The IEM produces a number of RASTER images meant for GIS use. These RASTERs are typically provided on the IEM website as 8 bit PNG images. This means there are 256 slots available for a binned value to be placed. This page attempts to document these RASTER images and provide the lookup table of PNG index to an actual value. Click on the item in the "Label" column to get the lookup table below.

LabelDescriptionUnits
composite_eetThis is a composite of 8bit Echo Tops (EET)kft
composite_n0qThis is a composite of 8bit Reflectivity (N0Q)dBZ
composite_n0rThis is a composite of Reflectivity (N0R)dBZ
mrms_a2mNCEP MRMS 2 minute interval precipitation accumulation.mm
mrms_lcrefNCEP MRMS 2 minute lowest elevation composite reflectivity.dBZ
mrms_p1hNCEP MRMS 1 Hour Accumulated Precipitation.mm
mrms_p24hNCEP MRMS 24 Hour Accumulated Precipitation.mm
mrms_p48hNCEP MRMS 48 Hour Accumulated Precipitationmm
mrms_p72hNCEP MRMS 72 Hour Accumulated Precipitation.mm

Programatic Access to this RASTER source

The IEM generated RASTERs are stored in a programatic way that should allow for easy scripted download of the archive. This section documents the URL format template used with the time shown in UTC. The string format modifiers below are pythonic strftime values.

https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/archive/data/%Y/%m/%d/GIS/uscomp/n0q_%Y%m%d%H%M.png

A general web service also exists to convert these RASTERs to netCDF "on-the-fly". The URL format is like so:

https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/cgi-bin/request/raster2netcdf.py?dstr=%Y%m%d%H%M&prod=composite_n0q

Try the netCDF Conversion!

Lookup Table for composite_n0q

Would it help you to have the information below in a different format? Please contact us if so!
Color IndexValue (dBZ)RedGreen BlueHEX
0Missing000#000000
1-32133113143#85718f
2-31.5133114143#85728f
3-31134115141#86738d
4-30.5135117139#87758b
5-30135118139#87768b
6-29.5136119137#887789
7-29137121135#897987
8-28.5137122135#897a87
9-28138123133#8a7b85
10-27.5139125132#8b7d84
11-27139126132#8b7e84
12-26.5140127130#8c7f82
13-26141129128#8d8180
14-25.5141130128#8d8280
15-25142131126#8e837e
16-24.5143132124#8f847c
17-24143133124#8f857c
18-23.5144135123#90877b
19-23145136121#918879
20-22.5145137121#918979
21-22146139119#928b77
22-21.5147141117#938d75
23-2115014583#969153
24-20.515214887#989457
25-2015515191#9b975b
26-19.515715496#9d9a60
27-19160157100#a09d64
28-18.5163160104#a3a068
29-18165163109#a5a36d
30-17.5168166113#a8a671
31-17170169118#aaa976
32-16.5173172122#adac7a
33-16176175126#b0af7e
34-15.5178178131#b2b283
35-15183184140#b7b88c
36-14.5186187144#babb90
37-14189190148#bdbe94
38-13.5191193153#bfc199
39-13194196157#c2c49d
40-12.5196199162#c4c7a2
41-12199202166#c7caa6
42-11.5202205170#cacdaa
43-11204208175#ccd0af
44-10.5210212180#d2d4b4
45-10207210180#cfd2b4
46-9.5201204180#c9ccb4
47-9198201180#c6c9b4
48-8.5195199180#c3c7b4
49-8192196180#c0c4b4
50-7.5189193180#bdc1b4
51-7185190180#b9beb4
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