Winds Aloft Visualizer

[AJ_Stuyvenberg 0]

Hey everyone. I spent a few hours last week throwing together a tool to help visualize winds aloft at different altitudes. My goal was to keep it super simple and intuitive.
It's available here: http://www.matterbug.com

It takes data from NOAA, 4 times a day
http://aviationweather.gov/products/nws/all

It's obviously a work-in-progress, but if you want to check out the code or help out yourself - it's on GitHub: http://github.com/astuyve/wx2

Otherwise I'm totally open to suggestions. I'm going to try to get it to display ground winds and gusts. I'll be getting my data from http://weather.aero unless anyone has any better suggestions.

[Alexg3265 0]

Very cool... I guess the three letter drop down menu is for locations. Any key of any kind?

I was that kid jumping out if his tree house with a bed sheet. My dad wouldn't let me use the ladder to try the roof...

[AJ_Stuyvenberg 0]

Yeah it's 3 character IATA airport code. I'd like to translate that to cities, but at this point I'm trying to reconcile two different sources of data - once I figure out exactly how many airports I can get with full wind data (ground winds + winds aloft), I can add a full city to the selectbox instead of just the 3-character airport code.

[MakeItHappen 15]

AJ_Stuyvenberg

Hey everyone. I spent a few hours last week throwing together a tool to help visualize winds aloft at different altitudes. My goal was to keep it super simple and intuitive.
It's available here: http://www.matterbug.com

It takes data from NOAA, 4 times a day
http://aviationweather.gov/products/nws/all

It's obviously a work-in-progress, but if you want to check out the code or help out yourself - it's on GitHub: http://github.com/astuyve/wx2

Otherwise I'm totally open to suggestions. I'm going to try to get it to display ground winds and gusts. I'll be getting my data from http://weather.aero unless anyone has any better suggestions.

Looks good.
What you could do is make the thickness or fatness of the arrow represent the speed.
IE the thicker the arrow the faster the winds.
Still have a pointy point to indicate the direction.

Or maybe a windsock in the middle.

.

.
Make It Happen
Parachute History
DiveMaker

[AJ_Stuyvenberg 0]

I was actually thinking of broadening the compass arrow into a triangle to represent gusting winds. But that's just an idea.

I definitely need to figure out the slider stops, as it's a little silly that the 24,000-39,000ft range takes up as much space as the 3000-12,000ft range.
It's a product of some quick math. Once I come up with a better algorithm for determining stopping positions of the slider, it should be a lot better.

[mjosparky 4]

Can you change the font from black to white for eaiser reading?

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[hillson 0]

doesn't usairnet.com do the same thing, but easier to read without all the fiddlefaddle of a slider?

if someone could combine the super-easy fat arrow / speed / temp stuff from usairnet.com (graphically) and the awesome balloonists' forecast data from www.ryancarlton.com that would be most excellent.

especially if i can call awos and get the macro info and then pull up the discrete data, graphically, on the iphone for the winds every 100 feet or so...better mousetrap.

[AJ_Stuyvenberg 0]

Haha yeah probably, I went from conception to deployed in a night so I don't expect it to be better than anything that's been out there for years.

[voilsb 1]

I'm still a fan of the PCPRG Winds Aloft Forecast tool (http://www.pcprg.com/cgi-bin/windsaloft.cgi). What I would really love is if someone wrote an interface where you put in the coordinates of your DZ, and it would pull up the PCPRG Winds Aloft for the nearest two stations, the nearest two METARs, the nearest two cloud forecasts from USAirNet, and the local weather from weatherunderground/accuweather/etc.

Brian

[peek 21]

AJ_Stuyvenberg

Yeah it's 3 character IATA airport code. I'd like to translate that to cities, but at this point I'm trying to reconcile two different sources of data - once I figure out exactly how many airports I can get with full wind data (ground winds + winds aloft), I can add a full city to the selectbox instead of just the 3-character airport code.

AJ, good work. Those sources of data are never going to be as complete or accurate as we would like. One guy that I emailed about one of the online files said that they never remove an airport, so that they always have the history.

It's still fun and educational to write these programs, and having a graphical representation is good for skydivers. The main challenge is convincing skydivers that these are only forecast winds aloft, not guaranteed!

[AJ_Stuyvenberg 0]

Thanks Peek! Yeah that's why I'm hesitant to follow Brian's request. It's proving difficult to reconcile observation time differences between NOAA and my ground winds source (http://weather.aero/tools/dataservices/textdataserver/dataproducts/view/product/metars/section/examples). The challenge of mixing METARS, winds aloft, ground winds, clouds and local weather from different sources seems like a recipe for disastrous data.

But it's a fun way to pass time during this harsh MN winter.

[voilsb 1]

Oh, I wasn't suggesting you compile all the data into one reconciled report. I just meant it would show the data separately, and let the user decide which information to believe.

For me, I look at all that information separately. And when I travel, it's a pain to try to figure out which winds aloft and METAR stations are closest to the DZ. Once I'm familiar with an area I save the information and check it out. So when I go to the DZ, I look up the winds, I look up the METARs, I look up the forecasts ... it'd be convenient to have it all in one spot, that's all.

Brian

[mikepitt 0]

Check out

www.sky-dive.ca Spot calculator.

[AJ_Stuyvenberg 0]

Okay, ground wind speeds are up.
I'm getting an entire METAR for each airport, so I can grab lots more data now. I just want to keep it small enough to fit on a mobile screen.