NOAAWinds

NOAA GFS winds in VR and VORG games

Winds used in the VR and VORG games are from NOAA's Global Forecast System

NOAA GFS winds can be obtained from application:
http://nomads.ncep.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/filter_gfs.pl

This is a 1 degree resolution forecast, with numerous weather variables, spaced 3 hours and up to 384h. This data is fabricated by a of weather simulation program, using laws of physics and inputs from instruments [which?]. Server responses are in grib 2 format. Variable "wind at 10m" is used. Winds are given by its two U and V components, in latitude/longitude directions.

VORG 11-12 winds for 06Z are extracted from folder YYYYDDMM00, forecast 06.
Time 0 comes from file gfs.t00z.pgrbf06.grib2, time 12 from gfs.t00z.pgrbf18.grib2 and so on.
Winds for 18Z are extracted from folder YYYYDDMM12. Time 0 comes from file gfs.t12z.pgrbf06.grib2, time 12 from gfs.t12z.pgrbf18.grib2. etc.

Note that a new folder is created by NOAA every 6 hours. Only two of the four daily simulations are used in the game. GFS files are added gradually to latest folder during publication. Schedule seems to be:

 forecast      pub time
      
  00         03:30 - 04:30Z    <-- used 

  06         09:30 - 10:30Z

  12         15:30 - 16:30Z    <-- used 

  18         21:30 - 22:30Z

This means forecast 0 is already history when published, and meant to be used as an interpolation point (in time). Game wind updates are at 6Z and 18Z, approx 2 hours after GFS release.