MAP Data Centre Status

At the MAP Meeting in Hall (Austria), the IGP and the major data providers have approved the MAP Data Policy. As a result, the MAP Data Centre (MDC) has in the meantime become operational, both on a technical and adminstrative level. A wide range of data is already available at present, and further data will be included as it becomes available from the data providers and from the scientific community. The Internet address of the Data Centre is http://www. map.ethz.ch. General documents and information are public, but to access all the MAP Data Base areas you need a MAP Data Centre account. Refer to the registration procedure below for further information.

The MAP Data Centre is running on a SUN SPARC station 20 with an ORACLE database Version 7.2 and an ORACLE WebServer Version 1.0. The following data status is based on the state of MAP Data Centre on August 31, 1996.

Registration at the MAP Data Centre

Obsolete, see new MAP Data Access Policy

The registration procedure at the MAP Data Centre is open since August 1, 1996. The applicant has to fill in an application form and provide a research abstract. The application is submitted directly over the Web. In addition, a signed paper copy of the application has to be submitted by air mail. Note that MDC accounts are personal. If several persons from the same institution seek access, each of them must register. Access to the member-area of the MDC is usually provided within 30 days. For further information refer to the "MAP Data Policy" and to the "MDC Registration Procedure" document (printed as previous articles of this Newsletter and available over Internet (WWW) at http://www.map.meteoswiss.ch/map-doc/regist.htm).

Available data in the public data area

Everybody can reach the MDC public data area by Internet, with no access limitations for this part.
The following lists the general, specific and personnel information available in the public data area.

• Available documents:
  - MAP Design Proposal
  - Data Centre description
  - MDC Data Input Formats
  - Navigational and Internet Help
  - MAP Newsletter 1 to 4
• A guideline for data delivery.
  All MAP data are stored in a relational database at the MDC, except for images. Thus the MAP database is table based. In order to insert data into the database most efficiently, we have designed a guideline for the delivery of table-based data and images. Refer to http://www.map.meteoswiss.ch/map-doc/DIformat.htm.
• MAP personnel information (Data source: MAP Programme Office).
  Available fields: last name, first name, institute, address, phone, fax and email.
• MAP personnel information from MAP meeting 1996 in Hall, Tirol.
  Available fields: last name, first name, institute, address, phone, fax and email.
• Ongoing Activities and Future Events.
• Quick Looks of MAP Episodes.
  Quick looks are stored in compressed Post script files and for a preview on your Web Browser in GIF-Format.
• MAP Newsletter templates for short contributions are now available for the following text editing systems: FrameMaker, LaTex and Word.

Available data in the MAP member data area

Access to this data area is restricted and for MAP members only who have a valid account at the MDC.

• MAP station information.
  At the moment the list includes information on 5000 stations from eleven countries. All stations contain the following fields: Name of the Station, Number of the station, Longitude, Latitude and Station height. The other parameters (i.e. the data) are not yet available for most of the stations, but will be included as soon as the data is provided. The values for the parameters temperature, pressure, etc. represent how often per day measurements take place. A negative value means that the information is not available.
• MAP high-resolution topographical data sets.
  At the moment there are two frames available. If you need another frame, please contact the MDC.

For all the MAP episodes the following data are available:

• A short description of the event, references and a contact person for each episode.
• Composite radar images from MeteoSwiss. The time resolution is 5 or 10 minutes depending on the year. You have the possibility to access each single file. If you want the images for a whole day, you can download a compressed file which contains all images for the day. For a quick look you have the possibility to use the radar image animation program written in JAVA. Only a JAVA-compatible Web Browser is able to run the radar animation. We checked successfully the JAVA Applet with Netscape Navigator 2.0 on a SUN workstation, Netscape Navigator 2.02 on a PC, and Netscape Navigator 3.0 Beta on a MAC. If you run the Applet, you must choose first the start and the end date and then the interval length. Press the LOAD button to start the program procedure. Now your Web Browser loads the required images in your machine's memory. When all images are loaded, you can move to the next or previous image by pressing the "arrow buttons". If the mouse cursor is over the radar image, you can use the left or right mouse button to move the images. Press the "start button" to start the animation. To show a long animation, you need a lot of memory in your workstation. If you have problems to run the MAP radar animation Applet, refer to your Web Browser help page and to SUN's JAVA Platform (http://java.sun.com/applets/in-dex.html) and check the Applet examples from SUN. If you still have problems, contact the MDC.
• From METEOSAT the following Satellite images in GIF-Format are available:
  - D2 (Europe) infrared, 1 hour resolution.
  - C03 (Europe) visible, 6 per day.
  - E2 (Europe) watervapour, 3 per day.
• Quick Looks of MAP Episodes. Quick looks are stored in compressed Post Script files and for preview on your Web Browser also in GIF-Format.

Data output at MDC

There are some important aspects which you need to know about data output at the MDC. After a request, the required data is sent back to your Web Browser. It depends on the format of the data and on your Web Browser what will happen next. If your Browser knows the receiving format (html, text, gif, ..), it will show the data on the screen. In all other case it will ask you for a storage location. If you download a satellite image, for instance, the Browser shows the GIF-format image on your screen. You have now the possibility to store the image with the command "file -> save as" or by pressing the right mouse button. You may get all table-based data in four different formats: in HTML-Table format (the best on any Web Browser), in ASCII-Table format with or without a border, and in ASCII-Table format with a selectable separator. For saving the data you must use the command "file -> save as". The best format for importing data into another programme is ASCII-Table with a semicolon as separator.