What is BUFR?BUFR (Binary Universal Form for Representation of meteorological data) is a binary data format maintained by WMO. The Metview BUFR interface is based on ecCodes and can handle both BUFR BUFR edition 3 and edition 4 seamlessly. The BUFR icon?BUFR files are represented by this icon in the user interface:
Examining BUFR contentsThe contents of a BUFR file can be inspected with the BUFR Examiner, which can be started up from the user interface (right-click examine on the icon). Image Added Visualisation on mapsSome conventional BUFR observations types (such as SYNOP and TEMP) can be directly visualised in by Metview on a map view. In the user interface just right-click visualise on the icon to get a plot with the default settings. These plots can be further customised with the Observation Plotting icon. Image RemovedImage Added Visualisation on thermodynamic diagramsThe Thermo Data icon can extract thermodynamic profiles from BUFR, which can then be visualised in a tephigram, skew-t or emagarm emagram using the Thermo View.
FilteringMetview comes with its own BUFR filter to extract data from BUFR messages in tabular format, as BUFR data into Geopoints or CSV, which can then be easily plotted and is are very well suited for data processing. The filter is implemented by the Observation Filter and the and Bufr Picker icons, the latter one is being able to extract multiple values per message. The Observation Filter's output can also be a new BUFR file (only containing the messages matching the filter). Image ModifiedImage Modified Retrieval from MARSIf Metview has been configured with access to ECMWF's MARS archive, BUFR data can be retrieved via the Mars Retrieval icon. At ECMWF, MARS access is set up on all computer systems, while outside ECMWF the MARS Web API could be used in Metview (see the setup instructions here). Script language supportMetview provides full support for GRIB BUFR from its Macro and Python interfaces. In script GRIB data is represented as a fieldset, which is basically a list of GRIB messages. Fieldset handling is probably Metview's richest and most powerful interface. The full list of available functions and operators on fieldsets for BUFR can be found on the Fieldset Observations Functions and Thermodynamic Functions pages. |