FSX Seasons.bgl

[scott967 62]

I am looking at the new seasons.bgl file. The resolution is LOD5 (1.2 km). My question is how/where did MS get the source data for this? I'm guessing that maybe they took a less-detailed definition (from where?) and maybe modulated it with elevation.scott s..

[Holger 0]

Hi Scott,good question. Elevation is not necessarily a good predictor of seasonal changes but if you want to look into that the easiest way I can think of would be to use Slartibartfast. It allows you to develop elevation-specific land class files from elevation data. It should be fairly straightforward (i.e., with Photoshop or similar) to turn the land class .raw file into corresponding seasons .raw or .tif files.A more realistic option would be to use monthly vegetation index data as a basis, which also includes snow cover. GLCF offers regional or global MODIS 500-m and 1-km products as free downloads: http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/index.shtmlDon't know if anyone noticed this yet but a bug slipped into the FSX seasons code: the monthly files that determine season changes now all start at the 1st of the month; in FS9 the start date was better aligned with the calendar dates of seasonal changes i.e., around the 21st. Then again, it's not that mother nature switches seasons on our calendar dates ;-)Cheers, Holger

[scott967 62]

Thanks Holger, other than the "season" setting when creating a flight, it really is just a function of the date used for sampling the data. I didn't know about that MODIS data, though IIRC it is a pain to determine the proper file to get from GLCF. I've been using some 4km snow/ice daily coverage data from NOAA , http://nsidc.org/data/g02156.html along with the default for other seasonal variations.scott s..

[Guest christian]

Hi HolgerThe season change dates aren't a bug - MS just realigned the dates to the southern hemisphere ;) Yes, in Australia and NZ, the seasons begin on the 1st not around the 21st. One of the things you got to get used to when moving down here - not that this is life essential information though...Cheers,Christian