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Real time aircraft reconnaissance

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Ajda Savarin edited this page Sep 11, 2023 · 5 revisions 
./bash/download_plot_latest_aircraft-recon.sh

OR

python ../scripts/download_latest_saildrone_data.py
python ../scripts/download_aircraft_recon_data.py
python ../scripts/process_aircraft_recon_data.py

python ../scripts/plot_aircraft_recon_missions.py

This set can be run during a recon flight - at that point, the limiting information would be the lagging saildrone data. Or after a recon flight, to get the whole picture.

In order for things to run as expected, you will also need to set some switches in ./configs/config.yml

1. Saildrone data download defaults:

  • 1.1: download_saildrone_data: True
  • 1.2: download_saildrone_data_path: data/saildrone
  • 1.3: all_saildrones: 1031, 1036, 1040, 1041, 1042, 1045, 1057, 1064, 1065, 1068, 1069, 1083
  • 1.4: update_saildrones: 1031, 1036, 1040, 1041, 1042, 1045, 1057, 1064, 1065, 1068, 1069, 1083

This step will run whenever 1.1 is set to True, but not if it is set to False. It will download all the saildrones listed in 1.4 to the directory specified in 1.2. You should always have at least two saildrones listed in 1.4 - the process is very fast.

A note of caution -- the data is downloaded from the public NOAA PMEL ERDDAP, so it is updated only every 30 minutes or so, and it provides the data at the frequency it is displayed on the Saildrone Portal. If in real-time, the data contains gaps, those gaps will not be filled in with later downloads.

If a file is not present, it will leave a message at the prompt.

2. Saildrone data download defaults:

  • 2.1: download_aircraft_recon: True
  • 2.2: plot_aircraft_recon: True
  • 2.3: download_recon_flight_data_path: data/recon/aircraft
  • 2.4: download_recon_dropsonde_data_path: data/recon/dropsonde
  • 2.5: aircraft_recon_figure_path: figures/aircraft_recon
  • 2.6: aircraft_recon_hours_back: 72

This step will run whenever 2.1 (for download) and 2.2 (for plotting) are set to True, but not if set to False. It will download the recon flight-level data and dropsonde data and store them inside 2.3 and 2.4, respectively. It will only look back 2.6 hours back from the current time -- you can get a whole historical record if you set this number to something very large -- but it might take some time. The figures will be stored in 2.5.

Example output:

  • saildrone locations are marked with stars
  • dropsonde locations are marked with circles
  • wind barbs show winds every 10 minutes
  • colors represent time

Ajda Savarin

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