Image Archive
Frequently Asked Questions

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General

What is this?
How do I download a lot of images?
How do I get the raw data?
Where did you get the images?
Are the times in the radar composites UTC?
Why did you create this?
What type of images do you have?
Why is this time missing?
Alternate sites

Technical

Are the time stamps wrong?
Cookies
Printing an image
Making a movie
I can't change the date!
The Back link/button does not work.
No images for X or The page cannot be found
Sorry! Image category unavailable for X. Change date or increase "extra days".

What is this?

This is a web accessible collection of images maintained by David Ahijevych in the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division of NCAR. The images include satellite, radar, surface, upper-air, and model output. The spatial domain is largely limited to the central United States and, prior to 2002, the warm season. Although a large portion of the archive originates from within NCAR, most images are simply downloaded from other sources. The archive was originally created for group members, but was put online use by partner institutions.

How do I get the raw data?

Except for WSI radar composites, we do not have raw data. The case selection kit was not intended to be a comprehensive raw data repository. Only images were saved.

Where did you get the images?

Eta model analyses weather.rap.ucar.edu/model NCAR/RAL
Satellite
visible, infrared
aviationweather.gov/satellite
weather.rap.ucar.edu/satellite NCAR/RAL
www-frd.fsl.noaa.gov/mab/sat NOAA/FSL 2004-2016
www.goes.noaa.gov NOAA/NESDIS

install Dr. Blaylock's goes2go python module and run goesplot.py mid-2017 onward
Surface-satellite-radar composite weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_sfc_map.html Unisys Weather 1998-2012
Precipitation analyses www.wsicorp.com WSI Corp.
www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov NCEP/EMC
weather.rap.ucar.edu/surface/us_precip.gif NCAR/RAL
Surface analyses weather.unisys.com Unisys Weather
weather.rap.ucar.edu/surface NCAR/RAL
weather.rap.ucar.edu/model/sfc_ict_mcli.gif NCAR/RAL
weather.cod.edu 2004-2006 NEXLAB/College of DuPage
Upper air sounding skew-T diagrams weather.rap.ucar.edu/upper NCAR/RAL
Upper air analyses
300,500,700,850mb
weather.rap.ucar.edu/upper NCAR/RAL
twister.sbs.ohio-state.edu OSU Weather
www.spc.noaa.gov/obswx/maps SPC
NIDS radar composites Central Miss Vly
Central Plains
National
Northern Plains
Southern Miss Vly
Southern Plains
Upper Miss Vly
weather.rap.ucar.edu/radar NCAR/RAL
weather.cod.edu/analysis/analysis.1and2km.html
   Oct 2007-2008 College of DuPage
or
locally produced from WSI radar composites
or after 2020 College of DuPage subregional
old NIDS radar composites
National
motherlode.ucar.edu/unidata/images/nids/radar_mosaic.gif Unidata
www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/radar/radardata.html NCDC
old NIDS radar composites
North Central
South Central
weather.cod.edu/analysis/satrad.regional.html NEXLAB/CoD
Storm reports www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/ 1996-2017
Reports span 12 UTC of the date stamp to 12 UTC the next day.
Wind Profiler
surface-12km AGL
www.met.tamu.edu Dept. Atmospheric Sciences/Texas A&M Univ.
weather.cod.edu/profiler/profplots/ NEXLAB/CoD
Wind Profiler/4-panel weather.rap.ucar.edu/upper NCAR/RAL

Are the times in the radar composites UTC?

Yes, the times in the radar composites are UTC.

Why did you create this?

To summarize daily weather over the U.S. and help isolate potential case study periods.

What types of images do you have?

Image selection varies depending on availability and the time of year. It has evolved over time to accommodate changing image sources and additional image types. We may broaden the selection during field campaigns or otherwise interesting weather events. The image types were chosen for their potential to isolate and identify case-study periods during the warm season over the U.S.

Why is this time missing?

Internet downtime, 3rd party web page changes, or other circumstances beyond our control may prevent us from downloading images for extended periods. Alternate images from secondary sites sometimes fill in the gaps.

Alternate sites


Technical

Are the time stamps wrong?

A time stamp shown in an image is generally correct. The image filename, on the other hand, may contain a later time. The two times should never be more than an hour apart. The time embedded in the filename corresponds to the time the image was added to the archive. Near the end of the day (in UTC), this may cause an image to be bumped to the following day.

Cookies

Cookies keep track of your most recently chosen day, month, year, max_frames value, extra_days value, and image category. They also retain your animation speed. Google Analytics is used to count visitors and their geographic locations but no unique personal identifying information is kept.

Printing an image

Printing web pages can be tricky, especially when dealing with HTML frames. The following suggestions may help. First pause the animation on the image you desire. In Microsoft Internet Explorer, right-click in the whitespace above or below the image, and press Print. This brings up the print dialog window, from which you can choose a printer, print to a file, or change the options. In other browsers, try saving the image by right-clicking it and selecting Save Image As.... After saving the image, use other software to print the image independently from the browser.

Downloading a lot of images and Making a movie

Making a movie usually requires downloading a lot of images. This is facilitated by the Image list link at the bottom of each animation window. Clicking this link produces a list of URLs for all images in the animation. Write a script like this to download the images and use 3rd party software to create the movie.

I can't change the date!

Try pressing the Go! button after selecting a new date.

The Back link/button does not work.

The Back link in the animation frame may not work properly in some browsers. If you run into this problem, try the browser's Back feature or click the Go! button in the left panel. These all should have the same effect.

No images for X or The page cannot be found

No images were saved for this date.

Sorry! Image category unavailable for X. Change date or increase "extra days".

The image type may be listed, but no images are available for the initial date. This accomodates the "extra days" feature. If you increase the number of extra days, the animation should begin, but without images from the first requested date. The author would change this confusing behavior, but has yet to devise a solution using static HTML.

 

Please report problems to Dave Ahijevych at ahijevyc@ucar.edu