metaf2xml For Mac

metaf2xml is a small script developed using the Perl programming language and can be used to get, parse or decode weather reports used in aviation together with other types of meteorological reports.

Worth mentioning is that metaf2xml does not come with a graphical user interface, so you need to run the script via the Terminal application. This might prove challenging if you are not used to working with the command line.

Within the Terminal, you can choose to bring up the metaf2xml help that provides details about how you can use the supported arguments to perform various actions.

metaf2xml can download AMDAR files that contain meteorological reports provided by aircrafts, BUOY files that contain different observations from buoys, or SYNOP files that include synoptic observations.

Moreover, you can use it to get aerodrome forecasts that come as TAF files or different types of weather reports, such as METAR, SPECI, or SAO. If you choose not to use an argument, metaf2xml will consider them to be BUFR messages.

Besides the metaf2xml script, the software archive includes many other resources files that offer you the possibility to parse messages and export the data to XML files, to decode BUFR messages, or to convert the source files to a format compatible with the parser.

The metaf2xml archive includes other additional Perl modules, but also various XML style sheets that can help you transform the content and make it easier to read. Note that the package also includes documentation and usage instructions for the scripts.

Bottom line, metaf2xml delivers a collection of Perl scripts and modules designed to help you both get the weather forecast and observations used for aviation and process the data by using predefined XML style sheets.

The fact that the metaf2xml scripts can be controlled only through the Terminal can be a serious drawback for users that don’t like working with the command line.