TC-Pairs Functionality
The TC-Pairs tool parses ADeck (forecast) and BDeck (BEST track analyses) ATCF files, filters the data, and matches them up. It writes an output ASCII Tropical-Cyclone Statistics (TCST) file containing track pair information.
Users should consider the frequency with which they run the TC-Pairs tool. Passing it too much data to process (e.g. all operational forecast and analysis tracks for the past 3 years) will consume too much memory and make it run slowly. Passing it a single initialization for each model will create many tiny files. If TC-Pairs is running slowly, try reducing the amount of track data you pass to it in any one call. For example, passing it all forecast models for each initialization of a storm works well.
TC-Pairs Usage
View the usage statement for TC-Pairs by simply typing the following:
At a minimum, the -adeck or -edeck and -bdeck options must be used to specify the track data locations. They may be set to specific file names or to a top-level directory containing files ending with .dat to be processed. The configuration file must also be specified using the -config option. The -out option may be used to override the default output file name.
While users will typically run TC-Pairs to compare forecast and analysis tracks, it can be run to compare two sets of forecast tracks or two sets of analysis tracks.
