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Archive-name: meteorology/faq-intro
Last-modified: 1 March 2000
Recent changes:
==within last two weeks==
==within last four weeks==
This article is copyright (c) 2000 by Tom Berg. It may be freely
distributed for non-commercial purposes only, provided that this copyright notice and the instructions on retrieving a current copy are not removed.
With special honor given to Ilana Stern who conceived of this FAQ and
maintained it with the greatest of professionalism and care until the torch was passed to me.
If you would like to put this article in an archive and want to receive
a new copy automatically at every update, please send me email. I DO NOT
MAINTAIN A MAILING LIST SO PLEASE DON'T ASK FOR ME TO SEND YOU COPIES
AT EACH UPDATE UNLESS YOU ARE ARCHIVING IT FOR PUBLIC USAGE OR FURTHER
REDISTRIBUTION!
Corrections, additions, and comments should be sent to Tom Berg at
hcane@mobile.gulf.net. Please include in your message where you read
this document. Note that if I know about it, it's in this document.
If the date in the headers of the document you're reading
is more than a month old, you should retrieve a current copy.
Current copies of this FAQ series can be obtained in hypertext form via WWW at <URL:http://www.mobile.gulf.net/~hcane/met/scigeo.html> These faqs are also stored in the general USENET FAQ repositories, for example <URL:ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/meteorology/>
and <URL:http://www.faqs.org/>.
Subject: 1) Table of contents
1) Table of contents
2) Overview
3) Where to find the FAQs
4) How to use the file retrieval methods
Each (major) section has a "Subject:" line, so you can search on the
subject title above to find the section quickly.
Subject: 2) Overview
This is the introduction to a series of FAQ postings for the Usenet newsgroup
sci.geo.meteorology. "FAQ" stands for Frequently Asked Questions: these
postings are intended to answer the general question, "Where can I get <X>?"
for just about any value of <X> which has anything to do with meteorology.
This FAQ series grew out of a FAQ which was much smaller in scope, the
"Sources of Meteorological Data FAQ" which identified Internet and
other sources of meteorological data for both the hobbyist and the
researcher. The bulk of this FAQ series is still about data sources,
but a lot of other information has been added.
The following postings comprise the FAQ series:
Subject: Meteorology FAQ Part 1/7: Intro
Summary: Introduction to the sci.geo.meteorology FAQs
Archive-name: meteorology/faq-intro
1. Table of contents
2. Overview
3. Where to find the FAQs
4. How to use the file retrieval methods
Subject: Meteorology FAQ Part 2/7: Sources of weather data
Summary: Weather data available via the Internet
Archive-name: meteorology/weather-data
1. Table of contents
2. Overview
3. Collections of weather data links
4. US Regional Climate Centers
5. US State Climatologists
Subject: Meteorology FAQ Part 3/7: Sources of research data
Summary: Research and miscellaneous data available via the Internet
Archive-name: meteorology/research-data
1. Table of contents
2. Overview
3. Multidisciplinary Data Centers
4. Climate and weather
5. Satellite data
6. Hydrology and glaciology
7. Environmental chemistry
8. Geophysical and mapping data
9. Instruments and field experiments
10. Oceanography
11. Miscellaneous data
12. Software and documentation
Subject: Meteorology FAQ Part 4/6: Sources of CD-ROMs
Summary: Weather and research data available via CD-ROM
Archive-name: meteorology/cdroms
1. Table of contents
2. Overview
3. Weather data
4. Research data
5. Miscellaneous CDs
Subject: Meteorology FAQ Part 5/7: Internet resources
Summary: Mailing lists, newsgroups, institutional home pages etc.
Archive-name: meteorology/net-resources
1. Table of contents
2. Overview
3. Newsgroups and WWW bulletin boards
4. Mailing lists
5. Institutional home pages -- non-US
6. Institutional home pages -- US
7. Employment resources
8. Educational resources for teachers
9. Information on meteorology topics
Subject: Meteorology FAQ Part 6/7: Print and other resources
Summary: Books for scientists and laymen, journals, societies etc.
Archive-name: meteorology/print-resources
1. Table of contents
2. Overview
3. Books readable by English-reading nonprofessionals
4. Books readable by French-reading nonprofessionals
5. Magazines readable by nonprofessionals
6. Scientific Texts
7. Meteorological History
8. Journals
9. Professional Societies
Subject: Meteorology FAQ Part 7/7: List of U.S. State Climatologists
Summary: List of U.S. State Climatologist
Archive-name: meteorology/state-climatologists
1. Table of contents
2. Overview
3. State Climatologists
4. Regional Climate Centers
Subject: 3) Where to find the FAQs
This FAQ series is posted to sci.geo.meteorology, news.answers, and
sci.answers every two weeks; it also appears on the mailing lists CLIMLIST and met-stud.
Current copies of this FAQ series can be obtained in hypertext form via WWW at <URL:http://www.mobile.gulf.net/~hcane/met/scigeo.html> These faqs are also stored in the general USENET FAQ repositories, for example <URL:ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/meteorology/>.
This information, particularly the internet resources lists, changes
rapidly. If the date in the headers of the document you're reading
is more than a month old, you should retrieve a more current copy.
Subject: 4) How to use the file retrieval methods
This section only describes FTP and telnet in any detail; for other
methods, FTP sites are given, so you can get information on them yourself.
How to use FTP
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) allows transfer of files between two computers which are on the Internet. To access the FTP areas listed here, at your system prompt type "ftp" followed by the name of the desired system. For example, to access ncardata.ucar.edu you'd type
ftp ncardata.ucar.edu
Use "anonymous" as your login and your email address as the password (if requested).
[Note: quotes ("like this") are used to set off names of directories and files, or commands you'd type, and are not part of these names.]
Not all FTP systems accept the same commands, but here's a list of the most useful:
ls: list files in the current directory.
cd: change directory, e.g. "cd wx" changes to the wx directory.
binary: sets binary mode
ascii: sets ascii mode (the default). Use for retrieving text.
get: retrieves a file, e.g. "get readme" gets a file called readme.
bye: exits FTP.
If you can't seem to connect to the site, check to see if it is a telnet site. If it is, follow the instructions in the following section instead. If you can't FTP from your site, use one of the following ftp-by-mail servers:
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
ftpmail@src.doc.ic.ac.uk
ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au
ftpmail@ftp.uni-stuttgart.de
Send an e-mail message to the closest address, with the lines:
reply your_address@some.where <- with your email address
connect ncardata.ucar.edu <- for example
cd datasets/ds111.2/software
get access_sun.f
quit
For complete instructions, send a one-line message reading "help" to the server. Please don't ask me for help!
How to use telnet
Type "telnet" followed by the name or IP number of the desired system. These publicly accessible systems generally allow you to log in but put you in a restricted shell, from which only a certain menu of commands is available.
The description for the site will include the login to use.
If you can't seem to connect to the site, re-check its description in the document; if it's an FTP site, follow the instructions in the previous section instead.
Gopher information
Available by ftp at <URL:ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/>.
Wais information
Available by ftp at
<URL:ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/wais-faq/>.
WWW information
Available by ftp at <URL:ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/www/>.
WWW is so easy to use that you might as well just hop in and try it, so
ask your sysadmin if you have a WWW browser such as NCSA Mosaic Netscape or Explorer.
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