Product Description
24 hour loop of AMP, AWS, and satellite data, on a three hour delay, updated on the half hour mark. At 03:30 UTC, the 00 UTC image will be created. While this is a substantial delay, this is the average delay for Automatic Weather Station data transmitted via the Argos DCS. This delay was chosen to allow for this data to be incorporated into the imagery.
Satellite imagery is the closest image in the area that could be found at the time pulling from Metop-B, Metop-C, NOAA-20, NOAA-21, and Suomi-NPP. If no image can be found close enough to the given hour, then the most recently created image is used.
AMPS data uses a forecast time within one hour of the given time. For example, 14 UTC would use the forecast hour 15 of the 00 UTC AMPS run. 15 UTC would use forecast hour 3 of the 12 UTC AMPS run. The forecast initialization time switches 3 hours after that initialization. This is simply to ensure that AMPS has finished running and the data is available.