MeteoKit
0.3.1
Intro
MeteoKit 0.3.1 - Introduction to the program
MeteoKit is an application thought to be a powerful and effective tool made available to all meteorology amateurs, and even for professionals needing to download a great amount of meteorological maps of any type from the various sites that make them available in different flavors, and to automatically compare, catalogue and sort them, according to various criterions.
The program deals with both downloading and immediate, automatic cataloguing of the maps; maps are 'smartly' downloaded, and immediately made available to be displayed and compared based on their different parameters.
But what does "smartly" mean ? It means that the download is based on an algorithm that, through some local/remote checks, deals with to ascertain when it is actually necessary to download a given map from the server: that is, it 'realize' when an updated map not being already saved on local pc is available on the web. This allow a strong optimization of download time.
In real time, as the maps are being downloaded, they are dinamically added in several 'views' that can be explored through tree structures, which group them according to:
- Category (GMs, LAMs, Diagrams, Synoptics, ...)
- Initialization date/times
- Group (roughly corresponding to the various processing/graphic types for the models)
- Model
- Area
- Parameter
- Offset (Difference between target date/time and initialization date/time)
By clicking on a panel node, it will be immediately displayed, together with information about it, and will be also possible to navigate through the panels (meteorological maps) in several ways, and to compare all runs of a given model having the same target date/time, starting from different initialization date/times (this is useful to see how the forecast for a certain date has been refined as the target date comes near). More generally, it is also possible to display all downloaded maps (of each group, model, area, etc.) having a given target date/time, and variable initialization date/time: that can be done using the "comparison view".
In addition to this usage mode, it can also be used in "live" mode: there is a "live view" that allows the user to immediately view all map types, opportunely arranged based on their various parameters, as if the maps were viewed using a standard browser: that is, by clicking on the various nodes, the last update of the selected map available on the web is displayed soon. This mode is quite similar to online consulting meteorological maps, but with the benefit of a smart download management, and the comfort of having all links grouped in a single "command center" allowing a tidy and systematic view of all available maps.