OHD-Common November 21, 2008 ·
WHFS
(WFO Hydrologic Forecast System) components ·
Precipitation
Processing System (e.g. MPE) components ·
Data
Ingest (e.g. SHEF_decode) components The release notes and related information are available at:
http://ocwws.weather.gov/intranet/whfs/ A. Hydrologic IHFS
Database 1.
Converted the IHFS Database from Version OB8.3 to Version
OB9. The DCP and Telem tables have
been modified to accommodate a new field.
Other modified tables include the OfficeNotes table and the tables which
store Forecast Service information.
Added the Velocity table for tracking storm motion and the VerifRespType
table as a lookup table for verification response types. Please refer to the database changes web page
for details on specific table changes. B. Precipitation Processing
Operations B.1 MPE_Fieldgen 1. Modified satellite data grid
analysis to smooth grids at the boundary between the local-bias corrected radar
field and the local-bias corrected satellite field. The Satellite-Radar
grid and Satellite-Radar-Gage grid are effected by this change. B.2 MPE Editor General 3. Modified the Display7x7 window to contain
an option button which allows the specific MPE product displayed in the window
to be selected. B.3
MPE/DailyQC 1.
Fixed problem where the application would shut down when requesting
display of freezing level if there were too few freezing level datasets
available. This also occurred for display
of some temperature data sets. 2. Fixed problem where the Edit Precipitation
Stations, Edit Temperature Stations, and Edit Freezing Stations windows each
would creep a few pixels to the southeast when a new station is selected for
editing. Eventually, the windows reached
the corner of the screen and the forecaster had to reposition them. Also added logic so these windows close
after editing a station, and when another station is selected for editing, the
edit window always reappears in the same place on the screen. 3. Modified behavior regarding estimated gage
values. Previously, when a user set a
station to bad using the Edit Precipitation Station window or the Edit
Temperature Station window, an estimated gage value is shown. Then, when the precipitation grids were
rendered, the station's value is estimated to something different. The station value was getting re-estimated
once missing stations were assigned estimated values. This was changed to always use the estimated
value shown in the Edit Precipitation or Edit Temperature window. 4. Changed behavior of application so that
when displaying the topographic image, it will display the topographic image
below all other data sets and overlays. B.4 Precipitation PC Derivations 1. Implemented multiple changes in how PC
(i.e. cumulative counter) precipitation data is derived for given durations in
order to adapt to characteristics of ALERT station reports. These changes affect RiverPro, HydroView, and
RiverMonitor operations which relate to the derivation of PC-based
precipitation data. The changes are: B.5 Hi-Resolution Precipitation Nowcaster (HPN) The locally-generated HPN forecast grids are
derived from the HPE and are generated by using a primarily advection
algorithm. Specifically, to compute the
HPN grids, the most recent gridded HPE rain rate field is compared with the one
about 15 minutes earlier to estimate the local motion of areas of echoes on a
20 km grid scale using a standard local pattern-matching scheme. The gridded rain rates are then projected
forward in time using the most-recent estimated gridded motion vectors at a
time step small enough to prevent pixel jumping (aliasing) of the echoes. The algorithm then computes smoothed
forecasted rain rate fields. This
approach uses a variable, adaptable rate of smoothing with time that is
computed based on the current observed rain rate fields as well as observed
changes in echo structure over the past 15 minutes. More information on this
function is available in the AWIPS Operational Build 9 Release Notes. The
primary purpose of HPE and HPN are for use in FFMP-A; to configure FFMP-A to
use HPE and HPN, see the “How to Add HPE/BiasHPE” document found on
the FFMP page at http://www.weather.gov/mdl/ffmp C. RiverPro Product Formatter
1. New CAP tags in Products: Adjusted product generation process by
inserting Common Alert Protocol (CAP) “tags” in watch/warning/advisory
products to identify the “call-to-action” (CTA) section of the
product. These tags will facilitate
later processing of the following products generated by RiverPro: Flood Warning
(FLW), Flood Statement (FLS), Point-specific Flood Watch (FFA), Point-specific
Flood Advisory (FLS). The CAP tags were
added on new lines before and after the call-to-action section with the
following text, respectively: “PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS”
and “&&”. 2. Arithmetic Operations on Template Variables: Added
new feature to templates to allow basic arithmetic operations to be performed
on numeric data retrieved from database.
