BUFR TABLE A
 
(OPERATIONAL AS OF 04 MAY 2011 - WMO VERSION 16.0.0)
LATEST REVISION IS 07/05/2011
 
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COLOR CODE:
PURPLE - This is awaiting validation by the WMO or has pre-operational status.
LINKS:

BUFR TABLE B – WMO AND LOCAL (NCEP) DESCRIPTORS AS WELL AS THOSE AWAITING VALIDATION BY THE WMO

BUFR TABLE D – THE CATEGORY AND DEFINITION OF DATA SEQUENCES USED BY THE NCEP OBSERVATIONAL DATABASE AND PREPBUFR AND
PREPFITS FILES


BUFR Table A — Data category (BUFR Section 1: Edition 3, Octet 9; Edition 4, Octet 11)

  Code figure                   Meaning
         0                            Surface data — land
         1                            Surface data — sea
         2                            Vertical soundings (other than satellite)
         3                            Vertical soundings (satellite)
         4                            Single level upper-air data (other than satellite)
         5                            Single level upper-air data (satellite)
         6                            Radar data
         7                            Synoptic features
         8                            Physical/chemical constituents
         9                            Dispersal and transport
       10                            Radiological data
       11                            BUFR tables, complete replacement or update
       12                            Surface data (satellite)
       13                            Forecasts
       14                            Warnings
    15–19                         Reserved
       20                            Status information
       21                            Radiances (satellite measured)
       22                            Radar (satellite) but not altimeter and scatterometer
       23                            Lidar (satellite)
       24                            Scatterometry (satellite)
       25                            Altimetry (satellite)
       26                            Spectrometry (satellite)
       27                            Gravity measurement (satellite)
       28                            Precision orbit (satellite)
       29                            Space environment (satellite)
       30                            Calibration datasets (satellite)
       31                            Oceanographic data
  32–100                         Reserved
     101                            Image data (satellite)
102–239                         Reserved (see 1 below)
240–254                         For experimental use (see 2 below)

FOR BUFR EDITION 3:
     255                           Indicator for local use, with sub-category
FOR BUFR EDITION 4:
     255                          Other category


Note (for BUFR Edition 3): In data category 255, the local data category may be described by BUFR, Section 1, octet 10.



1 - NCEP is currently using code figures 102-140 to define BUFR Table A data categories in its PREPBUFR, pseudo-PREPBUFR and PREPFITS files.  These are defined as follows:

  Code figure                   Meaning
     102                            Upper-air (RAOB, PIBAL, RECCO, DROPS) reports
     103                            MDCRS ACARS aircraft reports
     104                            AIREP, PIREP, AMDAR and TAMDAR aircraft reports
     105                            Satellite-derived wind reports
     106                            Wind profiler reports
     107                            Vertical Azimuth Display (VAD) wind reports (from WSR88D radars)
     108                            POES satellite sounding reports (retrievals, processed radiances)
     109                            Surface land (synoptic, METAR) reports
     110                            Surface marine (ship, buoy, C-MAN platform) reports
     111                            Mean sea-level pressure bogus reports
     112                            SSM/I retrieval product reports (reprocessed wind speed, total precipitable water, rainfall rate)
     113                            Synthetic tropical cyclone bogus reports
     114                            ERS scatterometer wind reports (reprocessed wind speed)
     115                            GOES satellite sounding reports (retrievals, processed radiances)
     116                            QuikSCAT scatterometer wind reports (reprocessed)
     117                            Mesonet surface reports
     118                            Global Positioning Satellite-integrated Precipitable Water (GPS-IPW) reports
     119                            Radio Acoustic Sounding System (RASS) temperature profile reports
     120                            WINDSAT scatterometer wind reports (reprocessed)
     121                            ASCAT scatterometer wind reports (reprocessed)
 122-140                          Reserved for future use
     206                            AIRNOW ozone concentration reports

2 - NCEP is currently using code figures 241-243 to define BUFR Table A data categories in its model sounding files.  These are defined as follows:

  Code figure                   Meaning
     241                            ETA/NAM model soundings, RUC model soundings
     242                            NGM model soundings
      243                            GFS model soundings