RASP = Regional Atmospheric Soaring Prediction

Help for RASP BLIPMAP Forecasts for the Pacific NorthWet UniViewer RASP first level help Page Univiewer created by John Whitney (F9)
This local RASP site is operated and maintained by TJ Olney using code courtesy of Dr. Jack Glendenning and others.
For more information on using and interpreting BLIPMAPSTM = Boundary Layer Information Prediction MAP    created by Dr. John W. (Jack) Glendening,  Meteorologist     RASP = Regional Atmospheric Soaring Prediction.
This UniViewer requires Javascript and assumes basic BlipMap knowledge.
Note: In Spring, Forecasts for BJ and Black will be invalid. The problem melts with the snow.
Region: I run the RASP model for several different small regions and one larger region. Blanchard is my home site and gets first priority.

Click on the name of a region to show forecst maps for different regions.

  • The PNW map covers a large area all the way from the North side of the Fraser valley Down to South of Raineer and East just past the Columbia River.
  • The Blanchard maps cover all of the sites in Western Whatcom County, WA.
  • Tiger is near Seattle.
  • Ebey is focused on Whidbey Island.
  • Fraser covers most of the sites in the inland lower Fraser Valley B.C. Canada.
  • Skagit Valley covers the Skagit River Valley and the Ridges surrounding Arlington, WA.
  • exp is reserved for domains being tested
  • Chelan is not normally run, but if requested I try to run it when there are events happening in Chelan WA.
    • Map Size: 

    The maps always look best at the size they were created. I personally find it nicer to scroll my window around on a larger map than to make smaller maps, but have settled on maps that will fit into an 800x800 pixel image.. YMMV.

    The maps are generated at two different resolutions, fine (1.3km) and coarse (4km). PNW domain is generated only at an 8km resolution.

    Grid:   Coarse 4km Grid   Fine 1.3km Grid           

    Note: Sometimes javascript misbehaves... Keep clicking links until something shows up. Especially, click the one you want to start with twice! The rate of download is quite variable. Sometimes it is as good as google and sometimes it feels like the mid-90's again.

    Time Controls:

    These let you page through maps that you have already seen. They are stored in your computer's cache. Because of this,

    You must reload the page if you find that you are looking at old maps. During the evening, when the first runs for the next day are processing, maps will have tomorrow and today's maps mixed!

    The refresh button will do that if your browser doesn't behave properly -- that is it might try to "save bandwidth" by not downloading new images of the same name but there may be newer images with that name!

    Model Forecast Time:

    Not all regions have maps for all times. Ebey, because it depends only on wind and not on thermals, gets more hours than any other region, but I don't bother with all the thermal related maps for it. (availability depends on the region and grid resolution) ( These are rarely run: 0500   | 0600   | 0700   )
    | 0800   | 0900 AM   | 1000 AM   | 1100 AM   | 1200 Noon   | 1300 PM   | 1400 PM   | 1500 PM   | 1600 PM   | 1700 PM   | 1800 PM   | 1900 PM   | 2000 PM   | 2100 PM  

    The RASP Weather Parameter Maps:

    Each of these will show you a different forecast map, highlighting some aspect of the weather relevant to flying. Some have more than one thing plotted on the same map. The terrain is always shown, but the terrain shown is what turns out to be a major limitiation of the weather model, it is a smoothed terrain without much of the detail that we know makes a difference to our flights. Out of all the maps, most foot launch pilots pick only a few to keep track of: br />
  • Surface winds — these are predictions, not observations!!!
  • Thermal Updraft Velocity — How fast sun heated air will be going up on average within a 1.3/1.3 km square.
  • Bouyancy/Shear ratio — The likelyhood that any thermals can stay together without being blown apart by the wind. Bigger numbers are better.
  • Thermaling height — Theoretical height that a glider with a 225fpm sink rate can climb to at that hour.
  • Cloud cover percentage — When and where can we expect sun to appear.
  • The winds and convergence at different altitudes. — Where will ridge wind be and what will the wind be doing as we climb. (height is designated as pressxxx where xxx is mb mercury.)
    • Paying attention to the surface wind maps can give you a much better appreciation of the winds in your region. RASP had enough detail to show how the wind wraps around hills or goes over them, depending on its strength and to show how it can be blocked to create stagnant areas in front of your favorite hill, even though other nearby areas are blowing hard. However, don't believe everything the map says. It is cool when it is right, but it isn't always right.

