Wiki143:WikiProject Tropical cyclones/Tracks
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Storm tracks for older hurricanes and seasons are rather inferior. Unisys provides tracking maps based on the NHC "best track" data, but these are non-free. The goal of this little project is to make tracking maps that are free.
The project
The track map generator program generates a track map from the NHC HURDAT data,[A 1] or from Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast (ATCF) B-deck data files (commonly referred to as "best track" files). It also supports the Japan Meteorological Agency's best tracks, which are akin to the HURDAT database, but which use a different format (with no support for off-hour track points) and use 10-minute sustained winds (in practice, this means you will want to set --scale jma when processing JMA best track files).
The track map generator projects the track of a tropical cyclone onto a plate carrée geographic projection. Currently, track maps utilize a shrunk version of File:Blue Marble 2002.png, although support for other background images is available in the code. (Any alternate backgrounds should be high-resolution, preferably at least 4000x2000 pixels, and should cover the entire globe).
The latest versions of the track map generator are currently hosted at GitHub, and are available here.
Installation
Prerequisites
You will need:
- A reasonably modern C compiler and the GNU linker (the track map generator has been tested with gcc, llvm-clang, and icc)
- The git version control software
- The cairo graphics library
- The pkg-config library
Optional requirements include:
Linux systems typically provide a package manager that will simplify installation of the software mentioned above, but all of the libraries can be compiled from scratch if necessary. For example, the following command can be used to install all required dependencies on Debian:
sudo apt install build-essential git libcairo2-dev pkg-config make autoconf automake gettext
The track map generator has been tested on Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, their derivatives, etc.), Windows,[A 2] and macOS.
Downloading
Once the prerequisites have been installed, download the software by running the following command:
git clone https://github.com/titoxd/wptc-track.git
This method allows for read-only access to the WPTC track map repository. Users who desire to contribute to the development of the tool will be asked to create a GitHub account; contact Titoxd for more details.
Automatic install
If you have automake and autoconf installed, along with gettext, then the installation process can be simplified. Go to the tracks directory and compile the program by running
./autogen.sh && make
If this fails, it could be because you're missing one of the requirements (above). In particular, check that you have the development headers for the Cairo binaries, not just the binary libraries.
Manual install
Alternatively, if either automake or autoconf fail (or are not installed), use the following command while in the tracks directory to call the C compiler:
gcc -g -Wall -Werror jma.c scales.c template.c tab.c track.c tcr.c atcf.c hurdat2.c hurdat.c md.c `pkg-config --cflags --libs cairo` -o track
If you are not using the gcc compiler, replace gcc in the previous line with the correct compiler front-end (e.g. llvm-clang, icc); check your compiler's documentation for more details.
Running
The straightforward way to generate a track is via the track program, which will create the track in the file "output.png":
./track --year 2004 --name ivan
./track --year 1928 --id 4
./track --year 1961 --id 18 --input ../data/wpac.txt
./track --input ~/Downloads/bep022013.dat --format atcf --extra 1
Temporary note: For the migration to the new colors approved in Wikipedia:WikiProject Weather/Color RfC, please pull the latest version and recompile, or append the following arguments:
--tdcolor 6ec1ea --tscolor 4dffff --c1color ffffd9 --c2color ffd98c --c3color ff9e59 --c4color ff738a --c5color 8d75e6
so that the overall commands become:
./track --year 2004 --name ivan --tdcolor 6ec1ea --tscolor 4dffff --c1color ffffd9 --c2color ffd98c --c3color ff9e59 --c4color ff738a --c5color 8d75e6
./track --year 1928 --id 4 --tdcolor 6ec1ea --tscolor 4dffff --c1color ffffd9 --c2color ffd98c --c3color ff9e59 --c4color ff738a --c5color 8d75e6
./track --year 1961 --id 18 --input ../data/wpac.txt --tdcolor 6ec1ea --tscolor 4dffff --c1color ffffd9 --c2color ffd98c --c3color ff9e59 --c4color ff738a --c5color 8d75e6
./track --input ~/Downloads/bep022013.dat --format atcf --extra 1 --tdcolor 6ec1ea --tscolor 4dffff --c1color ffffd9 --c2color ffd98c --c3color ff9e59 --c4color ff738a --c5color 8d75e6
The tool provides some runtime help; it is available by running the following command:
./track --help
Uploading
Upload the output of the track generator to Commons, as public domain images. See Category:Tropical cyclone tracks to see the nomenclature being used for the track maps.
You may want to use the {{WPTC track map}} template while uploading; see the documentation in the linked page for more details. The ATCF parser will automagically pre-fill the upload template for you; for example, after generating the track map for Hurricane Adrian, the code will produce a template like the following:
{{WPTC track map
| author = Titoxd
| name = Hurricane Adrian
| season = 2011 Pacific hurricane season
| start = 2011-06-03
| end = 2011-06-09
| othersource=Tracking data from the {{w|National Hurricane Center}}'s running best track.<sup>[ftp://ftp.nhc.noaa.gov/atcf/btk/bep012011.dat]</sup>
| catname=Hurricane Adrian (2011)
| code=./track --format atcf --input ../tracks-data/2011/btk/bep012011.dat --output ~/public-html/wptc-maps/Adrian_2011_track.png --extra 1
}}
High-resolution
High-resolution track maps are currently recommended. To build with a clear background, download the original file of "Blue Marble 2002 bg21600.png". You can move it to anywhere or rename it, when the path is correct. The script will be like the following:
./track --input ../Chanthu.dat --format atcf --res 2700 --bg ../bg21600.png --extra 1 --output ../Chanthu.png
The width is better to be set to 2,700 pixels for individual systems, and 4,000 pixels for seasons. You could use 2,700 pixels and "bg21600.png" as the default values by editing the "track.c" file from
.resolution = 1024, ... .bg = "../data/bg8192.png",
to
.resolution = 2700, ... .bg = "../data/bg21600.png",
and then re-install.
Users
Current users
The following users have the track map generator working, and might take requests for map generation:
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Former users
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Output
A vast amount of output is now available at Commons:Category:Tropical cyclone tracks.
Requests
{{Wikipedia:WikiProject Tropical cyclones/Tracks/Requests}}
Notes
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