Grid records in DSS are named according to a naming convention that differs slightly from the convention for time-series or paired-data records.  Grids represent data over a region instead of at a single location and one grid record contains data for a single time interval or instantaneous value.  The naming convention assigns the six pathname parts as follows.


  • A-part: Refers to the grid reference system.  At present, GageInterp supports only the HRAP and SHG grid systems (see appendices D and E).  Other grid systems will be necessary for work outside the conterminous United States.
  • B-part: Contains the name of the region covered by the grid.  For radar grids, this could be the name of the NWS River Forecast Center that produces the grid.  For interpolated grids, this could be the name of a watershed.
  • C-part: Refers to the parameter represented by the grid.  Examples include PRECIP for precipitation, AIRTEMP for air temperature, SWE for snow-water equivalent, and ELEVATION for ground surface elevation.
  • D-part: Contains the start time.  This is the starting time of the interval covered by the grid.  The date and time are given military-style (DDMMMYYYY for date and HHMM for time on a twenty-four hour clock) and the date and time are separated by a colon (:).  All times for grids should be given as UTC.  Midnight is represented by 0000 if it is a starting time and 2400 if it is an ending time.
  • E-part: Contains the end time.  This is the ending time of the interval covered by the grid.  The E part is blank for grids of instantaneous values.
  • F-part: Refers to the version of the data.  The version identifies the source of the data or otherwise distinguishes one set of grids from another.  Version labels include STAGEIII for NWS stage III radar products, and INTERPOLATED for grids produced by GageInterp.


Some examples of DSS grid pathnames follow.

The pathname below names an SHG precipitation grid for the Rogue River basin for the hour ending at 1900 UTC on May 3, 2003.  The Rogue basin is in Oregon, so the grid represents the hour ending at noon local (Pacific Daylight) time.  This grid was generated by GageInterp.


/SHG/ROGUE/PRECIP/03MAY2003:1800/03MAY2003:1900/GAGEINTERP/


The pathname below names a precipitation grid for the Missouri River basin for the hour ending at 0100 UTC.  The grid comes from the Missouri Basin River Forecast Center, and is a product of the NWS’s multi-sensor precipitation estimate.


/HRAP/MBRFC/PRECIP/22SEP2004:0000/22SEP2004:0100/MPE/

 

The pathname below names an HRAP grid representing a Quantitative Precipitation Forecast over the Ohio River Basin.  This is a NWS product from the Ohio River RFC, and it covers the twenty-four hour period from noon June 1, 2001 to noon June 2, 2001 (UTC).


/HRAP/OHRFC/PRECIP/01JUN2001:1200/02JUN2001:1200/QPF/

 

The pathname below names an SHG temperature grid for the Rogue River basin.  The cell size in this grid is 1000 meters instead of the default 2000 meters for SHG.  Because the temperature is an instantaneous value at 0800, the E-part of the path is blank.


/SHG1K/ROGUE/AIRTEMP/22FEB2002:0800//GAGEINTERP/