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20010905: Possible Change to NCEP frontal position bulletins (reply)

>From:  "Edwin Danaher" <address@hidden>
>Organization:  NCEP/HPC  Development and Training Branch
>Keywords:  200108312037.f7VKbKh01117 NOAAPORT front ASUS1 FSUS2 McIDAS

Ed,

I agree with Steve Chiswell that your proposal to eliminate the
strength indicator field in ASUS1 and FSUS2 bulletins is much more
preferable than changing the indicator to 'XX' or setting all
indicators to 'WK'.  Your proposals 2 and 3 would not impact my
software, but I don't think that either is the correct approach.

The McIDAS application that uses the front bulletins did expect the
front strength indicator field, but it didn't use it. Also, the change
to support bulletins with or without the field was so simple that I
went ahead and made it.

Your time frame for making the change, late Winter or early Spring
2002, is far enough off that I will easily be able to distributed
updated software to my community.

Thanks for letting us know about the intended change this far in
advance!  We will be happy to let our community know about the
change as soon as a firm decision is made on your end.

Tom

>       The NWS NCEP Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC) is considering
>a modification to the coding of fronts in the ASUS1 and FSUS2
>bulletins.  Specifically, we wish to delete the reference to frontal
>strength.
>
>       As part of a restructuring of some of our products, we would like to
>eliminate the frontal strength indicator from our graphical and text
>products.  As far as we can tell, these are little used.  This will have
>some ramifications for the coded text messages you are decoding to
>display fronts. 
>
>       Currently, fronts are coded with a strength identifier as follows (WK
>is the identifier in this example):
>
>               COLD WK 46178 43177 42175 40172 38168 36165 
>
>       There are several ways for us to proceed.  Three possibilities are
>outlined below:
>
>Proposal 1: 
>
>       We could code the message without this strength identifier:
>               COLD 46178 43177 42175 40172 38168 36165 
>This would be the cleanest solution from our perspective, but might
>require modification to some decoders.
>
>Proposal 2:
>
>       We could change the strength identifier to something else such as XX:
>               COLD XX 46178 43177 42175 40172 38168 36165
>       This would indicate that we no longer assign a strength to the front,
>but may pose less of a problem than proposal 1 to decoders that read but
>do not use this information. 
>
>Proposal 3:
>       We could leave the coding as is with the understanding that we do not
>provide this information.  As a default, all fronts would be classified
>as WK. This assumes that the information contained in the frontal
>strength indicator is not being used but is expected to be there by the
>decoder.  The disadvantage is that some users may not be aware that this
>strength information is no longer being assigned.  
>
>       What I would like from you is two pieces of information.  First, are
>you using the frontal strength, either on the analysis or prog
>messages?  Second, would proposals 1 or 2 break your decoders?  Our goal
>is to make this modification with as little impact on users as
>possible.  We don't have a timetable yet, but I would hope to have this
>change implemented by late Winter or Spring of 2002. 
>
>       Any comments or suggestions would be welcome. I would like to hear from
>you by September 13 if possible so that we can beginning planning this
>modification.  You can respond via email or contact me by phone at (301)
>763-8000 ext 7354.
>
>Ed Danaher

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