Ever since I got Infometar

[MGS 0]

every weekend has been like this:rain, overcast, 12 mph windsSpringfield ILSt Charles MOdownwindInfometar is really impressive.A great addon. A must-have.

[Guest Mgarmy]

We get this in the Netherlands everyday without Infometar.Mannie

[Guest DSandberg]

Do you mean in the sim, or in real life? 'Cause lately we've been getting that every day in Minnesota at well. :-lolSeriously, where InfoMETAR is typically of the most help is when you want to fly in a region with an overabundance of METAR reports (due to its minimizing of excessive "averaging" between multiple METAR reports), and/or in a higher altitude region (due to its correction of cloud elevations which get further and further off as AGL and MSL diverge). Flying in the Netherlands probably doesn't need something like InfoMETAR as much as flying in other areas may, because there are typically only about five or six active, not too closely packed reporting stations in the country (at least in the NOAA cycles), and all of the stations are within a few feet of sea level.However there are still a few things InfoMETAR could do for you, if you ever care to try it. One big thing: I've heard from many European users that the Q altimeter readings in European reports aren't handled by Fly!, so your altimeter settings won't vary properly with the weather (I'd be interested to hear if your experience belies this). InfoMETAR translates these readings into something Fly! can understand and use. Also, in rainy areas InfoMETAR can make the rain a little more widespread in some cases by addressing the "rain falling only out of lowest FEW layer" issue. Finally, if you have bad weather around, there are a couple of different things that can occur in METAR reports that can on rare occasions cause Fly! to fail to read the METAR correctly or at all ... InfoMETAR fixes any such reports up beforehand so they will work in the sim.- David Sandberg

[Guest DSandberg]

Cool! Glad you're enjoying it!- David Sandberg[br][br]

[MGS 0]

Dave, thanks for the info. It sounds like your real-life weather is much like here in Milwaukee. I've been finding that Infometar is quite smooth in the Chicago area and SE Wisconsin, where I fly most of the time in the sim. Thanks for providing such an enjoyable addon.

[Guest Mgarmy]

David,No I was kindda yoking being idle for so long waiting to get a chance to download my 757.I must be honnest to say that I really don't remember the differences between the Fly downloaded metar and the one InfoMetar is producing. I have been using InfoMetar from day one and use it everytime before I start Fly to get the updated weather. If InfoMetar has captured some nice and wild weather I save a copy of it and try to adjust it in such way so that I can train myself in various weather conditions. So, when I have this lousy, typical, Dutch weather like today, I have always somewhere a nice saved InfoMetar set with sun and clouds to compensate on something I have no control of.Thanks for your great and valuable product!Cheers,Mannie

[Guest DSandberg]

Oh! :-lol- David Sandberg[br][br]

[Guest cornclose]

David,Could you give me any indication as to what alogorythms you use when you generate random weather in InfoMETAR please ?I am interested for a new Fly!2k/Sky! project I am working on...Chris Ehttp://website.lineone.net/~flightsimukAvoid AGP texturing = Better Performance ;)

[Guest DSandberg]

Unfortunately the calculations for random weather in InfoMETAR are far too complex to boil down to a simple algorithm, and underwent literally weeks of tweaking (I'm talking 8 hour days) to get results that more or less match global climate patterns. But to boil it waaaaaaay down:[ol][li]I start with known data, such as the season and time of day at the location, which I use to determine the sun angle and how much solar heating is present. This information then is used to select an accurate average temperature and dewpoint for the date, time and location in question (with the exception of neglecting the real world variances that can be brought about by surrounding terrain, etc.).[li]I generate the more or less "totally random" elements (items that would depend on large scale weather patterns which are not present), such as air pressure, winds, temp and dewpoint variance from the standard (determined from the solar heating calculated in step #1), etc.[li]I use all of the above to determine appropriate percentage chances of stratus or convective cloud layers (as well as which cloud types or elevations are not possible given the known conditions), and then randomly select cloud layers based upon those percentages and limitations[li]I use all of the above including clouds present to determine the likelihood of various types of WX, as well as which WX cannot be present due to other factors, and then randomly select WX based upon those percentages and limitations (for example, fog is only allowed as a possibility when temperature and dewpoint are very close, solar heating is limited and wind speeds are low)[li]I use all of the above including precipitation and other WX to determine an appropriate range of possible visibilities, and then randomly select a visibility within that range.[/ol]All of the likelihoods, limiting conditions and range calculations described above were arrived at through extensive research in various meteorological volumes, as well as computational analysis of huge amounts of METAR and climatic data.A footnote: when the InfoMETAR "severe weather slider" is increased, this is implemented by adding an additional "push" to a couple of the early elements (such as temperatures, dewpoints and winds). The additional clouds, more severe WX and/or lowered visibilities that result from advancing this slider are primarily a result of the effects of those modified raw elements cascading through the remainder of the calculations. At the time I considered this something of a "correctness test" for the algorithms.Don't know if this helps you at all or not. Good luck ... getting the random weather to work more or less convincingly was one of my biggest challenges when creating InfoMETAR.- David Sandberg

[MGS 0]

Two more reasons for getting InfometarGreat cloudsLow visibility approaches-ready-made

[Guest cornclose]

Thanks very much indeed David,It helps a lot, as it is very similar in many respects to the alogorythms I was planning. In fact, I may not bother writing mine and just use InfoMETAR instead, as you have already done much of the hard work!Thanks again...Chris Ehttp://website.lineone.net/~flightsimukAvoid AGP texturing = Better Performance ;)