GRLevelX, short for Gibson Ridge Level X, is a suite of weather data processing and viewing software developed for the presentation of NEXRAD weather radar data. It is developed by Gibson Ridge Software, LLC, owned by Michael Scott Gibson, and began selling in March of 2005. The primary capabilities of GRLevelX are the ingest and visualization of live and archival NEXRAD Level-II and Level-III radar data for use in GRLevel2 and GRLevel3, respectively. GREarth also ingests model and satellite data, and possesses most of the Level-III data capabilities of GRLevel3. All GRLevelX programs are capable of ingesting and rendering out dual-polarization (dual-pol for short) radar data.
The GRLevelX suite of products has found application largely in the private sector of meteorology, more specifically nowcasting, and is frequently utilized in the analysis and tracking of severe weather, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, high precipitation, and other events of the same nature. It is also frequently used by storm spotters, storm chasers, workers in emergency management, and is even used in some National Weather Service offices, in association with their own suite of weather processing software, AWIPS II.
GRLevelX is written in multithreaded C++, utilizing the base Windows API.
Software overview
editGRLevel3
editGRLevel3 is the Level-III counterpart of the GRLevelX software suite. It's primary usage is the viewing of live NEXRAD Level-III data, although it can also ingest archival data. It is capable of capturing all forms of Level-III data, including base reflectivity, base velocity, spectrum width, differential reflectivity, correlation coefficient, and specific differential phase. It can also display Level-III-derived radar products, such as echo tops and vertically-integrated liquid, and rainfall products. GRLevel3 is also capable of viewing radar data from Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) sites, located at major airports. The program is currently in version 2.80.
GRLevel3 has the program-exclusive capability of being able to identify specific numerical attributes of individual storms, such as hail possibilities, hail size, vertically-integrated liquid quantities, cloud tops, and more. These are displayed in a separate "storm attributes" window.
The program often finds use in the field of storm chasing, as the low-bandwidth nature of Level-III data allows for the data to be usable in more rural areas with low Internet coverage.
GR2Analyst
edit_(2563231232).png)
GR2Analyst, formerly GRLevel2, is the Level-II counterpart of the GRLevelX suite. It's capabilities are rather similar to that of GRLevel3, except that it ingests and renders higher-quality Level-II data, rather than Level-III. It is capable of showing all the same radar products as GRLevel3, including NEXRAD radar data and derived products; however, it also has software-defined radar products that can be used for hail size and probability estimates, and identifying storm rotation. The hail-related software-defined products were exclusive to GR2Analyst until the release of Weather Studio Version 3; the rotation software-defined product is still exclusive to the software. The latest version of GR2Analyst, version 3, allows users to create their own radar products for display in the software.
GR2Analyst is most notable for its capabilities to create both 2-D flat and 3-D volumetric cross-sectional scans of radar volumes, allowing users to analyze supercell storm structures, hail cores, and tornadoes, among other weather phenomena.
The software is most frequently used by private sector meteorologists and storm spotters to track severe weather events. It does not find use in storm chasing, as the nature of Level-II data consumes too much bandwidth for usage in areas with low Internet coverage.
GREarth
editGREarth differs from the radar-oriented focus of other GRLevelX software, as it was developed with large-scale weather in mind. GREarth is capable of viewing a national Level-III radar data mosaic, but it's primary use is in its capability to display satellite data from NOAA's GOES satellites, as well as the capability to visually display numerical weather forecast models, such as the Global Forecast System (GFS) and the High Resolution Rapid-Refresh models.
The software also has the capability to display a large amount of other data types, such as METAR station reports, Spotter Network location pings, mesoanalysis data, and Storm Prediction Center information, such as severe weather outlooks and mesoscale discussions. All the data that GREarth ingests is provided by and sold by weather data company AllisonHouse.
GREarth is frequently used in weather forecasting.
Unified capabilities
editThe GRLevelX software suite is generally notable for the inclusion of features that other weather software products typically do not include. An example of this is a placefile, a data overlay who's information is ingested from an online database. Both GRLevel3 and GR2Analyst are capable of displaying placefiles.
GRLevel3 and GR2Analyst are both capable of flagging areas where hail, mesocyclonic rotation, or tornado vortex signatures (TVS for short) could possibly be located.