Warning! It is strongly recommanded to avoid the launch of parallel requests, using the "&" at the end of each wget request line. This would endanger our system.

Automatic access with WGET

1. Download wget.exe in a directory (Windows environment - by default available in Unix)
2. In the same directory, create a text file and copy-paste in a single line the following instruction to test this permanent access to Carpentras, France.
   GFS data are available from one month ago up to day+15.

3. Rename the text file with the .bat extension and double click on the .bat file to retrieve the output.csv output file (Windows environment). Rename the text file with a .sh extension and run it using >my_script.sh in a Unix environment.

  WGET, in details

Request:
wget -O output.csv --header="soda-user: your_login" --header="soda-passwd: your_password" ...
"https://server/pub/gfs_forecast_request.php?geopoint=latitude,longitude&firstday=yyyy-mm-dd ...
&lastday=yyyy-mm-dd&duration=time_step&format=output_format"

Inputs:

• your_login and your_password: this access is restricted to registered users, i.e. to users who purchased an automatic access to the data. Please contact us for a quotation or to receive your SoDa automatic access credentials 
• Server: by default, use our load balancer thanks to "api.soda-solardata.com". It will redirect your request on the fastest server available.
  
• latitude and longitude: in degrees, with at least 4 digits after comma, e.g. "geopoint=45.563,7.25"
• yyyy-mm-dd: the first day and last day of your request, from one month ago up to day+15. The available shortcuts to use for first and last days of the requests are: d, d-x, d+x, m, m-x, with "x" representing numerical value, "d" = day, "m" = month
• time_step: "1", "5", "10", "15" (minutes), "h" (hourly), "d" (daily), "m" (monthly). Automatic requests with a time step below 10 min are limited to one month, and automatic requests with a time step below one day limited to one year (identical to HelioClim-3 automatic request behavior).
• output_format: optional. Possible values are standard formats "excel", "netcdf" and "json" or "unified" to get csv format. Default format is "unified".

Time reference is Universal Time.

Outputs: Identical to the output columns received via the Web interface

Automatic access using CURL

You can also automatically retrieve GFS dataset using the CURL command.
GFS data are available from one month ago up to day+15
Note that output csv files retrieved via the CURL command does not contain header.

Request:
curl -F stations=@stations.txt -o output.csv --header "soda-user: guest" --header "soda-passwd: guest" https://api.soda-solardata.com/pub/gfs_forecast_request.php

With the following stations.txt file format:
# Columns:
# id: station name
# latitude and longitude: in degrees, with at least 3 digits after comma
# elevation: ignored
# time reference: ignored
# duration: "15" (minutes), "h" (hourly), "d" (daily) or "m" (monthly)
# firstday and lastday: first and the last days of the request, expressed as yyyy-mm-dd
# slope of panel: ignored
# azimuth of panel: ignored
# ground_albedo: ignored
# horizon: ignored (optional)
# calibration: ignored (optional)
# format: ignored (optional)
#
#id         lat    lon   elevation time duration firstday lastday  slope azimuth albedo
Carpentras1 44.083 5.059 -999      UT   d        2018-01-13 2018-01-16 0.0   0.0     0.2
Carpentras2 44.083 5.059 -999      UT   h        2018-01-13 2018-01-16 0.0   0.0     0.2

NB: stations.txt is voluntarily identical to the one used to automatically retrieve satellite-derived solar radiation datasets HelioClim-3. Of course, a few parameters are not used to run this service but are needed for the CURL request.

GFS INFO

Get the gfs update info.

Request:
wget -O gfs_info.txt --header="soda-user: your_login" --header="soda-passwd: your_password" ...
"https://server/pub/gfs_info.php?geopoint=latitude,longitude&firstday=d&lastday=d+X"

Inputs:

• your_login and your_password: this access is restricted to registered users, i.e. to users who purchased an automatic access to the data. Please contact us for a quotation or to receive your SoDa automatic access credentials 
• Server: by default, use our load balancer thanks to "api.soda-solardata.com". It will redirect your request on the fastest server available.
  
• latitude and longitude: in degrees
• the first day and last day to be check are  from one month ago up to day+15. The available shortcuts to use for first and last days of the requests are: d, d-x, d+x, m, m-x, with "x" representing numerical value, "d" = day, "m" = month

Time reference is Universal Time.

Outputs:

​​​​​​​# Global Forecast System (GFS)
# Provider;'Transvalor SoDa' and 'National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)'
# More information at https://www.soda-pro.com and https://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/emc/pages/numerical_forecast_systems/gfs/documentation.php
last gfs date available;YYYY-MM-DD
last gfs cycle available; '0' or '6' or '12 or '18'
gfs update available;gfs update is fully avalaible
date range in progress;<fully updated>