    For more details on all of these parameter maps see the original information at Dr. Jack's site: Basic Parameters  and   Parameter Descriptions  
    For a little bit more about the user interface, see: Univiewer Usage Notes.

    These are the parameters that have separate maps generated.

    Not all maps are generated for all regions.

    Surface  Winds | Loop
    Therm Up. Vel. & B/S Ratio | Loop
    Therm Up Velocity | Loop
    Buoyancy/Shear Ratio | Loop
    Foot Launch Thermal Height | Loop
    Critical Updraft Hgt | Loop
    Depth of Hcrit (AGL Hcrit) | Loop
    BL Top Height | Loop
    BL Depth | Loop
    Thermal Hgt. Variability | Loop
    Sfc Heating | Loop
    Surface Sun | Loop
    Surface Temp | Loop
    BL Avg. Wind | Loop
    BL Top Winds | Loop
    BL Vertical Wind Shear | Loop
    BL Max.Up/Down Motion | Loop

    Cloud prediction attempts. See Dr. Jack's for explanation.

    Percent Boundary Layer Cloud Cover (There can be high clouds too.) | Loop
    Cloud Fraction | Loop
    Cumulus Potential | Loop
    Cumulus Cloudbase (LCL) | Loop
    Cu Cloudbase @CuPot>0 | Loop
    OD Potential | Loop
    OD Cloudbase | Loop
    OD Cloudbase @ODpot>0 | Loop
    CloudWater Cloudbase | Loop
    BL Max. Rel. Humidity | Loop
    Sfc. Dew Point Temp. | Loop

    Convective Available Potential Energy is a measure of the atmospheric stability — big numbers mean big Thunderstorms.
    CAPE (potential convection) | Loop

    The following are horizontal slices of the atmosphere at various constant pressure levels.

    wind barbs http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/info/wind_barb.gif As overall atmospheric pressure rises and falls, the altitude of a given pressure level also rises and falls. In an extreme low pressure situation, the 1000mb level is below sea level! The barbs have feathers on one end. Think of them as wind arrows flying through the sky and you will have them pointing the right way. They are not like the wind direction pointer on your roof, but opposite. If the feathers are on the left and the narrow end is on the right, the wind is from the West. The "feathers" tell how strong the wind is. Each full stroke is 10knots a half stroke is 5 knots. A triangular flag is 50 knots!

    Vert.Velocity@700mb | Loop
    Vert.Velocity@900mb | Loop
    Vert.Velocity@1000mb (~300ft) | Loop
    Vert.Vel.Slide@Vert.Vel.Max | Loop

    Looping the images: For each type of map and region, you can run a loop of the map over the day. This can be accomplished with any map by clicking on the loop link after a given parameter/map type.

    These three links are very special! They link to a looping script that also allows changing the altitude on the fly. They are perhaps the single most useful things to look at, but each one loads about 9 x 15 images. They are limited to the first 5000' or so above sealevel. (850mb)

  • Blanchard low elevation time/height loop
  • Tiger low elevation time/height loop
  • Fraser Valley low elevation time/height loop

    Note that on any given day, a pressure level of 1000mb may be from 600' above sea level to non existent because it would be below sealevel.
    You can tell how high the pressure level is by noting where it intersects the topography. e.g. the top of Blanchard Mt. is 2200 ft. As I type this today, it is higher than the 970mb level but lower than the 960mb level, while the sea level pressure is at about 1018mb. (Yes, we have to remember that as presssure goes down, altitude goes up.)

