decoding GRIB files in Octave

[Alexander Barth]

Hi all,

With those poor people (like me) who need to decode a cryptic GRIB file, 
I want to share loadgrib (http://ocgmod1.marine.usf.edu/loadgrib/), a 
octave function to import variables from a GRIB file. GRIB is the file 
format used by most weather forecasting centers to store their model 
forecasts. It is standardized by the World Meteorological Organization. 
This function is based on the wgrib tool of Wesley Ebisuzaki which he 
placed into the public domain.

To install and compile this function, type:

wget -O - http://ocgmod1.marine.usf.edu/loadgrib/loadgrib-0.1.tar.gz | tar  
xvfz -
cd loadgrib
make


The example below shows the usage of loadgrib. It gives the air 
temperature forecast in your home town  (based on forecast of the NCEP 
Global Forecast System). You will need wget and octave-forge.

Cheers
Alex

my_lon = 278; % your longitude in degrees East [0:360]
my_lat = 28;  % your latitude in degrees North [-90:90]

t = floor(time/86400) * 86400; % epoch time of last midnight
my_date = strftime('%Y%m%d',gmtime(t));  % current date in UTC
% load about 41 MB from NCEP GFS
system(['wget -O gfs.grib 
ftp://ftpprd.ncep.noaa.gov/pub/data/nccf/com/gfs/prod/gfs.' my_date 
'/gfs.t00z.sfluxgrbf24']);

airtemp = loadgrib('gfs.grib',38);
lon = linspace(0,359.687,1152);
lat = linspace(-89.761,89.761,576);
my_airtemp = interp2(lon,lat,airtemp(:,end:-1:1)',my_lon,my_lat);
my_airtemp = my_airtemp - 273.15;
disp(['Forcasted temp. for ' strftime('%d-%b-%y %H:%M:%S CUT',gmtime(t+86400)) 
': ' num2str(my_airtemp) ' deg C']);
%colormap(hsv); imagesc(airtemp')



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