[api.met.no] Ho, ho, ho and some API stocking fillers

[api.met.no mailing list]

Dear API users,

we hope you all have been good developers this year, in which case you 
can look forward to some new improved products next month (for those who 
have been bad we will also be taking some away).

*Locationforecast*

On December 3rd we launched the new backend for locationforecast/1.9. In 
connection with that some of our users have noted that the topography 
for Norway is not as accurate as before. This is because we use a 
terrain model with a slightly coarser resolution. This does not affect 
the quality of our temperature forecasts. However, due to requests from 
our users we will soon return to a higher resolution topography for Norway.

Next year we also plan to introduce a higher resolution topography for 
our global forecasts. This will make the forecast more accurate when not 
using the recommended "msl" parameter to indicate elevation, which is 
hard to implement e.g. in mobile apps.

We are also working hard on finalizing the JSON format in 2.0, as well 
as improving the weathericon symbols so that you won't have to call 
sunrise to know if to use a night or day version.


*Radar animations*

Due to popular demand, we have decided to continue GIF animation in 
radar/2.0 which will launch on Feb 3rd. Everything else will be 
different though, included sizes (only one), areas (previously called 
radarsites), types (more options) and formats (all static images are now 
in PNG).

Radar/1.5 will continue running until May 15th so you have plenty time 
to update your systems. We still have plans to launch a Javascript 
animation version, but this is not a high priority.


*More changes on Feb 3rd*

Next year the sigcharts in *upperwindweather* will be moved to a new 
product, possibly with some new charts to follow. The upperwindweather 
product will then be deprecated, and eventually removed from the public api.

We will also be launching a new version 2.0 of *icemap* with more and 
better maps of the Arctic. The old version 1.5 will continue running 
until March.

We have also decided to retire the little-used *lightning* product on 
api.met.no. Since you now can download lightning data more or less in 
real time from Frost, there is little use for 5 min old data from the 
API. The data will continue to be delivered in UALF format as before. 
You can test out the new product here (remember to register for a 
developer key):

https://frost.met.no/api.html#/lightning

Finally the *radar/1.5* and *uvforecast* products will be end-of-lifed 
on May 15th, to be replaced by the improved radar/2.0 and 
locationforecast/2.0 respectively.

In closing, a God Jul, Merry Xmas, חג חנוכה שמח and Happy New Year of 
the Rat from everyone at MET Norway.

Geir Aalberg
API developer