ECMWF makes available a BUFR decoding library freely downloadable from here and a synop2bufr converter which is maintained with the help of external contributors. Updates of the synop2bufr software will be announced in this page.

synop2bufr latest version 17-02-2014

Changes in this version contributed by Mr. Perisa Sunderic and Dr. Eva Cerneva

• Clouds with bases below station level reported in all groups of SYNOP section 4 are reflected in BUFR data.
• Specification of vertical significance 0 08 002 within 3 02 036 has been refined.
• Height of station above msl 0 07 030 is set to missing for stations that are defined in Volume A as aerodromes (A in the column REMARKS).
• The regulation B/C 1.2.3 requires reporting 0 07 030 (Height of station ground above mean sea level) as defined in Note (3) under BUFR/CREX Table B, Class 07. 
• The program synop2bufr obtains the station metadata from Volume A, height of station ground above msl is taken from the column H/HA.  Consequently,  the altitude of the aerodrome HA has been reported for 0 07 030 instead of the required Height of station ground above msl in BUFR data from stations at aerodromes . And it is to noted that HA may be very different from the required 0 07 030, e.g. station 11518 has HA = 380 m, whereas 0 07 030 = 364.0 m.
• 0 07 030 is set to missing as a default value for aerodromes.
• A list of aerodromes is hard coded in the converter and has to be updated as soon as changes are introduced in Volume A.

Free download: synop2bufr_20140217.f