I want to know the current lapse rate for a given point in the US. In other words, I want "live" temperature data at various altitudes. Live is flexible -- I'm generally OK with a forecast which is valid for the current point in time. Where can I get this data, preferably in a format that's easy to ingest into Python?
More details:
I'm currently using a lapse rate constant to try to estimate the temperature at various altitudes, but would like to use something more sophisticated. I'm a pilot, so I initially thought about using the Temps & Winds Aloft product, and then interpolating between the sporadic sites, but then I found the models on NOAA's site. But:
I'm not clear on which one is best for my use case. Op40 seems to be a good default. But the HRRR model seems even better, specifically due to the higher resolution.
I'm not sure where raw data in a format that I can use. If, e.g., I create an interactive skew plot for Op40 on the NOAA site, I can then click the Get Text button and get the type of info I'm interested in:
But if I choose the ASCII Text on the first page I get a GSD file which doesn't seem to follow NOAA's own file format. And it looks like HRRR comes in a grib2 format, which also doesn't seem to be as simple as lat/lon,altitude,temp
. It seems like these files provide something more raw which then needs to be simulated against to get the temps? I found some python libraries, but could use a pointer on the approach I need to take.