine
where AvnWatch client is running. You or your ITO should
compare times between px2f and the client machine, using the date command. If the
difference is significant--say more than 30 seconds--then your ITO
should stop and restart the NTP (Network Time Protocol) daemon, ntpd, on affected
machine(s). Once the system clocks are in sync, this problem
with AvnFPS indicator lights should go away. If not, contact
NCF and open a trouble ticket for further investigation.
[Return to Top] Q4.4
A
odd
message appears when mousing over the yellow or orange 'tpo'
indicator, making references to 'cat'. What is that?
'cat' in this case, stands for 'flight category'. This is an
inadvertant side-effect of implementing much of CAC configuration
changes as a convenience for the Aviation Focal Points, but not
actually turning it on in the Monitoring GUI. If your
office, isn't ready to implement CAC just yet (see Q3.5),
contact MDL and we'll come up with a solution for you.
This section is devoted to questions that aren't addressed above or
in the AvnFPS User's Guide.
Q5.1 How to add a TAF to AvnFPS without
actually sending it out of the office?
This question is usually asked by a WFO when there is a new TAF to
be issued by the office in the near future and the forecasters want
to practice monitoring and issuing forecasts for the new site well
before the actual day arrives to officially broadcast it to external
users.
AvnFPS doesn't actually perform the actions to disseminate your
aviation forecasts to the WAN or the NWWS. That's the
job of handleOUP.pl: a script that the AvnFPS transmission server
invokes when it wants to issue products found in its pending
queue. The handleOUP.pl script consults several files to
determine: 1) Proper WMO identifier for the product; 2) whether the
product should be sent on the NWWS; 3) and whether the product
should be sent on the WAN.
Another action handleOUP.pl script performs is to store the product
into the local text database.
First, the ITO or focal point should follow the steps outlined in Q2.1 and before actually trying to save or
'transmit' the new TAF, perform the following steps on px2 machine:
TAFs aren't sent over the NWWS. Usually the WMO ID, like
FTUS41 for CONUS TAFs, FTPA31 for Pacific Region TAFs, and
FTAK31 for Alaska TAFs are used to block all TAFs from being
disseminated over the NWWS. So you probably don't have to
do anything with the NWWS exclusion file, but it doesn't hurt to check to
see how its done at your office!
Using your favorite text editor, open the
/data/fxa/workFiles/wanMsgHandling/WAN_exclude_CCC.txt file,
where CCC is the $FXA_LOCAL_SITE value. You may have to
create it. Many offices do not seem to have this file by
default. Here you will insert a new line consisting of
either the AWIPS and/or AFOS identifier of your new TAF.
You can use both IDs--each ID on a separate line--if you wish as
a "belt and suspenders" -type of protection. By having
either or both entries in here, you will block the sending of
your new TAF onto the WAN. Please make sure you have
no trailing whitespace after the ID entries, just a newline
after the last printable character in the AFOS and AWIPS TAF ID.
Your Aviation focal point or ITO should repeat these steps on the px1 machine as well to take care
of the case of px2 failover to px1.
At this point, you should be able to compose your first TAF for the
new site. It will have to be "Sent" in order for it to
be monitored in AvnFPS--remember that the Aviation Focal Point or
your ITO should have blocked its transmission over the WAN.
Once you've done that, AvnFPS monitoring lights will return to
"normal" for your new TAF.
When your office is ready to issue the new TAF to the outside world,
your Aviation focal point or ITO should remove the TAF ID from the
WAN_exclude_CCC.txt files
on both px1 and px2 machines.
It is recommended that the handleOUP.log files in
/data/logs/fxa/YYYYMMDD directories on px2 (or px1
in case of failover) should be inspected whenever the exclusion
files are changed to see the actual dispensation of your TAF
products and verify proper behavior.
[Return to Top] Q5.2
What do we do to get AvnFPS to support a 30-h TAF?
Start the TAF Site Editor for the affected airport and change TAF
duration text field from 24 to 30 [hrs]. Save your change and
then restart the AvnWatch GUI. The AvnFPS servers do not need
to be restarted, just the client(s), for this kind of change.
Once that happens, the guidance TAFs and Syntax Checker will be
'aware' that the TAF is now 30 hours long.
