Source of problem with NearSpaceVentures
I received the following email in response to my question about the problems we have been having with the balloon predicts using nearspaceventures
Glen,
NOAA.GOV/READY/CMET provides the data that drives the tracker.
We just discovered this evening that NOAA.GOV/READY/CMET limits the number of
profiles that can be requested per day from a single IP address (server) to
about 75. We're not sure if this is a new restriction by NOAA or it was
always set and BALTRACK has just now gotten popular enough to overrun the
limit. I'm thinking that its a new restriction because BALTRACK has had
some heavy usage and we should have seen it in the 4 years it's been running.
When the tracker was built, there were 3-4 groups using it. It has gotten
very popular and now it exceeds NOAA's limit daily. Requests for an
exemption for our IP address have been turned down. (Maybe a University
would have more "pull" with them?) We can do nothing about it, and are
considering limiting it's use to the group that authored the system.
There ARE ways to code around the problem, but all of them will take
considerable programming time that I simply don't have right now.
If you have 15 universities planning flights and each of them have 2 people
running predictions, you've probably overrun NOAA's limit, especially if they
run several predictions to see what effect changing weight or lift has or you
have to calculate a new launch site because you have to move the landing
zone. And that doesn't count the other groups trying to use it.
As Nearspaceventures is executing a launch this weekend, we need access to the
system and will probably take steps to reserve it. If, by tomorrow, we
discover that requests have overrun the NOAA limit, we'll have to put a
password on the system.
I would suggest that you coordinate with the universities to use it only as
much as necessary on a given day, until we can either find another data
source, or can program a solution around the limitations.
I'm very sorry about this, but there's not much I can do about it, especially
on short notice.
Sincerely,
Troy Campbell, KC0MIC
On Wednesday 01 April 2009 09:43:10 pm you wrote:
> I and others have been having difficulty with the Web Based Balloon Track.
> This evening when I click "Get Profile" I simply get a page with "Error" on
> it. Earlier in the afternoon it was giving us a blank sheet for a map, and
> only after waiting for a while did it give the track with the map.
>
> 15 universities are planning joint balloon flights on Saturday April 4.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Glen Kissel
> gkissel@usi.edu
>
> This E-mail was sent via http://nearspaceventures.com
--
Troy M Campbell, LtCol, CAP
Vice Commander, Missouri Wing
FEMA Region 7 Liaison
SPO Advanced Technology Group, CAPNHQ
tcampbell@mowg.cap.gov
(816) 468-7212
"Deeds....Not Words"
Glen,
NOAA.GOV/READY/CMET provides the data that drives the tracker.
We just discovered this evening that NOAA.GOV/READY/CMET limits the number of
profiles that can be requested per day from a single IP address (server) to
about 75. We're not sure if this is a new restriction by NOAA or it was
always set and BALTRACK has just now gotten popular enough to overrun the
limit. I'm thinking that its a new restriction because BALTRACK has had
some heavy usage and we should have seen it in the 4 years it's been running.
When the tracker was built, there were 3-4 groups using it. It has gotten
very popular and now it exceeds NOAA's limit daily. Requests for an
exemption for our IP address have been turned down. (Maybe a University
would have more "pull" with them?) We can do nothing about it, and are
considering limiting it's use to the group that authored the system.
There ARE ways to code around the problem, but all of them will take
considerable programming time that I simply don't have right now.
If you have 15 universities planning flights and each of them have 2 people
running predictions, you've probably overrun NOAA's limit, especially if they
run several predictions to see what effect changing weight or lift has or you
have to calculate a new launch site because you have to move the landing
zone. And that doesn't count the other groups trying to use it.
As Nearspaceventures is executing a launch this weekend, we need access to the
system and will probably take steps to reserve it. If, by tomorrow, we
discover that requests have overrun the NOAA limit, we'll have to put a
password on the system.
I would suggest that you coordinate with the universities to use it only as
much as necessary on a given day, until we can either find another data
source, or can program a solution around the limitations.
I'm very sorry about this, but there's not much I can do about it, especially
on short notice.
Sincerely,
Troy Campbell, KC0MIC
On Wednesday 01 April 2009 09:43:10 pm you wrote:
> I and others have been having difficulty with the Web Based Balloon Track.
