READY Frequently Asked Questions

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READY Web Server

How come I can no longer automate the way I get READY meteorological products and why do I now need to enter a random password for every product I request?
I am having trouble getting meteograms and other products. A message pops up that says I don't have permission to get the information. Can you tell me if I now need to get an account?
I'd very much like to set up some shortcuts to the Current Meteorology products in a similar way that some others have done for Europe and Australia, for the regions and locations that I most frequently access. If you'll allow this, do you have any documentation available on the CGI parameters, etc?

Do you have a description of the meteogram or profile program for soaring pilots? (March 2004)

With regard to the stability time series plots from the EDAS data, exactly what am I looking at? Are these model output fields (forecasts), or am I looking at the results from assimilated data?
What does it mean by vertical mixing in the stability plots? Does this represent thermal height? If so, how's that different than the boundary layer? Also, is instability simply a measurement of lapse rate? One of the reasons for asking is that I noticed that for one of the WMO stations I look at the vertical mixing spike was off the chart, but the same sounding was showing a so-so lapse rate. On another day the spike was lower while the sounding for the same day was indicating a much stronger lapse rate.
What is the blue line ("Variable 10xKz") on the Stability Plot?

In the text format of the forecast-model soundings, there is a section at the beginning of the file that has four-character abbreviations followed by numerical values. I can figure out easily what some of these are, e.g., PRSS=pressure, T02M=temperature at 2 m, but other abbreviations aren't so obvious to me. Is there a complete list of the abbreviations and units?
What is the meaning of red line and green lines on the vertical profile? Where can I learn more about the plot?
I'd like to get the dT/dz and the potential temperature. Could you explain me how to get those values?

What are the differences between EDAS, FNL, REANALYSIS, and NGM meteorological datasets, because I got quite different HYSPLIT results between them?
What is the source of the Reanalysis meteorological data on your web-site, and what is it's resolution and content?
In reference to your FNL archive products, when we retrieve a map corresponding to a specific date do we get a model predicted field or an actual one?
Did anyone else archive EDAS data prior to 1997?
What is the difference between the FNL and CDC Reanalysis data sets?

Is there a sanctioned way of retrieving the GFS data 4 times a day? I don't want to use the READY web interface in an automated script. http://www.windguru.cz/ is a good example of what I want to do, but with a subset of data a balloonist would find useful.
I have been using the GFS model data to get soundings to assist me in the running of advanced gliding courses in Australia. I have been using the information for the last two years and, to date, I have been extremely impressed by the accuracy of the information. My query is, how is the information derived? The nearest sites that have sounding information are Moree, Charleville and Brisbane, the nearest being some 250km from my location. Many thanks for a great service.
What is the difference between the AVN, MRF and GFS models? (March 2004)