Users can construct addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
operations. These operations are
performed on either a set of variables or a combination of variables and fixed
values. The feature is available for
both regular variables and PE variables, assuming that the returned value is
either a numeric or time value. For
example, the variables can be given as <ObsStg,+3.0>, <ObsStg,*-4>,
<ObsStg,MET,/5.0>, <BLUO2,PC,1001,RG,Z,NOW,MATH+5.0>. The arithmetic operations can be used
anywhere in a template where traditional variables are supported, such as after
keywords: “phrasestr:”, “varlist:”,
“condition:”, “bulletstr:”, “indentstr:”. 8. Increased size allocated for the user time
(i.e. T_Uxxx) format in RiverPro templates from 20 to 40 characters. 1. Modified
color for flood categories in TimeSeries and TimeSeriesLite applications. These
applications now use magenta-red-orange-yellow for
major-moderate-flood/minor-action stages, respectively, as per the color usage
in AHPS graphics, SiteSpecific, and the
RiverPro VTEC graph. E. HydroView Data Viewer 1. Precipitation derivations
for PC data are enhanced, as described in the Precipitation PC Derivations
section above. This affects display of
precipitation data via the point display control feature of HydroView. F. Site Specific
Hydrologic Predictor 3. Save Crest Info: Added ability to
Insert new record into the IngestFilter table when writing a crest extremum
value for the first time for a location.
This is needed so that if a crest value is saved, the TimeSeries
application will recognize the presence of the generated forecast data. The saving of the crest value is controlled
by the token: sshp_should_save_fcst_crest, which has values of true and false
and defaults to true. The feature is enabled/disabled for all forecast points
– i.e. it can not be turned on for some and off for others. 4. Updated the Data Transfer operation to
disallow 6-hour runoff time series. G. RiverMon
Monitoring Tool 1. Modified behavior regarding how the user
selects which stations to monitor, using the select/filter controls on the left
margin of the window. This includes the
following changes: 2. Modified the RiverMonLocation
window so that it sorts the available location identifiers. 3. Precipitation derivations
for PC data are enhanced, as described in the Precipitation PC Derivations
section above. This affects the precipitation
monitoring mode of HydroView. H. HydroBase Data Manager 1. Modified Editing Capabilities Of Flood Reports
(DR #18989) – Raytheon modified the Hydrobase Flood Report display of
separate flood events, where each event contains individual observations of
river stage/discharge. a) Added ability
for users to delete individual observations within a given flood event;
currently users can only delete flood events.
b) Added ability for users to
delete individual observations within a flood event and have the application
re-compute rise above flood stage time, flood crest time, and fall below flood
stage time based on the deletion of individual observations. I. Utility Programs A. HydroGen Web Data Extraction 1. Report Format Trimming and Control: The
Alert/Alarm report generator was modified to present a more concise,
user-readable format. The default mode
is the summary mode or the user can specify the verbose mode
(“-v”). With the verbose
option, the thresholds are also listed with each station data set and a
descriptive block of information is given at the end of the report. To enable the option, add the
“-v” option in the script
/awips/hydroapps/whfs/bin/run_report_alarm script. In the section “#run the
application”, add “-v”
as in: $WHFS_BIN_DIR/report_alarm$OS_SUFFIX
-d$DB_NAME -p$PRODUCT_ID -s$SUFFIX
–rNEAREST -v >>
$LOGFILE 2>&1 A sample non-verbose report is: ***REPORT OF ALERT/ALARM
DATA FROM THE HYDROLOGIC DATABASE*** C. SHEF Decoder D. Metar-to-SHEF Translator 1. Fixed
Handling Of “No Special”
Argument (DR #18525) - Raytheon fixed problem with usage of the -nospeci
argument in the metar2shef_option token..