[Return to Top] Q5.3
What are these "ish-" files doing in the avnfps/etc directory and
why are they needed?
There are two "helper" files are crucial to the proper operation of
the new Climate Data Tool:
ish-history: contains detailed historical information
about each station
ish-inventory: contains details about the inventory of
archived observations available for all stations
These files are regularly updated and made available by NCDC. New
versions should be downloaded by the user of the Climate Data Tool
at least once a year, and certainly after the start of any new
calendar year. If they are not updated, you may not get the very
latest data available from NCDC for your climatology files.
[Return to Top] Q5.4
The WindRose image isn't large/small enough in Google Earth.
Can it be changed?
Yes. First, the TAF's latitude/longitude information is used
to help center the image over the correct region of the Earth,
hopefully somewhere close to the actual airport. Second, there
is a resource, kmlsize,
in the etc/app-resources/XWindRose
file that specifies the 'height' of the image as it appears in
Google Earth. The width of the image is adjusted to
accordingly to mantain the original aspect ratio. Units are in
kilometers and default value is 10 km. Adjust as needed.
There is another resource affecting the positioning of the image, kmloffset.
This is a dimensionless value used to move the image in the vertical
direction. This resource is needed because the center of
the image does not concide with the WindRose center; they are
different and offset in the vertical. To shift the image
further south (north) to center the rose over the airport, use a
greater (lesser) positive value. The default value is
0.073 and seems to work well when the image is 10 km tall in Google
Earth. It may need to be tweeked if kmlsize is changed.
[Return to Top] Q5.5
How
to
configure AvnFPS for CWSU use?
First, you need to determine what additional, if any, TAF sites are
needed to support your CWSU's mission. Their area of
responsibility (AoR) is different from the WFOs and is typically
much larger in area, and thus, overlaps multiple WFOs' AoR.
However, you may have all of the required TAFs as part of
configuring AvnFPS for backing up your neighboring WFOs.
The 'TAF Product' GUI will allow you to determine what TAFs are
currently being processed in AvnFPS. For any new TAFs that the
CWSU needs, the ITO or Aviation Focal point will need to follow the
steps in Q2.1 first. This will
require a new group or 'TAF Product' specifically for the CWSU which
lists the TAFs they need to monitor. After completing
all of the steps in Q2.1 to add the additional TAFs and the new CWSU
'TAF Product', please return here for further instructions.
To allow CWSU to have different alerting criteria than the WFO for
the TAFs they wish to monitor, you will need to create a separate
directory tree to contain the different rules. Fortunately
there is a script that does much of the work for you. Once
completed, the CWSU forecasters can invoke their own version of
AvnFPS Monitoring and Configuration Setup GUIs to customize their
system differently from the WFOs.
To create the CWSU directory, at any workstation, as user 'fxa', run
the following command:
/awips/adapt/avnfps/bin/createAvnFPS4CWSU.sh
The usual arrangement for launching AvnFPS at the CWSU is to have
the CWSU forecaster remotely log into one of the WFO's workstations
and run AvnFPS from there. While the required NAS
filesystems may be exported to the ARD, the WFO's AWIPS firewall may
block CWSU forecasters from running AvnFPS clients locally on the
ARD as they need the resources of the data request server that runs
on px2f. If you want to explore the option of running
AvnFPS locally on the ARD, contact MDL for assistance.
Otherwise, to run the CWSU version of AvnWatch remotely from a WFO
workstation, "lx6-wfo", for example the CWSU forecaster, "jdoe",
sitting at the ARD with a command line interface would type:
To update the forecasters file to include CWSU forecasters, you can
use the AvnFPS Text Editor (in the Configuration/Setup Main Menu
GUI) to update the forecasters
file in the /awips/adapt/avnfps/CWSU/etc
directory.
To alter the layout of the CWSU AvnWatch GUI, you can use the AvnFPS
Text Editor (in the Configuration/Setup Main Menu GUI) to update the
the gui.cfg file in
the /awips/adapt/avnfps/CWSU/etc directory.
While these commands cover the basics, the CWSU forecasters should
consult the AvnFPS User's Guide for more information with the
understanding that references to /awips/adapt/avnfps/OB9.2 directory should be
translated as /awips/adapt/avnfps/CWSU.
