#------> This file is under construction!! <------
#------> Send suggestions to Tom Detman, tdet@sec.noaa.gov, 303 497-5394

Format for submitting Geomagnetic Index Predictions for official scoring for the
Space Weather Research to Operations Geomagnetic Index Prediction Challenge

1. U.S. ASCII text file

2. The file should begin with one or more "header" lines.

3. All "header" lines must begin with a # character.

4. The file "header" should contain, at least, the following information:

a. Name of person submitting the file
b. e-mail address
c. the Geomagnetic Index being predicted
5. The file "header" may contain other optional information

6. Only numerical data after header

7. Fixed number of columns, i.e. words per row.

8. Minimum of 2 columns, where:

  • Column 1 is the "valid-time" of the "forecast" in POSIX format (seconds since 1970 01 01 00).  The "valid-time" identifies the observation against which the forecast is to be validated. For indices that cover or represent an interval of time, such as Kp, the "valid-time" is the beginning of that interval.
  • Column 2 is the forecast, no more than 5 or 6 decimals of precision would be nice, even if you think you forecasts are that good.
  • Column 3, etc. (optional, describe in file header) for example, forecast lead-time in seconds - how long before the "valid-time" the forecast was made.
  • 9. The data columns (words in a row) must be separated by white space.