McIDAS User's Guide
Version 2019.1

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UALIST

Lists upper-air data.


Format

UALIST station time day [keywords]


Parameters

station

4-character station ID or 5-digit station ID number, e.g., KGRB or 72645

time

observation time (default=0 if current time is between 0 UTC and 11:59 UTC, otherwise default=12)

day

observation date; valid formats include YYYYDDD, YYYY/MM/DD and DD/MON/YYYY where YYYY, DDD, MM and DD are integers and MON is three or more letters, e.g., JAN or JANUARY (default=current)


Keywords

ANAlysis=

YES

include sounding/parcel analysis if OPT=ALL, ANL or MAN is specified; see the Remarks (default)

 

NO

suppress sounding/parcel analysis in all cases

COuntry=

c1 . . cN

list data for soundings in these countries; specify up to six countries using their two-letter codes; use the CCODE command to list valid codes

DATaset=

mand sig

source ADDE point dataset names for mandatory- and significant-level data; specify as group/descriptor or alias; you must specify NONE in the sig parameter, or the OPT=MAN or the SIG=NO keywords to use only mandatory data, i.e., ignore the significant data (mand default=RTPTSRC/UPPERMAND; sig default=RTPTSRC/UPPERSIG if mand =RTPTSRC/UPPERMAND, otherwise, sig default=NONE)

DEPth=

depth in mb from the surface to include in the parcel analysis; the range is 0 - 400 where 0 means use only surface data (default=100)

LAT=

slat nlat

list the data for soundings in this latitude range, where slat and nlat are the southern and northern latitude limits, respectively

LON=

elon wlon

list the data for soundings in this longitude range, where elon and wlon are the eastern and western longitude limits, respectively

OPTion=

ALL

list all mandatory and significant levels with computed potential temperature and mixing ratio at each level; temperatures are interpolated at each significant wind level, and winds are interpolated at each significant temperature level; include a sounding/parcel analysis below the sounding data unless ANA=NO is specified (default)

 

ANL

list sounding/parcel analysis only; the data at each mandatory and significant level is not listed

 

MAN

list only the mandatory levels with computed potential temperature and mixing ratio at each level; include a sounding/parcel analysis below the sounding data unless ANA=NO is specified

 

RAW

list all mandatory and significant levels with computed potential temperature and mixing ratio at each mandatory and significant temperature level; do not include interpolated temperatures at significant wind levels or interpolated winds at significant temperature levels; do not include a sounding/parcel analysis

SIG=

YES

include data from the significant-level dataset specified in the DATASET keyword (default)

 

NO

do not include data from the significant-level dataset specified in the DATASET keyword; use only its mandatory-level dataset

STate=

s1 . . sN

list data for soundings in these states; specify up to six states using their two-letter state Post Office abbreviations

UNIt=

t spd z p

units in which to list sounding parameters, where: t=temperatures; spd=wind speeds; z=heights; p=pressures; run CU LIST to list valid units and abbreviations (default=C KTS M MB)


Remarks

A sounding/parcel analysis is listed with OPT=ALL, ANL and MAN. The analysis is performed using mandatory- and significant-level data for OPT=ALL and OPT=ANL. The analysis is performed using only mandatory-level data for OPT=MAN. Each parameter in the analysis includes a description, abbreviation, value and units. The UAPLOT and HODO commands use these abbreviations for the values along the bottom of their diagrams. See Appendix E, Stability Parameters for definitions of the parameters.

To obtain the sounding/parcel analysis values, the reported heights are recomputed for hydrostatic consistency, though the adjustments are generally less than 10 meters. Also, the computed parcel temperature of a 12 UTC sounding is warmed 2 K to account for daytime heating. No adjustment is made to the computed parcel temperature of a 0 UTC sounding.

If UALIST is used with IRAB and IRSG schema MD files, the LAT, LON, STATE and COUNTRY keywords will find only mandatory (not significant) level data because the IRSG schema does not include those four parameters.


Examples

UALIST KEYW 0

This entry lists the mandatory and significant levels for Key West, Florida at 0 UTC of the current day. Wind direction and speed are interpolated at each significant temperature level, and temperature and dew point are interpolated at each significant wind level. Theta and mixing ratio are calculated at each level using the observed or interpolated values. A parcel/sounding analysis is listed below the sounding data. Note that you can also specify the station using Key West's 5-digit station ID number, 72201.

UALIST KEYW 0 OPT=RAW

This entry lists the mandatory and significant levels for Key West, Florida at 0 UTC of the current day. No interpolations are performed, so significant temperature levels do not include wind direction and speed, and significant wind levels do not include temperature, dew point, theta and mixing ratio. A sounding/parcel analysis is not listed.

UALIST KCHS 12 OPT=ANL DEPTH=50 UNIT=K

This entry lists a sounding/parcel analysis for Charleston, South Carolina at 12 UTC of the current day. Mandatory and significant levels are not listed. The sounding/parcel analysis values are computed using a boundary layer depth of 50 mb instead of the default value of 100 mb. The temperature values are listed in Kelvin instead of the default unit, Celsius.

UALIST X 12 1998310 OPT=MAN ANA=NO ST=FL

This entry lists the mandatory levels for all stations in the state of Florida at 12 UTC on day 1998310. Theta and mixing ratio are calculated at each level using the observed values. Significant levels and a parcel/sounding analysis are not listed.


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