Code Snippets

IGRA2 Downloader/Extractor

This work by Reto Stauffer (2024) is licensed under the Gnu General Public License v2 (GPLv2). If you improve and/or extend the code it would be great to send me a message and the extensions such that I can include the changes in the original repository.
Repository is available on https://github.com/retostauffer/PyIGRA..

Features of the PyIGRA Script

Features of the tool:

  • search for available stations in the IGRA2 data set
  • download and extract the data set
  • specify output variables and output format
  • write data into an ASCII file

The tool is written in python2 and requires the following modules:

  • logging
  • ConfigParser

Install software (Linux; example for Ubuntu)

# Checkout or download repository. Extract zip file
# if you have downloaded the zip archive.
cd PyIGRA/PyPackage && sudo setup.py install

Usage

The package places two executables in your bin folder wherefore the PyIGRA tool can be accessed anywhere on your system. To download the data the station ID has to be known. PyIGRA_search provides a handy alternative to search for a station bei either the station ID or the station name. PyIGRA_search simply parses the IGRA station list and returns possible matches on stdout. Example:

# Searching for stations named like 'inn'
PyIGRA_search --id inn

You should see the following output (or similar):

# INFO - PyIGRA - Searching for "INN"
AUM00011120  47.2603   11.3439  581.0    INNSBRUCK-FLUGHAFEN            1998 2017   6601
CAM00071843  49.8000  -97.1333  227.0    WINNIPEG UA                    2000 2016    542
CAM00071852  49.9000  -97.2330  239.0    WINNIPEG INT.AIRPOR            1977 1997  12093
ENM00026038  59.3981   24.6028   32.9    TALLINN-HARKU                  1947 2017  48328
JNM00001020  80.0500   18.3000    7.0    KINNVIKA STATION               1957 1958    259
NIM00065123   9.6170    6.5330  260.0    MINNA                          1974 1980    440
USM00072421  39.0500  -84.6670  267.0 KY CINCINNATI/GREATER             1947 1974   1311
USM00072583  40.9019 -117.8072 1309.7 NV WINNEMUCCA MUNI AP             1935 1994  43590
USW00093812  39.1000  -84.4167  153.0 OH CINCINNATI (LUNKEN AIRPORT)    1931 1947  17716

As an example: Innsbruck Airport (INNSBRUCK-FLUGHAFEN) has the station ID AUM00011120. To download the data simply call PyIGRA:

PyIGRA --id AUM00011120

The following output will be produced (which could be piped into a file). To save the extracted data into a file please see input option -o/--output.

# INFO - PyIGRA - AUM00011120-data.txt.zip
# INFO - PyIGRA - Downloading zip file AUM00011120-data.txt.zip
# INFO - PyIGRA - Reading file AUM00011120-data.txt now
# INFO - PyIGRA -  * Have found 6601 different soundings
TIMESTAMP ELAPSEDTIME TYP1 TYP2 PRESSURE PRESSURE_FLAG GPHEIGHT GPHEIGHT_FLAG TEMPERATURE TEMPERATURE_FLAG DEWPOINT RELHUMIDITY WINDSPEED WINDDIRECTION
898560000   -9999 2 1   954.0 [B]   581.0 [-]    18.8 [B]     3.5 -9999.0     1.5   160.0
898560000   -9999 1 0   925.0 [-]   849.0 [B]    16.8 [B]     4.9 -9999.0     5.1    85.0
898560000   -9999 2 0   917.0 [-]   921.0 [B] -9999.0 [-] -9999.0 -9999.0     5.6    70.0
898560000   -9999 2 0   878.0 [-]  1282.0 [B] -9999.0 [-] -9999.0 -9999.0     7.2    75.0
898560000   -9999 2 0   871.0 [-]  1348.0 [B] -9999.0 [-] -9999.0 -9999.0     7.7    80.0
898560000   -9999 1 0   850.0 [-]  1551.0 [B]    12.4 [B]     3.2 -9999.0     5.6   125.0
898560000   -9999 2 0   844.0 [-]  1610.0 [B] -9999.0 [-] -9999.0 -9999.0     4.6   135.0
898560000   -9999 2 0   811.0 [-]  1941.0 [B]     9.0 [B]     1.1 -9999.0 -9999.0 -9999.0
898560000   -9999 2 0   768.0 [-]  2394.0 [B] -9999.0 [-] -9999.0 -9999.0     2.5   320.0
.........

To see all PyIGRA options please see PyIGRA --help:

Usage: PyIGRA [options]

Options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -l LIMIT, --limit=LIMIT
                        Test/development option. Will only print the first
                        -l/--limit entries
  -k, --keep            Boolean flag, default is False. If set to True the
                        downloaded files will be kept
  -i STATION_ID, --id=STATION_ID
                        Station identifier which should be processed.
  -o OUTPUTFILE, --output=OUTPUTFILE
                        Filename. If set the output will be saved in this
                        file. If not set stdout is used.
  -p PARAMETERS, --parameters=PARAMETERS
                        Comma separated list of strings which specify the
                        parameters which should be printed. If not set, the
                        ones from the config (or default config) will be used.

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