swell charts in retrospect

staitey's picture
staitey started the topic in Saturday, 19 Apr 2014 at 9:36pm

Anyone know of any good sites to look back at charts on specific dates in the past? Also is there anyway on this site or others to get other specifics such as swell period, size, direction on any given date in the past?

zeta's picture
zeta's picture
zeta Sunday, 20 Apr 2014 at 9:08pm

If you are familiar with the NETCDF4 format here is a 30 year (1979-2010) wave hindcast in retrospect which was published I think in the last year or so (Bureau of Meteorology Australia, CSIRO Australia 2013.).

https://data.csiro.au/dap/landingpage?pid=csiro:6616

For someone who is not familiar with matlab/c/fortran/python/etc.. it is probably not an option to extract this data. I am sadly a bit limited with time but if you need something specific I can code up a small proggy and show you the results. Keep in mind that this data is gridded and interpolated in between grid points, so the resolution is limited! For the Australian coast the resolution is increased however.

I dont see an option on this site to post pictures so I cant post an example.

Cheers

Edit:
I found this figure that shows the resolution for the different regions on the world map:
https://data.csiro.au/dap/SupportingAttachment?collectionId=7847&fileId=77

So if you are lucky the region of interest has a grid point spacing of 7 or 18km :)

Sheepdog's picture
Sheepdog's picture
Sheepdog Tuesday, 22 Apr 2014 at 9:56am
bmod's picture
bmod's picture
bmod Tuesday, 22 Apr 2014 at 12:22pm

If you are in NSW you can request wave data from the MHL network of buoys - 7 locations across the state, spanning up to 30years. This includes height, period, direction and others (100's of parameters) that are measured data rather than modeled. See this for more information: http://new.mhl.nsw.gov.au/data/realtime/wave/
There is data online for the last few days if you are looking at recent events, but if you want older records then you need to make a data request. Or you can contact me directly: ben.modra at mhl.nsw.gov.au
There's similar operations in other states if you live elsewhere.

wellymon's picture
wellymon's picture
wellymon Tuesday, 22 Apr 2014 at 4:46pm

You have to wait for delta/quadrant star Y20 too line up with BOM first....
Then MHL network will fire up.
Thats what I have found..
Serious.

caml's picture
caml's picture
caml Tuesday, 22 Apr 2014 at 6:42pm

Hey bmod do you know how to find info for the realtime swell bouys of southern & western australian coasts ? historic data ?

Sheepdog's picture
Sheepdog's picture
Sheepdog Wednesday, 23 Apr 2014 at 8:16pm

Some weather nerds may find this interesting..... http://nomad3.ncep.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/pdisp_6p_r1.sh?ctlfile=pgb.ctl&varli...

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Wednesday, 23 Apr 2014 at 10:25pm

That was my primary source of weather data for about 5 years SD! Used to plot thousands of charts every day via the Nomad servers. Still do occasionally if I need to retrace my steps.

Sheepdog's picture
Sheepdog's picture
Sheepdog Thursday, 24 Apr 2014 at 9:29am

Cheers, Ben.... here's another one I use at times...... Takes a bit of getting used to, but not too bad
http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/?zoom=4&rad=0&wxsn=0&svr=0&cams=0&...

wellymon's picture
wellymon's picture
wellymon Thursday, 24 Apr 2014 at 12:10pm
Sheepdog wrote:

Some weather nerds may find this interesting..... http://nomad3.ncep.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/pdisp_6p_r1.sh?ctlfile=pgb.ctl&varli...

Sheepio I need a pilots license to drive that thing:)
Give me some directions please, would not have a clue, its not lining up with quadrant/ delta Stephen Hawkins y20189999 star system at all.....?

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Thursday, 24 Apr 2014 at 12:17pm

Yeah SD, Wunderground have a great range of weather data, we use that as a backup sometimes.

Sheepdog's picture
Sheepdog's picture
Sheepdog Thursday, 24 Apr 2014 at 12:22pm

Welly , Get captain cut and paste to help ya'........... ;)
Just for basics, scroll down to the bottom of "field", click "msl & thick mean sea level pressure"......... In "map projection", click "Aust".... Then click "plot".

Just play around with it from there , welly......

udo's picture
udo's picture
udo Thursday, 24 Apr 2014 at 12:33pm

@welly just stick to driving your Kodak and get the yowie pic

wellymon's picture
wellymon's picture
wellymon Thursday, 24 Apr 2014 at 1:01pm

Cheers Sheepio, will have a go thanx champ.

Udo, your right I'm forever trying, but not with that kodak as wifey won't let me touch it (the Kodak of course).
Putting some of my own 2 cents of research up on Yowie Hunters as we speak.
Gonna wait for the latest non infrared camera, thats coming out soon and use rope access to get up real high in the gummies to set it up :)