Versions Compared

Key

  • This line was added.
  • This line was removed.
  • Formatting was changed.

...

ECMWF makes available a GRIB decoding library (ecCodes) for the benefit of the WMO community. ecCodes can be freely downloaded from here and the documentation can be found here. EcCodes provides a simplified access to GRIB2 headers through a set of virtual keys documented here.

For more general information about GRIB2 format please refer to WMO Manual on Codes .

Encoding details

Parameters

General encoding

Specific details which should be encoded in GRIB2 sections 1 and 4:

Section 1
Octets Key nameValueDescription
6-7centreXWMO Centre's code (table below)
8-9subCentreXWMO Sub-Centre's code if needed (table below)
10tablesVersion19The latest WMO table
20productionStatusOfProcessedData0

Production data



  1Test data
21typeOfProcessedData0Analysis products


  1Forecast products


Section 4
OctetsKey name

Value

Description

8-9productDefinitionTemplateNumber

0

Analysis and Forecast products (instantaneous)

(Analysis or forecast at a horizontal level or in a horizontal layer at a point in time (grib2/tables/17/4.0.table))

...

 
Time ( instantaneous )
Start of forecast ( section 1 )

Octets


 values

Meaning of valuesGrib_api values
12Significance of Reference Time1Start of forecast 
13-14Year (four digits)2012year of start of forecast


 

dataDate=20120101 

dataTime=0

 

15Month01month of start of forecast
16Day01day of start of forecast
17Hour00hour of start of forecast
 section 4 e.g. template 4.1
18Indicator of unit of time range 1Hour 
19-22Forecast time48Forecast stepstepType=instant, step=48

...

parameter

Sample file

10 metre U wind component 

wave.10u.grib2

10 metre V wind component 

wave.10v.grib2
Mean wave period based on second momentwave.mp2.grib2
Mean wave directionwave.mwd.grib2
Peak wave periodwave.pp1d.grib2

Significant height of combined wind waves and swell

wave.swh.grib2

 

 

 

...