awips2/cave/com.raytheon.viz.gfe/help/ISCVirtual.html
2022-05-05 12:34:50 -05:00

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<title>GFESuite Documentation - Virtual ISC Weather Elements</title>
<body>
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<h2><a name="Virtual"></a>Virtual ISC Weather Elements</h2>
The Show ISC capability simply compares one weather element against
another. For certain elements, a virtual weather element is
calculated and that is what is displayed against the Fcst
database. For example, QPF is a rate-dependent weather
element. It doesn't make sense to display your 12-hr QPF
Fcst grid against a 1-hr QPF ISC grid, since the time periods are not
equal. Using the virtual weather element capability in the GFE, a
new weather element is calculated that will display your 12-hr QPF Fcst
grid against a virtual 12-hr QPF ISC grid.&nbsp; The Virtual 12-hr QPF
ISC grid was calculated from the multiple ISC grids in the
database. For ISC, there are virtually calculated weather
elements for QPF, SnowAmt, MaxT, MinT, and PoP as shown in the
following table:<br>
<br>
<table style="text-align: left; width: 100%;" border="1" cellpadding="2"
cellspacing="2">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top; font-weight: bold;">Weather
Element<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top; font-weight: bold;">Algorithm<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">QPF<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">The virtual ISC grid is always
the same duration as the Fcst QPF grid. The Virtual ISC
grid is the rate-summation of the ISC QPF grid.<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">SnowAmt<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">The virtual ISC grid is always
the same duration as the Fcst SnowAmt grid. The Virtual ISC grid
is the rate-summation of the ISC SnowAmt grid.<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">MaxT<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">The virtual ISC grid is always
the same duration as the Fcst MaxT grid. It contains the maximum MaxT
value gridpoint by gridpoint from the ISC MaxT grids valid over the
same period. Normally there is only 1 MaxT grid, except in cases
where the office is in a different time zone or adjacent offices have
configured their MaxT time constraints differently.<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">MinT<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">The virtual ISC grid is always
the same duration as the Fcst MinT grid. It contains the minimum MinT
value gridpoint by gridpoint from the ISC MinT grids valid over the
same period. Normally there is only 1 MinT grid, except in cases where
the office is
in a different time zone or adjacent offices have configured their MinT
time constraints differently.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">PoP<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">The virtual ISC grid is always
the same duration as the Fcst PoP grid. It contains the maximum PoP
value gridpoint by gridpoint from the ISC PoP grids valid over the same
period.<br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
The following illustration shows the purpose of the Virtual ISC weather
elements. In the case on the left when the virtual weather
element is not used, the forecaster will be comparing QPF from Fcst and
ISC for different time periods. In the case on the right,
the virtual ISC grid is calculated from the rates of all overlapping
ISC QPF grids. The duration of the Virtual ISC grid is programmed
to exact match the duration of the Fcst grid.<br>
<img alt="" src="images/VirtualISC1.png"><br>
<br>
The illustration below assumes a constant rain rate of 0.10"/hour over
the entire ISC and Fcst grid. The Fcst grid duration is 7
hours, thus that grid will show 0.70" of precipitation. The
three ISC grids are 2 hours, 3 hours, and 4 hours in duration, and at a
constant rain rate of 0.10"/hour contain 0.20", 0.30", and 0.40"
respectively.<br>
<br>
The virtual QPF grid is programmed to match the duration of the Fcst
grid, and thus it is 7 hours in length. The precipitation rate
for each overlapping ISC QPF grid is calculated and that portion of the
time period that overlaps is summed into the virtual ISC grid.<br>
<br>
When the user enables "Show ISC Mode", they will be comparing the
precipitation for the same duration as the Fcst grid. In this
specific example, the Virtual ISC Grid will show 0.70" of precipitation
due to the constant rain rate of 0.10".<br>
<br>
<img alt="" src="images/VirtualISC2.png"
style="width: 909px; height: 496px;"><br>