Header File

The header file contains the byte location of products saved by the ingest program. This is used as the input to several WXP programs including parsers and some display programs increase the speed of searching for various types of data.

FORMAT

The information is laid out in the file as:

oooooo header / extra
oooooo header / extra
....

where:

• oooooo -- the byte offset into the file,
• header -- the product header in its entirety is listed after the offset
• extra -- extra information which includes second line for text data and product information for GRIB data.

EXAMPLES

A sample from a forecast data header file:

      0 FPUS86 KPQR 282359 / OPUPDX
   3264 FPUS85 KGGW 290001 / OPUGGW
   3548 FPAK11 PAYA 282207 / &ZCZC JNULFPYAK
   4190 FPUS73 KFGF 282359 / NOWFAR
   6865 FPAK57 PAJK 290001 CCA / &ZCZC JNUZFPAK
   9613 FPUS73 KLBF 290002 / NOWLBF
  10092 FPUS73 KGRB 290001 / NOWGRB
  10588 FPAK11 PAFA 290005&ZCZC FAILFPFAI / AKZ007-290530-
  11366 FCCN51 CWAO 290001 AAA / TAF AMD CYUY 290001Z
  11592 FPAK57 PAJK 290001 CCA / &ZCZC JNUZFPAK
  14342 FPAK11 PAFA 290005 / &ZCZC FAILFPFAI        

The information after the slash "/" is the second line of the product used for further parsing.  This generally contains AFOS PILs which can be used for parsing.

For GRIB products:

3087563 YORB10 KWBE 131500 /  85 212       6 100     100  39
3102432 ZORE10 KWBE 131500 /  85 212       9 100     100  39
3117301 YCUA99 KWBE 131500 PAA /  85 215       0 100    1000  41
3230510 YCUA85 KWBE 131500 PAA /  85 215       0 100     850  41
3336000 YCUA70 KWBE 131500 PAA /  85 215       0 100     700  41
3352511 YCUA50 KWBE 131500 PAA /  85 215       0 100     500  41
3368533 YCUA25 KWBE 131500 PAA /  85 215       0 100     250  41
3474022 YTUA98 KWBE 131500 PAA /  85 215       0 105       2  11
3487852 YUUA98 KWBE 131500 PAA /  85 215       0 105      10  33
3583433 YVUA98 KWBE 131500 PAA /  85 215       0 105      10  34
3599668 YRUA98 KWBE 131500 PAA /  85 215       0 105       2  52
3635495 YPUA98 KWBE 131500 PAA /  85 215       0   1       0   1 

The extra characters after the slash for GRIB data is product information derived from the GRIB product definition block (PDB).  This includes 6 numbers which represent:

1. Model number
2. Grid number (used to specify grid size and domain)
3. Forecast time (usually in hours, coded for hour ranges)
4. Vertical level type
5. Vertical level
6. Variable number

To decode these numbers, see the Appendix (WXP Product Descriptions). Since GRIB headers are not unique, this information is needed to uniquely describe the contents of the product.

SEE ALSO

• wmoingest

Last updated May 1, 2020