The TCVitals is a database of vitals information describing a tropical cyclones, post-tropical cyclones, and potential formation of a tropical cyclones. The database gives storms' location, intensity, movement, type, structure, name and other information. The database takes the form of a seven-bit ASCII text file, where each line contains information about one storm at one time. The temporal resolution is six hours, but the database theoretically supports resolutions as high as a minute. The below table describes what each byte of a TCVitals line must contain. Areas highlighted in blue must contain ASCII spaces in all TCVitals databases. The NCEP tropical cyclone quality control program SYNDAT_QCTROPCY reuses some of those blank space areas for other purposes, and those purposes are also documented here. Updates from the August 16, 2007 version include:
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Sample TCVitals report:
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Byte(s) | Meaning | Explanation | ||||
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1-4 | Organization ID |
Left-justified organization identifier, maximum of four characters.
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5 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). | ||||
6-7 | Storm ID in this basin |
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8 | Basin identifier |
The following values are presently used and understood by the NCEP suite. Attempting to use any other basin identifiers may cause the NCEP models to fail.
The following basins are not supported and have never been used in the NCEP TCVitals:
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9 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). | ||||
10-18 | Storm name | Names must be left-justified, begin with a capital letter, and may contain only capital English letters and hyphens (“-”). If the name is less than nine characters long, it must be left-justified: bytes to the right must be blank space (ASCII character 32). There are several special names recognized:
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19 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). Reused by SYNDAT_QCTROPCY:
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20-23 | Year | Year at which the data is valid. For example, a Southern Hemisphere storm 23S at December 25, 2013 18:00 UTC would have 2013 here |
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24-25 | Month | 01-12 for January-December | ||||
26-27 | Day | Day of month, zero-padded: 01-31. Cannot exceed highest possible day in the month |
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28 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). | ||||
29-30 | Hour | Hour of day, zero-padded. Example: 06 for 06 UTC. |
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31-32 | Minute | Minute of hour, zero-padded. Example: 00. |
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33 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). | ||||
34-36 | latitude (decidegrees) | Storm latitude in tenths of a degree, always positive |
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37 | North/South flag |
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38 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). | ||||
39-42 | longitude (decidegrees) | Storm longitude in tenths of a degree, always positive |
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43 | East/West flag |
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44 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). Reused by SYNDAT_QCTROPCY for storm motion direction data source:
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45-47 | Storm motion direction (degrees) | Degrees from north 0-360 (0=North, 90=East, 180=South, 270=West) |
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48 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). Reused by SYNDAT_QCTROPCY for storm motion speed data source:
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49-51 | Storm motion speed (dm/s) | Storm motion speed in specified direction. Always positive in tenths of a meter per second. |
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52 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). Reused by SYNDAT_QCTROPCY for central pressure data source:
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53-56 | Storm central pressure (mbar) | Storm central pressure in mbar (hPa). |
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57 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). Reused by SYNDAT_QCTROPCY for environmental pressure data source:
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58-61 | Storm environmental pressure (mbar) | Storm environmental pressure in mbar (hPa). |
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62 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). Reused by SYNDAT_QCTROPCY for data source of the radius of the outermost closed isobar:
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63-66 | Radius of outermost closed isobar (km) | Estimated radius of outermost closed isobar (ie.: storm circulation) in kilometers. |
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67 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). Reused by SYNDAT_QCTROPCY for the maximum wind data source:
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68-69 | Maximum wind speed (m/s) | Estimated storm-wide maximum one minute sustained ten meter altitude wind speed in meters per second |
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70 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). | ||||
71-73 | Radius of maximum wind (km) | Estimated radius at which the maximum wind occurs in kilometers from the storm center |
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74 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). | ||||
75-78 | Radius of 34kt winds in NE quadrant (km) |
34 Knot Wind RadiiEstimated outermost radius in kilometers at which 34 knot winds occur in the storm in each of four quadrants. The quadrants are defined as:
Missing values should be filled in as -999. |
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79 | blank space (ASCII character 32) | |||||
80-83 | Radius of 34kt winds in SE quadrant (km) | |||||
84 | blank space (ASCII character 32) | |||||
85-88 | Radius of 34kt winds in SW quadrant (km) | |||||
89 | blank space (ASCII character 32) | |||||
90-93 | Radius of 34kt winds in NW quadrant (km) | |||||
94 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). Reused by SYNDAT_QCTROPCY for the data source of the storm circulation depth:
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95 | Storm depth | Estimated depth of storm circulation.
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TCVitals records after this line are not available in the 1997-2013 JTWC database, but were reported by NHC. | ||||||
96 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). | ||||
97-100 | Radius of 50kt winds in NE quadrant (km) |
50 Knot Wind RadiiEstimated outermost radius in kilometers at which 50 knot winds occur in the storm in each of four quadrants. The quadrants are defined as:
Missing values should be filled in as -999. |
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101 | blank space (ASCII character 32) | |||||
102-105 | Radius of 50kt winds in SE quadrant (km) | |||||
106 | blank space (ASCII character 32) | |||||
107-110 | Radius of 50kt winds in SW quadrant (km) | |||||
111 | blank space (ASCII character 32) | |||||
112-115 | Radius of 50kt winds in NW quadrant (km) | |||||
116 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). | ||||
117-118 | Maximum forecast time (hrs) | Maximum forecast hour, or -9 if missing | ||||
119 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). | ||||
120-122 | Forecast latitude | Estimated latitude at maximum forecast time in tenths of a degree, always positive. Specify -99 if missing. |
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123 | North/South flag |
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124 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). | ||||
125-128 | Forecast longitude | Estimated longitude at maximum forecast time in tenths of a degree, always positive. Specify -999 if missing. |
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129 | East/West flag |
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130 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). | ||||
The 64 knot wind quadrant radii began being written into NHC reports on March 29, 2004. | ||||||
131-134 | Radius of 64kt winds in NE quadrant (km) |
64 Knot Wind RadiiEstimated outermost radius in kilometers at which 64 knot winds occur in the storm in each of four quadrants. The quadrants are defined as:
Missing values should be filled in as -999. |
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135 | blank space (ASCII character 32) | |||||
136-139 | Radius of 64kt winds in SE quadrant (km) | |||||
140 | blank space (ASCII character 32) | |||||
141-144 | Radius of 64kt winds in SW quadrant (km) | |||||
145 | blank space (ASCII character 32) | |||||
146-149 | Radius of 64kt winds in NW quadrant (km) | |||||
The storm type parameter is a proposed addition to assist in GFS storm relocation. | ||||||
150 | blank space | Single space (ASCII character 32). | ||||
151-152 | Storm type |
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The storm priority is a proposed addition to help with regional hurricane model initialization. | ||||||
153 | Single space (ASCII character 32). | |||||
154-155 | Priority | Optional storm priority: from 1 to 9, or 99 for missing values or non-requested storms. Lower numbers are more important storms.
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