More on streamline maps... I'm not sure if this site has been advertised on this list, but since streamlines have popped up in this conversation, my favorite analysis site for these produces is coolwx.com.
Here's a link to the site's section on surface streamlines. http://coolwx.com/cgi-bin/getanalysis.cgi?region=na&time=current&field=stream The site doesn't have archives, but you can get hourly models for the preceding 24 hours. Also, if you check out the panel on the left side, you can get streamlines for North America, the Lower 48, and any individual state. Clicking on the generated images produces an much larger image, which greatly help to read the "busier" maps. e.g. http://coolwx.com/analysis/surface/current/stream.us-large.png Lastly & perhaps most significantly, surface wind velocity is displayed as colored-shaded areas underlaying the streamlines. (Bryan, was this what you were imagining in adding wind speeds to your streamline maps?) I greatly enjoy the meteorological threads on this list; this stuff is really not my forte and I'm trying to be a sponge and soak it up! Andy <http://coolwx.com/cgi-bin/getanalysis.cgi?region=na&time=current&field=stream> On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 1:09 PM, David La Puma <[email protected]> wrote: > Bryan et al- > > Thanks for the links! > > Has anyone seen this yet? http://soar.ou.edu > Jeff Buler at U Del is doing some great radar ornithology work and passed > this link onto me. It's great to see the atmospheric folks getting into the > biological side of things; what started out as just "noise" has turned into > something much more interesting, I think. Anyway, the SOAR website is great > for screening nights for migration and looking at things at the national > scale (although you can zoom in locally too!). Give it a whirl- and with > that, I will refrain from further hijacking of the NFC list with radar posts > ;) > > Cheers > > David > > On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 12:30 PM, Bryan Guarente <[email protected]>wrote: > >> David and others, >> You were asking about where to get archived soundings/wind data. There is >> a lovely archive at the University of Wyoming's website here: >> >> http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html >> >> and equivalent archived upper-air maps here: >> >> http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/uamap.html >> >> and real-time profiler data here (only found over the Great Plains): >> >> http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/profiler/ >> >> From there you can select an image type (stuve or skew-t is likely >> preferred, but hodographs are available as well if that is what you know how >> to read). Then select the date and time (remember it is all in UTC) and >> then a location. There are soundings here for all over the globe, so this >> isn't a bad site to have on hand for investigating other sites outside the >> US. You don't need to know the number of the sounding station, you can just >> click on it on the map. If you select stuve or skew-t the winds will be up >> the right side and those correspond to the heights and pressures listed on >> the left side of the chart. >> >> Here are the soundings from Omaha, NE and North Platte, NE for the closest >> times to Bill's original observations. Note the significant difference in >> winds in the low levels. Omaha shows a strong north-northwest wind, while >> North Platte shows a highly variable wind direction and light winds at low >> levels. This suggests exactly what David and others have theorized about. >> >> Omaha: *http://tinyurl.com/3nbtoyv* >> North Platte: *http://tinyurl.com/3gwtu48* >> >> Another way to look at this, although not observations is to look at the >> streamlines from recent model output. I plot streamlines on my website >> here: >> >> http://homes.comet.ucar.edu/~guarente/birdweather/stream.htm >> >> I unfortunately have not set up an archive yet for my site due to space >> limitations, but I might be able to rerun that date to show the effects seen >> in the soundings and on radar if anyone wants to see it. This kind of >> pattern often happens with the passage of weak fronts. The winds start to >> either turn around quickly due to local effects or the winds are so weak >> behind the front that migration can easily occur even in the face of a >> northwest wind albeit light. >> >> (opinion) I personally think that most bird migration discussions focus a >> lot on long distance migration nights more than they focus on those >> localized events that can sweep out all the recent migrants from a small >> area or those that bring in a small push of birds very close behind a front >> despite the winds being out of the wrong direction. >> >> For this reason, I am contemplating adding winds speeds to my streamlines >> maps, but it is currently unclear to me the best way to visualize this from >> model data because the winds are so variable that the map gets way too >> complicated for most individuals to read. I might do some averaging to get >> a broader look at the winds, but there are some hits taken by doing that. >> We'll see what I can pull off sometime with my extra time. >> >> Bryan Guarente >> Instructional Designer >> The COMET Program >> University Corporation for Atmospheric Research >> Boulder, CO >> -- >> *NFC-L List Info:* >> Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> >> Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> >> Subscribe, Configuration and >> Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> >> *Archives:* >> The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> >> Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> >> BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html> >> *Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/> >> !* >> -- >> > > -- > *NFC-L List Info:* > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_WELCOME> > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC_RULES> > Subscribe, Configuration and > Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > *Archives:* > The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> > Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L> > BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html> > *Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/> > !* > -- > -- Andrew McGann (757) 561-0256 M.S. Candidate Biology Department College of William & Mary Center for Conservation Biology College of William & Mary and Virginia Commonwealth University www.ccb-wm.org -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC-L_SubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
