Radar

NAME

Radar - Radar images from various locations

DESCRIPTION

Returns static image or animation for a specified area, either for a specific time or the latest available image. Only one animation per area is available.

Note that specific radarsites may sometimes become unavailable. This is usually due to technical problems at the radarsite, caused by lightning/difficult weather conditions.

The color palette for "5level_reflectivity" has been changed somewhat from earlier versions, so that the levels from "Lett nedbør" up to "Kraftig nedbør" corresponds to approximately 0.03, 0.1, 1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 mm/hour.

Restrictions

There is no usage restrictions on any of the radar images.

Historical radar data

These can be found on THREDDS, e.g. via OPeNDAP:

https://thredds.met.no/thredds/remotesensingarchive.html

Parameters

Please note that there are many combinations of parameter values for which we have no data, so refer to https://api.met.no/weatherapi/radar/2.0/radaroptions and https://api.met.no/weatherapi/radar/2.0/available for an updated list of possible combinations.

area (mandatory)

Area covered by the image/animation (composite) or name of the radar location (single radar).

Values: central_norway, eastern_norway, finnmark, nordic, nordland, northern_nordland, northwestern_norway, norway, southeastern_norway, southern_nordland, southern_norway, southwestern_norway, troms, western_norway, xband

type (mandatory)

Type of radar information.

Values: 5level_reflectivity, accumulated_01h, accumulated_02h, accumulated_03h, accumulated_04h, accumulated_05h, accumulated_06h, accumulated_07h, accumulated_08h, accumulated_09h, accumulated_10h, accumulated_11h, accumulated_12h, accumulated_13h, accumulated_14h, accumulated_15h, accumulated_16h, accumulated_17h, accumulated_18h, accumulated_19h, accumulated_20h, accumulated_21h, accumulated_22h, accumulated_23h, accumulated_24h, fir_preciptype, lx_reflectivity, preciptype, reflectivity

Areas "xband", "norway" and "nordic" only has the following types:

5level_reflectivity
lx_reflectivity
reflectivity

Note: This may also be indicated as endpoint in the URL, e.g.

content

Values: animation, image

image (default)

Static image for a given time (defaults to latest). This is in PNG format,

animation

Composite of the images from the last 3 hours in GIF format. time parameter not supported for this type.

Animations are only available for the following types: 5level_reflectivity, accumulated_06h, fir_preciptype, lx_reflectivity, preciptype, reflectivity

Note: This may also be indicated as format in the URL, e.g.

time (optional)

The time the radarimage was captured in ISO 8601 format. If omitted, the latest available image will be returned. This parameter can not be specified if value of parameter 'type' is set to 'animation'.

Value format: yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ.

Example requests:

Available

A list of available data may be retrieved using the 'available' action. The area, type and content parameters can be specified to reduce the size of the list, which is highly recommended as the full list consists of over 3000 URLs and is very slow to generate and download.

https://api.met.no/weatherapi/radar/2.0/available
https://api.met.no/weatherapi/radar/2.0/available.json?type=reflectivity&area=central_norway
https://api.met.no/weatherapi/radar/2.0/available.xml?area=xband&type=lx_reflectivity&content=image
https://api.met.no/weatherapi/radar/2.0/available.json?content=animation

Radaroptions

This returns a list in JSON with all legal parameter values for each type:

https://api.met.no/weatherapi/radar/2.0/radaroptions

Note: This feature is experimental, the values may be changed without further notice.

Status

Check operational status of all radars, returns JSON with the following fields:

Note: This feature is experimental, new fields may be added without further notice.

Area

Radar code

Sitename

Proper name of radar site

Stability

Uptime in percent during last 2 hours

Last

Time of last communication

Products

Array of API radar products which are using this radar

FaultCode

Optional code designating type of error:

PS

Power Supply

VP

Planned maintenance

CO

Communications error

TE

Technical error

DueDate

Optional date when radar is expected back in operation

Example requests:

Changelog

Deprecation of 1.5, 2020-05-06

Termination of version 1.5 has been postponed to 2020-06-01.

