
 



			BUFR MODEL PROFILE READING CODE

                              Keith F. Brill
                           (keith.brill@noaa.gov)


	All of the FORTRAN and C (.f and .c files, respectively) code
	required to read the BUFR sounding data has been included in
	this directory.

	A MAIN program called aamain.f is included as an illustration of
	how to call the BUFR reading subroutine.  This subroutine is
	called SNMRBF and is found in the file snmrbf.f.  It can be
	called again and again to retrieve the soundings from a BUFR
	file in sequential order.  The return code IRET from SNMRBF
	may be checked for various error conditions such as the end
	of the input data file.  

	Documentation at the beginning of SNMRBF explains the calling
	sequence and the meaning of the arguments.

	In summary, the contents of this tar file are sufficient to
	port the BUFR reading capability to another system.  If all
	of the code compiles successfully, the test program in aamain.f
	may be used to test the installation.  After successful
	execution of the test program, SNMRBF may be called from
	within more complex code to provide the sounding data to other
	display or diagnostic software.

        The subroutine SNMPRE is provided to read the TABLE D entries
        that must be passed into SNMRBF.  Call it once before calling
        SNMRBF.

	Another useful subroutine called SNMINV is included in file
	snminv.f.  This subroutine reads the BUFR table in the first
        message and writes out the parameter descriptions to a file
	named bufr_table.dump.
