FS2k2 Weather utility idea

[Gridley 257]

IMO, the biggest problems with metar data are that reporting stations are far apart, and reporting is only hourly. This is particularly a problem in the summer, where cold fronts tend to be sharp on the map, and move quickly past reporting stations.Here's my idea, and mind you, I have no skills with which to implement this idea - just throwing it out there for someone who might.How difficult would it be to use national composite radar and national infrared satellite data, combined with Metar to define weather in FS? In other words, download a jpg with precip updated four times an hour, a jpg with cloud cover updated four times an hour, and set cloud levels and visibility with metar data updated once an hour?Any ideas?sg

[Guest guyjr]

Well, besides the fact that you'd have to somehow parse out the numbers from a rasterized image, metar data is one major source of information that the National Weather Service uses to generate those maps in the first place. There are other sources of data, of course. However, when you type in your zip code on weather.com, for instance, the visibility, current temp, clouds, and winds are being reported at the closest metar station to your zip code. So relying on the maps as a secondary source of information isn't going to necessarily get you more information than just interpolating between weather reporting stations.--Guy Elden Jr.

[Gridley 257]

Let me try to state my idea more explicitly:Take the following imagehttp://www.dartmouth.edu/~gridlock/NEradarComposite.gifThanks to Intellicast for "lending" me that one.METAR at KRUT, KLEB, and KMPV are all reporting mostly cloudy. Clearly, there's a monster of a boomer just west of LEB, yet no one is reporting that. This image will have updated 15' later, showing its track eastward. METAR still will not have reflected its existance. However, reading the color scale of the JPG, and converting it from its 16 levels of intensity to the 5 (or so) precip levels that FS can represent, one could conceive of a utility that would accuratly represent the weather at a resolution that is much higher than METAR both temporally and spatially. The same would be true for IR satellite. METAR could just be used to translate the grey clouds on the satellite image into the altitude dimension...Just a thought.sg

[Guest KenG]

That is a good idea; however, how many seconds per frame do you think you'd get in MSFS with this kind of functionality implemented? I bet it would bring it to sub-slideshow levels. I've thought of something similar before, but I just don't know how feasible it would be. BTW, I'm sure if someone could implement it without fps problems, people would find plenty about which to complain: resolution is to poor, updates are too slow and infrequent, etc.I still like the idea despite all I've said.

[Guest cornclose]

I thought of doing something like this some time ago (but not for MSFS) by using TAF's for the forecast element of weather, combined with METAR data. Haven't done it yet though....Chris Ehttp://website.lineone.net/~flightsimukAvoid AGP texturing = Better Performance ;)