This argument instructs the translator not to process those MTRs with
the SPECI notation at the beginning of the report but resulted in no METAR data
being processed. 2. Fixed Handling Of Reports With TORNADO
Remark (DR #19347) - Raytheon fixed
problem where the translator was failing when it encountered a MTR report which
contained remarks which include the word TORNADO. E. Rate-of-Change Checker 1. The roc_checker program now references a token (qc_questorbad) which
indicates whether data which fails the ROC QC check should be labeled as bad
(token='B') or questionable (token='Q'). The default value is 'B'.
Failed data are still left in their original table (e.g. Height) but are
labeled as Bad, so they will not be used by applications such as
Riverpro. The failed data are left in their original table; they are not moved to the RejectedData
table. This change does not affect the checks for a value against
rate-of-change alert/alarm levels. F. Forecast Services Station Management (This
software is discussed in these OHD-Common release notes even though it is for
RFCs only.) 1. Adjusted the user interface for accessing
logistical verification forecast services information in the following ways: 2. Updated database tables as follows: J. System Features 1.
Various applications, including SHEFdecoder, RiverPro, and HydroView were
modified to remove their usage of the CURRENT_TIMESTAMP SQL keyword to avoid
possible problems with timezone complications.
AWIPS Build OB9.0 Release Notes
NWS/Office
of Hydrologic Development (OHD) - Hydrologic Software Engineering Branch
The OHD Common software is delivered to both WFOs and RFCs. It includes the:
1. New Gage Table: Implemented a new version of the Gage Table,
which for each of the precipitation gages, lists the gage value and their
values for the gage location as estimated by all the various gridded and
multi-sensor fields. Previously, the
table presented an incomplete set of grids.
Now it contains all the values except for the raw satellite estimate
value, although the satellite-radar and satellite-radar-gage value are
presented. The gage table initially
places the columns in the same order as the items shown in the MPE Editor
Precip Fields menu. The rows of the Gage
Table are initially sorted by the location id; rows can be sorted based on the
value in a column by clicking on the column header. Both the column placement
and the row value order can be interactively adjusted.
2. Modified Multi-hour Accumulation Display Features to add an option to choose
the field. Previously, the field
accumulated was always the Best Estimate QPE field.
4.
Fixed bug in which edited precipitation values were saved as rounded
integers when re-running the MPE Field Generator. The edited value is now saved properly to
the RawPP table.
a) Longer periods of raw reports are retrieved to account for possibly longer
periods of missing or unreported data, as defined by the token
adjust_PC_startingtime, which defaults to 4 hours.
b) If the station telemetry type is defined as “ALERT”, it now
assumes data unreported for up to a specified number of hours as representing
zero rainfall. This period is also
defined by the adjustable token adjust_PC_startingtime. Furthermore, reported non-zero rainfall is
assumed to occur at the time of the report rather than being evenly distributed
starting at the time of the previous report.
This better accommodates the ALERT method for reporting bucket tip
increments of precipitation. Lastly, for
any gages, the two PC values can now be outside the period of interest by a
certain number of hours, and a derived value can still be determined. It no longer insists that both PC values be
within the desired period.
1. HPN introduced into the High-resolution
Precipitation Estimator (HPE). In
OB8.3, HPE provided high resolution (~1km x 1km) mosaics of rain rate and
1-hour accumulation for multiple radars updated approximately every 5
minutes. In OB9, the High-resolution Precipitation Nowcaster (HPN)
routine adds forecasts of instantaneous rain rate at four 15 minute intervals
(of 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes) in the future and a forecast of 1-hour
accumulated precipitation, without/with bias.
3. Precipitation derivations for PC data
usage in
4. Added “NOW” ending time
specifier to template PE value to complement the existing “LATEST”
specifier. LATEST implies the top of the
current hour, while the new NOW specifier implies the current time. This is useful for precise specification of
precipitation duration periods.
5. Adjusted latitude, longitude variables
(<LocLat>, <LocLon>) so that they use the coordinates from the
Location table, rather than the RiverStat table.
6. Changed threshold for TRACE_THRESHOLD
from 0.00999 to 0.0011 which can result in “T” being displayed for
the “PE” variable values.
7. Corrected bug with the way the VTEC
timeseries graph mishandled edits involving “missing” or undefined
times.