> This evening when I click "Get Profile" I simply get a page with "Error" on
> it. Earlier in the afternoon it was giving us a blank sheet for a map, and
> only after waiting for a while did it give the track with the map.
>
> 15 universities are planning joint balloon flights on Saturday April 4.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Glen Kissel
> gkissel@usi.edu
>
> This E-mail was sent via http://nearspaceventures.com
--
Troy M Campbell, LtCol, CAP
Vice Commander, Missouri Wing
FEMA Region 7 Liaison
SPO Advanced Technology Group, CAPNHQ
tcampbell@mowg.cap.gov
(816) 468-7212
"Deeds....Not Words"
Views: 6
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Howard Brooks on -
Glen,
Ouch!
One option is to download Balloon Track from EOSS (written by Rick von Glahn).
The link is: http://www.eoss.org/wbaltrak/index.html
This program requires more initial work by the user, but the website is helpful.
I'm trying it today, and have found it to agree perfectly on the ascent with Near Space Ventures. It makes the descent path much too long. I suggest that you use 1600 feet /min for the descent.
Howard
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Permalink Reply by Glen Kissel on -
Howard,
When using Balloon Track, which of the five wind sources do you suggest we use?
Atmospheric Soundings, FSL Soundings, Future Winds at READY, The Sounding Machine or FSU Meteorology RAOB?
I've been trying to use "Atmospheric Soundings" but it doesn't seem to allow me to get their forecast for April 4, I always end up having to use today's data, on April 2.
Glen
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Permalink Reply by Howard Brooks on
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Glen,
The atmospheric soundings come from actual balloon flights flown at 0 UTC and 12 UTC everyday. The date can never be later than today's date (according to UTC - as I write we are just 20 minutes from 0 UTC on 3 April)
From the list of choices, I use the future winds at Ready (which is what NearSpaceVentures uses). I'm at home and don't have Balloon Track on this computer, so the rest of this is from memory (which has its gaps). You need to provide the location for which you want the winds. There is the option of lat and long or you can use airport codes like EVV for Evansville. Then you need to choose the type of wind model that you want. I generally use the GFS model, right now the one to choose is 0 to 84 hours.
This will bring up another screen (and is where my memory is fading). I believe that I select sounding from that list. I also think that is the page that has the prediction time choice. (And the familiar six character id block). After passing this you will have the choice of the output data format. Please select text only and text format, each has its own button.
The next submission should generate a text page that will include columns of pressure and wind information. I highlight the portion of the page from the Headings through the line below the last entry that identifies the location of the data. I copy this information into Notepad and save just those lines in a text file. Typically, I title the file gfs040451hr.txt to identify the model and the flight date and the hours until the flight time (matching the selection that I made previously.
This .txt file should be fine for the open command under file in the Balloon Track program.
Hope this is helpful.
Howard
Glen Kissel said:Howard,
When using Balloon Track, which of the five wind sources do you suggest we use?
Atmospheric Soundings, FSL Soundings, Future Winds at READY, The Sounding Machine or FSU Meteorology RAOB?
I've been trying to use "Atmospheric Soundings" but it doesn't seem to allow me to get their forecast for April 4, I always end up having to use today's data, on April 2.
Glen
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Permalink Reply by Glen Kissel on
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Howard,
Your memory is good. I did end up trying Future Winds at Ready, and went thru the steps (and saw the prediction time choice). I got a reasonable answer (compared to the few nearspaceventures predicts we've gotten out) that plotted on MapPoint. Also, thanks for the suggested 1600 ft/min descent rate.
Glen
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Permalink Reply by Howard Brooks on
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Glen,
We're pretty lucky here in Indiana since we should be under a fairly strong high pressure on Saturday. The predictions have been stable for the last couple of days.
Hope your landing spot is a good one.
Howard
Glen Kissel said:Howard,
Your memory is good. I did end up trying Future Winds at Ready, and went thru the steps (and saw the prediction time choice). I got a reasonable answer (compared to the few nearspaceventures predicts we've gotten out) that plotted on MapPoint. Also, thanks for the suggested 1600 ft/min descent rate.
Glen
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