New BUFR template for cloud radar observations and new descriptors table B class 21

[marijanacrepulja]

Branch

https://github.com/wmo-im/BUFR4/tree/issue90

Summary and purpose

ECMWF is proposing a new BUFR template for representation of radar observations from EarthCARE (Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer)

Stakeholders

Marijana Crepulja, Mark Fielding, Marta Janiskova (all from ECMWF)

Action proposed

The team is kindly asked to review and approve the contents for inclusion within the next update to the WMO Manual on Codes.

Discussions

ECMWF is preparing for monitoring and operational assimilation of cloud observations from EarthCARE . Therefore a new BUFR template is needed.

Detailed proposal

1. Add a new entries in the radar data class of table B

F X Y	ELEMENT NAME	UNIT	SCALE	REFERENCE VALUE	DATA WITH (bits)
0 21 007	Radar reflectivity factor	dB	2	-9000	15
0 21 008	Uncertainty in radar reflectivity factor	dB	2	0	13
0 21 009	Vertical Doppler velocity	m/s	2	-10000	15
0 21 010	Uncertainty in Vertical Doppler velocity	m/s	2	-10000	15

2. Add a new entry in the Processing information class of table B (0-25-139) and a new code table to describe the Processing level

F X Y	ELEMENT NAME	UNIT	SCALE	REFERENCE VALUE	DATA WITH (bits)
0-25-139	Processing level	Code table	0	0	5

3. Add new CODE TABLE 0-25-139 for Processing level

Code Figure	Processing level
0	L1B
1	L2A
2-30	Reserved
31	Missing

4. Add a new BUFR template for radar cloud observations

Table reference	Table references	Element name	Description / comments
3-21-031		Satellite Radar observations
	0 01 007	Satellite Identifier
	0 02 019	Satellite Instruments
	0 01 033	Identification of originating/generating centre
	0 01 034	Identification of originating/generating sub-centre
	3 01 011	Year, Month, Day
	3 01 013	Hour, Minute, Second
	3 01 021	Latitude/longitude (high accuracy)
	0 10 033	Altitude (Platform To Ellipsoid)
	0 08 043	Atmospheric chemical or physical constituent type
	0 25 139	Processing level
	0 02 153	Satellite channel centre frequency
	1 06 000	Delayed replication of 6 elements
	0 31 002	Extended delayed descriptor replication factor
	0 07 071	Height (high resolution)
	0 21 007	Radar reflectivity factor
	0 21 008	Uncertainty in radar reflectivity factor
	0 21 009	Vertical Doppler velocity
	0 21 010	Uncertainty in vertical Doppler velocity
	0 33 003	Quality information

[amilan17]

ready for validation

[amilan17]

@richardweedon @marianmajan-ibl @jbathegit validate with sample data

[amilan17]

@marijanacrepulja double check with colleagues on the request for dBZ

[marijanacrepulja]

We agree to use dB units for Radar reflectivity factor, after consulting with my colleagues.

[marijanacrepulja]

I have updated branch with new entries.
Sample data and corresponding output of decoded BUFR file is attached

EarthCARE-CPR1B_test.zip

@richardweedon @marianmajan-ibl @jbathegit could you please help with validation.
Many thanks.

[jbathegit]

@marijanacrepulja I've started to work on this. However, I don't see 0-25-139 defined anywhere in Table B. Is this another new proposed new Table B descriptor? If so, then could you please add it to part 1 of this proposal?

[marijanacrepulja]

@jbathegit many thanks for looking into this. Descriptor 0-25-139 is proposed in issue 91, however I added it to this issue as well, to be consistent with the branch. I have updated the branch with definition of 0-25-139. Sorry for inconvenience.

[jbathegit]

Thanks @marijanacrepulja. With that, I was able to decode the BUFR from your zip bundle, and I spot-checked several reports and confirmed I got the same results as shown in your .txt file. So from my standpoint it's a successful validation.

[amilan17]

@marijanacrepulja I updated the branch to include the "Element Description" as indicated above in Table D. I also changed several words to begin with lower case, because they are not proper nouns. If you agree with these edits, please tag Jitsiku for final approval.

[amilan17]

FT22-1...issue90

[richardweedon]

Managed to decode the sample data. In addition received a positive review from our satellite applications scientists. From my perspective the review is complete.

[marianmajan-ibl]

Hello, @marijanacrepulja, I have successfully decoded your samples with the tables from the branch. However, currently the converted file is nearly 4 GB, I have added to the GDrive again -- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zsEZg9Fl6rNDEL5Br16kUYfMuLX-LGGr/view?usp=sharing

Very quick manual check showed the same results with one exception -- it seems that we have an error when showing 0 02 153 Satellite channel centre frequency = [Hz] -- the value is empty. I will try to investigate this (but I assume it is problem of our decoding / showing results).

[marijanacrepulja]

@jbathegit, @richardweedon, @marianmajan-ibl Thanks very much for your help to validate this proposal!

[marijanacrepulja]

@marijanacrepulja I updated the branch to include the "Element Description" as indicated above in Table D. I also changed several words to begin with lower case, because they are not proper nouns. If you agree with these edits, please tag Jitsiku for final approval.

@amilan17 Many thanks for updating the branch. I agree with the modifications you've made. I removed only "L1B, L2A" from "Element Description" in the branch and the proposal, because it is only relevant to this proposal.

[marianmajan-ibl]

I just would like to confirm that the problem with the empty value in the descriptor 0 02 153 is just a problem of output formatting in our tool, my colleague has debugged it and the value is correctly decoded as 94000000000 for the last BUFR.

[jitsukoh]

@marijanacrepulja @amilan17 in BUFR_TableD_en_21.csv and txt/BUFR_TableD_en.txt "Latitude/longitude(high accuracy)" should be "Latitude/longitude (high accuracy)" (with a space between longitude and (high)?

[amilan17]

@jitsukoh typo is fixed.

[jitsukoh]

@amilan17 thanks! I confirm that the branch is updated and I move this issue to the validated status.