9. Fixed bug for the VTEC rise/fall/crest template variables, where it did not
assign the value for them when they are missing. The bug caused any associated
template condition check to fail.
D. Hydro Time Series Display
1. New Variational Data Assimilation Function: Added Variational
Data Assimilation (VAR) for use with the Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting
Model (SAC-SMA) rainfall-runoff model.
This new function does not affect use of the Antecedent Precipitation
Index (API) rainfall-runoff model.
VAR uses estimated precipitation and observed stream measurements to alter the
state variables and prior-computed runoff inputs to the SAC-SMA rainfall-runoff
model such that the forecast created more closely matches the latest streamflow
observations. State variables represent
the current state of the soil in the basin, while prior-computed runoff
represents the water that has been added to the channel within the basin, but
has not yet flowed out of the basin. The
VAR enhancement includes changes to the Analysis Window and a background
preprocessor. For details, please refer
to the Site Specific Hydrologic Predictor (SSHP) Reference Guide.
2. Added SiteSpecific interface to QPF
data generated by the HPN process. The
HPN (Hi-Resolution Precipitation Nowcaster) is new to OB9 and provides one hour
basin-averaged QPF values for use in SiteSpecific.
a) Fixed bug in which locations not in a designated RiverMonGroup groups are
not displayed.
b) Adjusted so that groups or HSAs with no locations are not displayed in the
left margin.
c) Removed function which reset
the HSA of a group based on the HSA of the first location in the group, which
overrode whatever the user had decided was the preferred HSA for that group.
d) Fixed bug in which the
location’s HSA in the displayed column was incorrectly shown as its
group's hsa, not the HSA explicitly defined for the location.
2. Added Information To Hydro Database On Observation Frequencies (DR
#19033) – Raytheon added ability to store and manage information
regarding how frequently observed data is reported. This includes information on a) the
observation frequency of observed data elements to the IHFS database; b)
whether the location receives random reports in addition to the defined
observation frequency.
1. Modified data extraction method for the gage zero, or zero datum, value from
the zd field of the rivertstat IHFS database table in the IHFS database so that
it no longer rounds the value to the nearest tenth of a foot.
B. Alert/Alarm Report Generation
CREATED CCCACRXXX AT: Thu Jul 10 14:48:22 2008
WASHITA RIVER NEAR ALEX (ALXO2) GRADY County, Oklahoma (HG R2 ft)
Obs River Stage 25.0 at Thu-Jul10-13:30
Chg= 9.1/hr > alarm 5.0/hr
Obs River Stage 15.9 at Thu-Jul10-13:30 > upper alert 15.0
Obs River Stage 15.9 at Thu-Jul10-13:00 > upper alert 15.0
RED RIVER AT ARTHUR CITY (ARCT2) LAMAR County, TEXAS (TW RG deg F)
Obs Water Temperature 83.1 at Thu-Jul10-14:00 > upper
alert 80.0
Obs Water Temperature 83.3 at Thu-Jul10-13:00 > upper
alert 80.0
1.
Corrected Posting Of Probability Values (DR #19454) - Raytheon
fixed two problems with posting the SHEF alphanumeric probability character
into the database as a floating point number.
a) some probability values were posted with a rounding error; e.g.
“A” posted as 0.001999 instead of 0.002. b) some probability values were posted
incorrectly; e.g. “7” posted is 0.500781 instead of 0.7.
a) When deleting an entry, the
confirmation window pop-up is displayed but the second acknowledgement pop-up
is now displayed only if deletion was unsuccessful.
b) When changing the Water Supply,
Deterministic, or ESP data, if the user changes a database key field, an update
occurs instead of creating a new entry and forcing the user to delete the old
entry.
c) Reversed order of messages in the
database message box so new messages are now listed at the top.
d) Dashes displayed for NULL values no longer cause problems when updating
records.
e) Added a Refresh button to the main window for use after updates to the
location or river gage information.
a) Added an "Other" option for all lookup tables.
b) Added a "Verification Response Type" and “Drainage
Area” column to the FcstptServices table.
c) Added a "VAR Usage" column to the FcstptDeterm and FcstptESP
tables.
d) Added lookup table for eligible response types: VerifRespType.