# Presentation: 512065

## Using BUFKIT to Display and Analyze Meteorological Data

- Prepared by:
- Sean Nolan1 and Scott Jackson2
- 1Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
- 2U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- The 2005 National Air Quality Conference
- Forecasting Short Course
- San Francisco, CA
- February 13, 2005

## Outline of Presentation

- History/background of BUFKIT
- How to install and run
- Installation process
- Importing/viewing data
- Features of BUFKIT
- Profile screen
- Overview screen

## History of BUFKIT

- In 1995, the NWS Buffalo office developed BUFKIT to assist forecasters with lake-effect snow events.
- By 1997, BUFKIT was expanded to include convective parameters to assist forecasters with non-winter convection.
- Today, it is used by various government offices and universities to assist in air quality forecasting.

## Conventional Websites

- Static – not real interactive
- Have to access four or five different web sites to get different data, such as soundings, cross sections, hodographs, etc.

- Example - Plymouth State University Website (static image)

## BUFKIT

- Interactive – can change options on the fly
- A lot of the data is centrally located within one program (can view sounding, cross-sections, convective parameters, etc. at the click of a mouse)

- Example – Bufkit (can zoom on a certain section of sounding at the click of a button)

- Zoom in on the boundary layer to view better temperature vs. height features

## Installation (1 of 2)

- Downloading the executable file

- Go to  _[www.erh.noaa.gov/buf/bufkit/bufkit.html](http://www.erh.noaa.gov/buf/bufkit/bufkit.html)_

## Installation (2 of 2)

- BUFKIT is installed . . . Now what?

## Setting up BUFKIT 

- Edits to BUFKIT’s configuration file “bufkit.cfg” are required to make it work in your forecast area(s).
_**Steps for configuration**_
- Go to the folder where BUFKIT is installed:  e.g.,  C:\Program Files\BUFKIT.
- Open “bufkit.cfg” with a text editor.
- Specify your location and favorite profile sites.

## BUFKIT Data (1 of 3) 

- BUFKIT uses forecast model output from particular gridpoints, typically near the airport in a selected city.
- Data from all model layers are available.
- Data are hourly from ETA, MM5, and RUC models,  every 3 hours from GFS.

*Image courtesy of AMS Short Course at 33**rd** Broadcast Conference*

## BUFKIT Data (2 of 3) 

- Raw data are packaged in a text file.

## BUFKIT Data (3 of 3) 

- Data displayed as an upper air “profile”, similar to data collected from a radiosonde

## Retrieving BUFKIT Data with BUFGET (1 of 2)

- BUFGET is written in a language called TCL/TK; TCL/TK must already be installed on your computer.  TCL/TK is available at no cost.
- Download and install the TCL/TK package.  Suggestion:  Search the Internet with Google for the phrase "**active tcl download**" and select the first returned site: _[http://www.activestate.com/Products/Download/Download.plex?id=ActiveTcl](http://www.activestate.com/Products/Download/Download.plex?id=ActiveTcl)_
- Once TCL/TK is installed, the BUFGET program will work properly.

## Retrieving BUFKIT Data with BUFGET (2 of 2)

- BUFGET is included in the main BUFKIT installation.
- It is located in C:Program Files\BUFKIT\Bufget4.tcl
- BUFGET is a utility used for retrieving BUFKIT profile files.

## Using Archived Data in BUFKIT

- BUFKIT is driven by data in the directory, C:\Program Files\BUFKIT\Data
- Copy archived data profile files into this “Data” folder to use old data

## Example of Using Archived Data

- _Re-analysis of ozone event: June 3, 2004_

- If the profile files from this day are saved, they can be re-imported into BUFKIT.
- Copy archived files into  C:\ProgramFiles\BUFKIT\Data.
- Run BUFKIT as normal.

## Features of BUFKIT

- Displays hourly modeled sounding (on Profile screen)
- Calculates convective parameters, including CAPE, CIN, TT, LI, K Index, etc.
- Calculates stability parameters, including lapse rates between height levels
- Shows a time-height cross-section of the model data (on Overview screen)

## BUFKIT Profile Screen

## BUFKIT Overview Screen

***Profile  -  A Single Hour***

## Features of BUFKIT

- Let’s look at a high PM2.5 day in Pittsburgh and use BUFKIT features.
- Focus on features in the Profile and Overview screens.
- Look at sounding data and certain parameters (such as lapse rates, actual modeled data for significant levels, etc.).

## Profile Screen (1 of 4)

- Look at October 8 when PM2.5 levels reached 73.7 μg/m3
- Initial thoughts – Look at the inversion at the surface and the hodograph option

## Profile Screen (2 of 4)

- Notice the strong surface inversion with southerly winds in boundary layer
- Lapse rates also indicate stability near the surface

## Profile Screen (3 of 4)

- Surface inversion prevails through the night – low wind speed under inversion with low-level jet above it
- A look at the model data indicates temperatures at 990 mb are lower than 985 mb

## Profile Screen (4 of 4)

- Still strong inversion near surface – for over nine hours
- A look at the NEW fog parameter shows that fog was likely near dawn – could contribute to higher PM2.5 levels

## Overview Screen (1 of 3)

- Plot shows cross-section of time vs. height of RH and inversion locations

## Overview Screen (2 of 3)

- Plot shows RH plotted with wind speed and potential temperature
- Note that from 00Z on Th 7p through 12Z on Fr 7a that the potential temperature also shows a cooling at the surface (i.e., shallow surface inversion)

## Overview Screen (3 of 3)

- BUFKIT can also plot variables at certain levels on one graph.
- Examples
- Red line: 2-m T
- Green line (solid): 2-m Td
- Orange line: Wdir
- Blue line: helicity
- Green line (dashed): Wspd
- Green bars: precipitation type and amounts
- Yellow line: mixing heights

## Summary

- BUFKIT is a very useful tool that utilizes modeled BUFR data and displays it in a manner that is easy to understand
- Data can be viewed in sounding mode on the Profile screen
- Data can be viewed in time-height cross-section displays on the Overview screen.

## Contact Information	

- Sean Nolan
- 	Pennsylvania Dept of Environmental Protection
-     _[senolan@state.pa.us](mailto:senolan@state.pa.us)_
-     717-787-1454
- Scott Jackson
- 	US EPA, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards
- 	_[Jackson.scott@epa.gov](mailto:Jackson.scott@epa.gov)_
- 	919-541-5647