This graphics format, originally developed by Compuserve, is compact and easily displayed on a variety of hardware platforms. The original files are being archived at the University of Washington. Additional display software, developed by Mark Albright, allows the user to easily select the type, time, and elevation angle of the required image and then to display it. Additional software allows the animation of reflectivity or Doppler wind images. In general, the datastream has been reliable, except for several outages during September and October.
New images come in approximately every six minutes.
The meteorology of the Puget Sound region is complex, owing to the complicated orography of the area. We expect the WSR-88D imagery to be an integral part of the instructional and research programs at the University of Washington. The following information should help you realize the same benefits from NIDS data as Cliff and Harry have detailed in the preceding article. Maximum echo tops VIL Vertically integrated liquid VAD Vertical Azimuth Display wind profile These products are in NIDS format and the format is in the public domain. While Unidata does not yet support any software packages for displaying these data, people in the community have written several decoders and some display programs for them.