When you open FX-Net and click on  on the menu bar, a menu opens up with surface observations that can be plotted.  As with all other menus, the availability of the data depends on what map is selected for the primary window.  Data that is available will be black and greyed out items are not available at the scale you have selected. 

Data is grouped by type, most of it is surface data.  Exceptions include cloud ceiling height data under Other Plots, and GPS-IPWV data. There are blue headings that seperate the different products.  **METAR** data is surface data that is reported from hundreds of sites across the continent, generally hourly. Under **Hazards** is Lightning data, as well as new datasest Air Quality and GPS-IPWV.

As mentioned, the new Air Quality products are located at the bottom of the Obs menu. These include the air quality paramters from stations in New Hampshire, called AIRMAP, as well as the National 1-Hour Average O3 (Ozone) and Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5) from the AIRNow network.

 Loading these is similar to any other type of data.  First, select your number of frames from the tool bar.  If you only select 1, then you get the latest data set or analysis.  If you select more than 1, you get that number of sets or analyses starting with the most recent and going back in time.  Some examples of the data follow.


 
This map is a METAR Station Plot of wind, temperature, dew point, surface pressure, sky cover and wind gust.  The data looks sparsely plotted, but this is where zooming in on an area will get you a higher density of data.  Center the mouse pointer on where you want to focus and either hold down the Alt button and left click; or if you have a 3 button mouse, click the center button.  The result is below.

 
 
Here is the same plot, just zoomed in several times.  Now, instead of only one station in Missouri plotted as the image above shows, there are many.  This is how you increase the density of data on a surface plot.  Simply zoom in and FX-Net shows a higher density of data, called progressive disclosure. You can also use the global Density button on your toolbar to increase the density of data.

 
 
This is a plot of lightning strikes in a one hour time frame.  It was plotted on CONUS scale and zoomed in to get a closer look at the distribution.  In FX-Net, there's 1 hour, 15 minute, and 5 minute  lightning plots, and a 1 minute lightning sequence.  Represented here are cloud to ground strikes (-) and ground to cloud strikes (+).