2020-02-25 Version 2.0 operational

Version 1.5 is now deprecated and will be removed on May 15th.

2019-12-18 New version 2.0 beta

Lots of changes from the previous versions. Types, sizes, projection and color palette has changed, and the "size" and "radarsite" parameters are no longer used or has been renamed. All usage restrictions have been lifted.

Areas

The "radarsite" parameter has now been renamed "area" since we no longer offer images from single radars.

Types

The following types have been renamed:

    Old name                    New name
    -------------------------   ---------------
    rainrate_with_phase_tma     fir_preciptype
    reflectivity_tma            (discontinued)
    reflectivity                5level_reflectivity
    reflectivity_hires          reflectivity
    rainrate_with_phase         preciptype
    lightning                   lx_reflectivity

Sizes

Only one size of each image, the size parameter has been removed.

Color palette

The color palette for "5level_reflectivity" has been changed somewhat from earlier versions, so that the levels from "Lett nedbør" up to "Kraftig nedbør" corresponds to approximately 0.03, 0.1, 1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 mm/hour.

Projection

Whereas the older radar images used a polar stereographic projection, which made the images skewed in the northern regions. 2.0 uses a Lambert Conformal Conic projection to make the northerly directions more vertical, and to minimize distortion.

2019-07-01: New radar Hafjell, hack for missing animations

Hafjell has been added for types lightning, reflectivity_hires and rainrate_with_phase.

Unfortunately, due to increased server load and shorter production cycles we have not been able to re-enable production of the animations for reflectivity_hires, rainrate_with_phase and most lightning radars. As a workaround, we will be substituting reflectivity_hires and rainrate_with_phase animations with the closest matching reflectivity animation. Similarly, all lightning radarsites will now return the "norway" animation. None of these will appear in the available lists, and are used solely to avoid breaking existing code.

Static images will be delivered as normal, which will not match the animation in content and dimensions. This means you should not use the "small" images as thumbnails for the animations until further notice.

We are working on replacements for the missing lightning animations, as well as a new, improved Radar product version which should be more user-friendly.

2019-06-19: update of v1.5

Radars now produce images every 5 minutes (instead of every 7.5).

Animations are currently only available for reflectivity, xband and lightning (as per the documentation). The undocumented reflectivity_hires animation is now discontinued.

The little-used sizes "large" and "medium" have been discontinued, any requests for these will return "normal" instead. Also, animations are now only available in "normal", use a static image for thumbnails instead of "small".

For a list of allowed options, see /radaroptions (experimental).

2017-01-25: update of v1.5

New xband radar "mobileradar"

2016-10-31: update of v1.5

New composite east_norway available (including images from new radar hafjell)

2016-10-03: update of v1.5

Radar helsfyr/x-band is not available any more

2015-10-28: new version 1.5

New size medium which are fixed to 460px. For types lightning and reflectivity the images that were delivered as size normal are moved to size medium and new images are available as size normal (unscaled).

Version 1.4 will expire on 2016-02-15

2015-09-09: update of v1.4

New radar type lightning available for norway, new site helsfyr available for type xband.

2015-03-17: update of v1.4

New radar sites 'nordland' and 'trlagnordland' added (radar location: Somna).

2013-11-12: new version 1.4

Parameter width has been replaced with size. Width and size of an image or animation may vary in width and height, even within the same size value.

Several new radar types. See documentation above.

Version 1.3 expires at 2014-03-25.

2012-03-26: new version 1.3

Parameter type has been changed. It will now signify type of radar information. Parameter content now has same function as parameter type in version 1.2.

Version 1.2: expires at 2012-05-15.

2010-08-31: new composite image of norway.

New parameter to radarsite: norway.

2009-10-27: version 1.2

New parameteres to radarsite: central_norway and western_norway. Rissa is no longer a valid radarsite.

Version 1.1 is available until 2010-02-16

2008-09-23: version 1.1

New radarsite: troms_finnmark.

version 1.1 : 2007-09-06

Røst is no longer valid as radarsite. New radarsite is nordland_troms

 

Changelog