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The PMO’s Corner

Rob Niemeyer PMO Jacksonville

This issue’s topic is National Weather Service Products Available Via E-Mail (FTPMAIL).

Throughout many years as a Naval Meteorologist, many hours at sea were devoted to tuning the radio facsimile equipment and dealing with the frustrations of either not being able to acquire an adequate frequency or perhaps having to wait for a specific chart to hit the schedule. Many of today’s vessels have been equipped with broadband, having the ability to access various websites while at sea and are not solely reliant on Radio Facsimile chart. Regardless of how you acquire your weather charts, you should have a back up system for obtaining your products.

For over 10 years, the National Weather Service has been providing a service to acquire TPC/NHC text files & graphic charts available via email through a National Weather Service FTPMAIL server. This service is free and no sign up is required. The FTPMAIL server is intended to allow internet access for mariners and other users who do not have access to the World Wide Web but who are equipped with an e-mail system. Turnaround time is generally under an hour but can be as quick as a few minutes, performance varies widely and receipt can not be guaranteed. The following will provide some basic instructions on how to utilize the FTPMAIL, but you can also refer to your Radio Facsimile Broadcast Schedule publication for detailed instructions located in the appendix.

Weather charts are sent back as an attachment to the e-mail address of the requestor. You will receive an e-mail for each individual chart you request. Responses are sent from the following NWS e-mail server: ftpmail@ftpmail.nws.noaa.gov

This is an automated system - Correct capitalization for commands, directory and file names are critical. The system is case sensitive. Commands are lower case, while most (not all) Chart Id’s are upper case.

You can request a single chart, or request multiple charts within a single e-mail request. File size for most weather charts average 35KB but can be as much as 110KB. Satellite imagery is much larger, usually between 150KB to over 250KB.

Chart files are in a compressed TIFF format, which can be viewed, by a number of software programs including Microsoft Internet Explorer. Suggestions for TIFF viewers may be found in the Worldwide Marine Radiofacsimile Broadcast Schedule Manual. Attachments are received in UUencoded form. The majority of modern e-mail systems handle the conversion automatically, other users will need to run the UUdecode program for their particular system. See your system administrator if you have any questions on this topic.

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To begin using the National Weather Service FTPMAIL service, it is recommended to first obtain the FTP "help file". To obtain the "help file" do the following:

Send an e-mail to: ftpmail@ftpmail.nws.noaa.gov
Subject line: Put anything you like
Body: help

The help file that you receive via email will discuss procedures and methods of obtaining tropical cyclone information along with a listing of available products using this method. In order to get further information on tropical cyclone specific data available via this service, do the following:

1. Send an email to: ftpmail@ftpmail.nws.noaa.gov
2. Subject Line: Anything that you like
3. Body of message (case and line sensitive):

open
cd fax
get marine2.txt
quit

This will generate an email response with a description of tropical cyclone products and file names along with further instructions on obtaining this particular information via the FTPMAIL server.

To request individual charts, send a small script file via e-mail to NWS requesting the desired file(s) as follows:

1. Send an email to: ftpmail@ftpmail.nws.noaa.gov
2. Subject Line: Anything that you like
3. Body of Message (case and line sensitive):

open
cd fax
get (Map ID)
quit

Several charts can be requested within a single e-mail. Each map requested will be sent back as an individual e-mail.

Some e-mail systems used by ships do not allow e-mail to be sent directly back to the ship (reply to) unless the sender has an account with the e-mail provider. In addition many ships are set up so they can only receive or download e-mail from a single controlled point, usually at the company or agents office. To have the weather charts sent back to a different e-mail address, in the first line of the script put reply-to (e-mail address) where you want the charts to be sent).

The FTP E-Mail system was not designed or recommended as the primary source of acquiring meteorological data, however, it is intended to give mariners a good back-up system in the case that your primary methods are not available.

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This article is just a brief description of the FTP E-Mail service. If you need further assistance or details on this service, please do not hesitate to contact your local PMO.

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Page last modified: October 31, 2023