GlobalMarineNet GRIB Service
Requesting Viewing Specific Areas Repeat requests Standard Areas
GlobalMarineNet  provides users with services and products that are claimed to enhance the performance and reliability of their wireless communications.  while keeping costs low. Part of their service is free access to GRIB files. delivered via e-mail and optimized specifically for low bandwidth wireless connections. Send e-mail to gmngrib@globalmarinenet.net for information on how to receive these forecasts. What follows is a summary.

Some will find the messages more simple than SailDocs.

Requesting a GRIB file

This is simply done by sending a blank email to gmngrib@globalmarinenet.net with various subjects as follows.

Standard areas are listed  below and are CASE SENSITIVE.. ie Atlantic is correct but atlantic is wrong.

The GRIB robot generates wwave3 GRIB files for regions which do not contain land locked or nearly landlocked seas.  If you request a region such as the Mediterranean, Baltic or the Great Lakes you will receive an AVN GRIB file.

Specifying the a subject from the standard list will result in one email with a 24 hour forecast.  For example "Atlantic" will return an e-mail with a GRIB file containing a 24 hour forecast.  Alternately you can specify the time of the forecast by entering the time
after the key on the subject line. Valid times are 6 to 126 hours in increments of

For example, entering "Atlantic 24 48 72" will result in 3 emails each containing a separate forecast for the Atlantic region. On average each e-mail will be between 3 and 5 kb in size.

If you prefer to do weather animation then you can specify 1day, 2day, 3day, 4day, or 5day worth of weather sampled at 6 hour intervals.

For example, entering "Atlantic 3day" will return one compressed GRIB file between 30-40K that contains 3 days worth of forecasts on 6 hour intervals.

The more data requested the more efficient the compression will be. For example, entering "Caribbean 24 48 72" will result in 3 GRIB files about 1.5-2K each for a total of around 6K. Entering Caribbean 3day results in 12 forecasts in one file that is 11K.

Viewing

GMN GRIB files are compressed in bzip2 format. Unless you are using GRIB Explorer, WindPlot, or MaxSea to display GRIB files you will need to download one of the following programs to unarchive the compressed files. 

Requesting specific areas

It is possible to request specific areas to meet your own needs  by placing the centre Lat:Lon co-ordinates where the "key" would normally go. The syntax for custom regions is

LAT[NS]:LON[EW]:RANGE [24 48 .. | 1day | 2day ...]

The optional RANGE is in nautical miles. A range of 1200 miles is assumed if none is specified. So entering the following
in the subject line  "18N:67W:600 3day" would return a 3day forecast GRIB that was 600x600 miles centred at 18N and 67W.

Entering "55S:70W 24 48 72" yields 3 GRIBs 1200 miles on the side centred at 55S 70W i.e. the Drake passage. 

Requesting GRIBs on an automatic schedule
Entering a number followed by the word "times"  requests emails every day at 5 AM EST for the number of days entered. For example entering the following on the Subject line - "7times Caribbean 3day" will result in the Caribbean 3day forecast every day for 7 days. "7times" must be entered as the first command on the Subject line. NOTE - "Caribbean 7times 3day" is incorrect. To cancel a request simply send an e-mail to the GRIB robot with the word cancel on the subject line.

NOTE: There are no spaces between the 7 and times. Also, times and cancel are in lower case.

GMN GRIB forecasts cannot be viewed with Viewfax Using MaxSea, a wind arrow only disp[lay looks  like this:

 

Standard Areas and Direct Download

The following is a list of standard areas. Use these in the subject line of the email request or sim[ply click on the Key to download a compressed 7 day wind forecast for the selected region. Internet Explorer users will need to right click the appropriate link and select "Save Target As..." to download the file.

To view GRIB files you will need the following

Visit our download page if you do not have these.

 

Key Description
Pacific Pacific Region Forecast Data (includes Gulf of Alaska data)
Atlantic West Atlantic (US) Region Forecast Data
Canada East Canada Region Forecast Data
Caribbean Caribbean Basin and Gulf of Mexico
Drake Drake Passage
East Atlantic East Atlantic Region Forecast Data
Great Lakes Great Lakes Region Forecast Data
North Europe North Europe Region Forecast Data
Argentina Chile, Argentina Region Forecast Data
South Africa South Africa Region Forecast Data
Brazil Brazil Region Forecast Data
New Zealand New Zealand Region Forecast Data
Mediterranean Mediterranean Region Forecast Data
Scandinavia Scandinavia Region Forecast Data
Barents Barents Sea Region Forecast Data
Baffin Baffin Bay Region Forecast Data
WAlaska West Alaska Region Forecast Data
Vancouver Vancouver Region Forecast Data
Central N Pacific Central North Pacific Region Forecast Data
Central S Pacific Central South Pacific Region Forecast Data
S S Pacific South Pacific Region Forecast Data
Central Pacific Central Pacific Region Forecast Data
Chile Peru Chile and Peru Region Forecast Data
Central America Central America Region Forecast Data
S S Atlantic South Atlantic Region Forecast Data
Madagascar Madagascar Region Forecast Data
Indian Indian Region Forecast Data
N Indian North Indian Region Forecast Data
WKergelen West Kergelen Region Forecast Data
Kergelen Kergelen Region Forecast Data
S Australia South Australia Region Forecast Data
Indonesia Australia Indonesia and Australia Region Forecast Data
Indonesia New Zealand Indonesia and New Zealand Region Forecast Data
China China Region Forecast Data
W Pacific West Pacific Region Forecast Data
N Japan North Japan Region Forecast Data
TasmanSea Tasman Sea 30-50S, 140-180E
DaimlerChrysler 60-10N, 75-0W
CapeTownRio 20-30S, 48W-25E
SydneyHobart 2-44S, 146-155E
NewportBermuda 42-32N, 74-64W
Central Atlantic Central Atlantic Region Forecast Data

 

 

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© Frank Singleton November 2007