    • Soundings

    are very useful plots of temperature and dew point by height.
    They include wind direction and speed at each height.
    I have truncated the soundings on my RASP pages at around 10,000ft to show more wind detail. Sorry sailplane pilots...
    If you need higher elevation soundings try http://www-frd.fsl.noaa.gov/mab/soundings/
    A special feature of Dr. Jack's soundings is a nice little dashed line to the right of the temperature line that shows where you are likely to find rising air. The area bounded by the temperature line and the straight line is a measure of the CAPE.

    Quick Soundings notes: The lapse rate is represented by the slope of the red line. A strong lapse rate will have the red temperature line leaning toward the left. When the red and blue lines touch, there will be clouds. When they are really close, there might be clouds. Overnight and early morning soundings almost always have an inversion close to ground, the red line leans to the right. The hour at which this changes to the left is when it is expected that the ground will be warmed enough to be warmer than the air just above it. A strong lapse rate means strong thermals. A strong lapse rate without any touching of red to green might indicate a blue thermal day. The RASP soundings indicate the likelyhood of rain by a diagram along the left y-axis that indicates how much percipitable water is represented by the overlapping red and blue lines. The column of wind barbs to the right of the diagram shows the expected wind speed and direction at the altitude, represented by the y-axis. The translation from pressure on the left to feet on the right is a rough equivalence, not perfect equality.

    Note that the Sounding descriptions are valid for all regions, but when the place is not contained in the region, there will be no sounding for it. You must change to a region that includes the location you want.
    Note also that Soundings for a given location can be quite different depending on which domain generated the sounding. All soundings are available on the PNW domain, but the best resolution soundings will come from a domain that contains the location at the 1.3km resolution . 

    MapName	   Domain    Site             Lat.      Lon.
sounding1  Blanchard Blanchard        48.61   -122.43 
sounding20 Blanchard BlanchardLZ      48.57   -122.43 
sounding2  Blanchard Stewart          48.78   -122.30 
sounding3  Blanchard BJ               48.86   -122.13 
sounding4  Blanchard Black_Mt         48.971  -122.03 
sounding19 Blanchard BlackLZ          48.9657 -122.07 
sounding5  SKAG      IronMt           48.48   -121.94 
sounding6  EBEY      FtEbey           48.22   -122.76 
sounding7  WOOD      Woodside         49.247  -121.89 
sounding8  WOOD      Bridal           49.171  -121.748
sounding9  TIGER     TIGER            47.48   -121.94 
sounding10 PNW       Chelan           47.81   -120.03 
sounding11 PNW       Saddle           46.69   -119.7  
sounding12 SKAG      Sauk_Mt          48.5    -121.6  
sounding13 PNW       Baldy            46.86   -120.35 
sounding14 PNW       Snoqualime_Pass  47.42   -121.41 
sounding15 PNW       Mt_Baker         48.78   -121.81 
sounding16 PNW       Glacier_Pk       48.11   -121.1  
sounding17 PNW       Mt_Rainier       46.85   -121.75 
sounding18 PNW       Dog_Mt.          46.489  -122.173
sounding21 Blanchard Saanich Park     48.754  -122.501
sounding22 SKAG      Penthouse        48.33   -121.71 
sounding23 WOOD      RUC comparison   49.14   -121.99 
sounding24 SKAG      Arlington        48.15   -121.15 
sounding25 PNW       Mazama           48.59   -120.40 
sounding26 Blanchard RUC compare bli  48.74   -122.38
    This little form will show you which region, time, grid, and forecast type you have most recently clicked. Sometimes it takes much longer than other times for new images to load.

    The javascript keeps track of the maps that you have loaded during a given session. These controls allow you to toggle back and forth between two images, view the image in a pop-up or tab, and delete one image so the next request for that image will check the server again.
    ReVIEW: | Swap | PasteUp | Delete |    ← Previous Map   |  Next Map →  | 

    BlipMap Links:  Univiewer Usage Notes. Parameter Descriptions   Basic Parameters  DrJack Home 

    Other Weather Resources I maintain or links to external sources.
    Weather site map.

    Disclaimer: All forecasting is just fancy guessing! Pay attention to the local conditions as they happen!
    Launch Safely -- Fly Safely -- Land Safely.