I originally wrote CARI-7 to read the NOAA's NGDC files of Kp and Ap indicies in 2013.
NGDC stopped publishing this format in 2018.
The batch scripts in this folder were originally written to use global Kp index data 
files in SWPC format to create similar files in the older NGDC format. 

This conversion was needed to account for changes in SWPC versions of the file since 2018. 
For example, in 2022 NOAA changed from (N, N+, or N-) to (N.**[decimals for fractional Kp]).

In 2024 many Web browsers stopped supporting FTP file downloads, forcing a change of data 
sources to one where ftp was not needed. The World Data Center for geomagnetic data at 
Potsdam University provides multiple forms of the data, including a legacy WDC format and
and tab delimited tables.

Thus, I revised the scripts used here a CAMI in December 2024 to download the latest month, ly Kp index file in tab format from the WDC currently hosted by Potsdam U. 
While it would have been possible to switch to the using the WDC format directly in CARI, it would have required much more coding.
(I may taking this option in the for future, since WDC format should not change and should persist from host site to host site as the WDC moves)

The Potsdam site takes several days to post the definitive version of the data for the preceding month. 
Waiting until the second week of the month to attempt retrieval may be required.

To use the scripts: 

1. Run CONVERT_tab.BAT. This script will request the desired name of the new file, which will have last month's Kp data and be in the pre-2018 NGDC format. 
e.g. C:>CONVERT 202411_Kp.txt (there will also be a couple of intermediate files created which are erased each time the scripts are run.

See the notes in the scripts for more details of how they work. 

2. Append the reformatted data to the end of the file KP_INDEX\KP_INDEX.TXT . 

Do not worry about the nonsense Ap data (set to all 999s) for recent dates. CARI-7 and 7A do not use the Ap data. 
The Ap characters are only placeholders to ensure correct reading because of the legacy format.   

Best regards,
Kyle Copeland 
Dec. 12, 2024