Live NOAA NWS METAR

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) METeorological Aerodrome Report (METAR) Agent is a data loading agent available in EQuIS Live used for obtaining wind direction, wind speed, air temperature, and atmospheric pressure data from the NOAA NWS METAR FTP site.

Note: Due to the deprecation of FTP support by browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge, users may need to access the resources at the provided FTP URLs via an FTP client (WinSCP, etc.).

The following table highlights a few of the differences between this agent and the NOAA-NDCD Agent.

The DT_LOGGER_SERIES' SERIES_NAMEs, SERIES_DESCs, and SERIES_UNITs are the same for both agents. Therefore, you can switch the LIVE_DATA_SOURCE and LOGGER_CODE of a NOAA-NWS-METAR DT_LOGGER row to NOAA-NCDC to get historical data, if both sites provide data for the station.

Item	NOAA-NCDC	NOAA-NWS-METAR
DT_LOGGER.LIVE_DATA_SOURCE	NOAA-NCDC	NOAA-NWS-METAR
DT_LOGGER.LOGGER_CODE	A station ID from the NOAA-NCDC station list. For example, 724940-23234 (USAF-WBAN) for the San Francisco International Airport.	A station ICAO code. For example, KSFO for the San Francisco International Airport.
Stations	All of the stations in the NOAA-NCDC station list; both with and without ICAO codes.	Only stations with ICAO codes. (ICAO codes are not only for airports, as some weather stations have ICAO codes.)
Current Data	Yes, but most recent data may not be available immediately on the FTP site; it may take a few days.	Yes, but it varies with each station (e.g., updated once per hour, or every half hour).
Historical Data	Yes	No
Type of Data	METAR, SPECI, SOD (Summary Of Day), etc. (It varies with each station.)	METAR
Quality Control Checking of Data	Yes, quality codes are saved in DT_LOGGER_DATUM. DATUM_QUALIFIER.	No

Adding Station

Before using the NOAA NWS METAR Agent, add one or more stations to the DT_LOGGER table:

1.Execute the equis.get_ids stored procedure to get a new LOGGER_ID, or add the station (DT_LOGGER row) in EQuIS Professional.

2.Set LIVE_DATA_SOURCE to NOAA-NWS-METAR.

3.Set LOGGER_CODE to a station ICAO code from the NOAA-NWS-METAR station list (e.g., KSFO for the San Francisco International Airport).

Note: You can also search for a station ICAO code in the NOAA-NCDC station list (e.g., by station name or country), or in NOAA's Aviation Weather Center Map, or using a web search engine (e.g., Google). Be sure to verify that the ICAO code is present in the NOAA-NWS-METAR station list, to ensure that this agent can get data for it.

4.Set STATUS_FLAG to 'A' to activate the logger.

Loading Data

The NOAA NWS METAR Agent can be run as a scheduled EQuIS Information Agent (EIA), at the desired frequency, to automatically load data as often as needed.

The NOAA NWS METAR Agent can also be run in EQuIS Professional or Enterprise (using the EZView widget) to load the data manually, without having to schedule an EIA.

The NOAA NWS METAR Agent will load data for all loggers with LIVE_DATA_SOURCE set to NOAA-NWS-METAR. It does not have any input parameters. It adds a DT_LOGGER_SERIES row for each of the following series. However, some of the stations may not have one or more of the series listed below, in which case those series will not be added.

SERIES_NAME	SERIES_UNIT
Air Temperature	degrees Celsius
Atmospheric Pressure	hectopascals
Wind Direction	angular degrees
Wind Speed	m/s

A series can then be activated or deactivated, by setting its STATUS_FLAG = "A" or "R", to start or stop (respectively) obtaining data for it. A series' SERIES_DESC may be changed, but not the SERIES_NAME and SERIES_UNIT; they uniquely identify the series.

Live NOAA NWS METAR Agent

Live NOAA NWS METAR Agent

Adding Station

Loading Data