Kevin and I recently attended the 2004 McIDAS Users Group meeting in Madison, WI. Here are
some of the highlights.
The MUG is starting to think about the future of McIDAS. And they have given thought to a new
version of McIDAS that would be combined with IDV....and so called McIDAS-V. This would add
3D displays and more analytical functions to McIDAS. SSEC will be funding the MUG to look into
this possibility so no MUG funds are being used. This also will not be a collaborative effort
between unidata and the MUG, except for a little bit of help here and there I'm sure. There are
many hurdles that need to be addressed and lots of programming so this would be a long term
plan..... (i.e. several years).
Some hurdles are:
- IDV is written in JAVA and JYTHON and McIDAS is all C and FORTRAN so some type
of conversion will need to take place.
- IDV currently has no scheduler option. So that would need to be added. Also 3/4 of
McIDAS users (as estimated) use McIDAS only in the background (batch jobs) and IDV
does not have this capability in full. IDV has something called "bundles" but I don't think
it provides the same function.
- Adding a simple command line interface would be necessary for simplicity. Currently it
is a little bit involved just to plot an image so a complete redesign of the IDV interface or
even something totally new might be necessary. Part of the complexity of IDV is because
it can do so many things. For example you can connect to many different types of
servers in IDV aside from just ADDE in McIDAS.
As Deb as mentioned in her email, Don Murray (Unidata) will be at CIRA November 10th to give
an IDV presentation so I would hope everyone will be able to attend as this is a great tool to use
in your research and a great opportunity to be introduced to IDV.
Also I thought I might mention some of the new features added in McIDAS 2004. These are a
few of the ones that caught my eye. See the Software Development presentation for more.
- a command history gui. You can now use this gui to quickly view and call back past
commands entered. This is much faster than using the shift-6 and shift-7 we are used
to. Some users now use this as their normal way of entering commands instead of the
regular text window.
- Ability to color grids by value when plotting. This gives a nice view when looking at
grids as a whole instead of trying to read the individual values.
- Ability to spot shadow objects
I also thought I might mention about McIDAS-XRD since I don't think too many in RAMMT know
about it. This is a McIDAS addon that includes several programs developed by the community
that are not included in the "core" McIDAS and not supported by the MUG. There are several
interesting ones, so I'm including a listing of the programs included in case it might spark an idea
for your research. If you are interested in any of these then see Kevin, Hiro and me and we can
add it to your system. One of the interesting ones is CLDTOPO which can create images like
this:
The MUG meeting included several site presentations that some of you might be interested in
viewing. You can look at the powerpoint presentations here (http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mug/)
under "2004 MUG Meeting Wrap-Up".
Dave
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Software Included in McIDAS-XRD for XP 2004:
Command Name Contributing Site Description
ADVDISP SSEC Plots flight advisories (airmets and sigmets)
ASTAT SSEC Measures image statistics
AWSLAPSE_TS AMRC Plots temperature difference time series
AWSMG AMRC Plots an Automated Weather Station meteorogram
AWSP_TS AMRC Plots pressure difference time series
BINNAV SSEC Displays binary navigation files created from AXFORM
CHANGECAL AMRC Updates calibration constants for NOAA-15 images
CIRCLE SSEC Draws circles or arcs around a point
CLDTOPO SSEC Combines IR, VIS and topography data
CLOUDH SSEC Calculates cloud heights using a VAS first-guess MD file
COMPGG SSEC Compares values of two colocated grids
COMPMG SSEC Compares an MD file's values to a colocated grid's values
COMPMM SSEC Compares values of two MD files
CONVERT_LEV1B SSEC Converts AVHRR data in Level 1B format into McIDAS area format
FCSTCON SSEC Contours FOUS14 forecast data
FCSTPLOT SSEC Plots FOUS14 forecast data
FILTER SSEC Applies 2-Dimensional filter or smoothing to a grid
FIXRAW SSEC Applies IMGFILT Clean Filter and preserves 2 byte data
FRONT Unidata Draws fronts using ASUS1 or FSUS2 frontal analysis bulletins
FRONTPTH SSEC Draws a front or curve through points generated by the PATH command
GETCOMPOSITES AMRC Transfers composite satellite images from SSEC to AMRC
GETDMSP AMRC Gets latest DMSP image centered on pole
GETGAC AMRC Gets latest GAC (band 4) image centered on pole
GETHRPT AMRC Gets latest HRPT (band 4) image centered on pole
GVARINFO SSEC Displays information from a GVAR area line
GVVA SSEC Examines a grid value at the cursor location
IGTV SSEC Generates contours and streamlines from grids
IMGPROC SSEC Applies a point spread function
IMGFLOAT SSEC Puts image data on top of a graphic in the frame
IMGGRD SSEC Generates a grid from an area
IRT SSEC Calculates rain rates based on Goodman et al., 1990 scheme
MAKEIMG SSEC Creates a McIDAS area from a general format
MAKEMAP SSEC Creates a McIDAS map file from a text file
MAKETOPO SSEC Creates a McIDAS area file from USGS DEM file
MDDPI SSEC Creates a derived product image from a MD and AREA file
MGXS SSEC Displays a meteorogram cross-section of surface data
NAVPASS AMRC Attaches navigation to TeraScan AVHRR passes
ND AMRC Deletes data from current system navigation file
NEXRAD SSEC NEXRAD dataset utility
NK AMRC Generates a navigation codicil from the master file
NM AMRC Moves navigation data to another file
NORTEL SSEC Combines two images by alternating pixel values
NVU AMRC Navigation file utility
OLDSVF SSEC SVF command from McIDAS-X versions prior to 7.7
PATH SSEC Displays a 2-dimensional path for object tracking
PIRPPLOT SSEC Plots pilot and air reports from PIRP schema point files
POESCAL SSEC Calibrates POES images
PRED AMRC Predicts navigation parameters from a master navigation entry
PROPLT SSEC Displays a vertical time series of profiler wind fields
RADAR SSEC Finds and displays a radar image over a point or region
RAIN SSEC Calculates rainfall rates from Meteosat infrared temperatures
REMAP2 SSEC Remaps a 2-byte area into a different projection
ROTIRO SSEC Rotates a POES image 180 degrees
SC SSEC Grids and contours surface data from an MD file
SMOOFT SSEC Applies a 2-D low pass Fast Fourier Transform filter to a grid
SP SSEC Plots surface data from an MD file
STG SSEC Displays an 8-hour space-time graph of surface data
SVGA SSEC Writes a virtual graphic to an area
SVPS ABoM Saves a McIDAS frame to a PostScript(tm) file
THPASS SSEC Applies a 2-D sixth order high-pass implicit tangent filter to a grid
TIMEINC AMRC Returns the new day and time when given a day, time and time increment
TIRCHK AMRC Calculates time differenes between actual and calculated scan lines
TLPASS SSEC Applies a 2-D sixth order low-pass implicit tangent filter to a grid
TNAVDEC AMRC Files polar orbiter navigation
TXTNAV SSEC Displays text navigation files created from AXFORM
UC SSEC Grids and contours upper air data from an MD file
UP SSEC Plots upper air data from an MD file
WHEN SSEC Extrapolates features and computes arrival times
WINDBOX SSEC Plots WINDCO MD file target and search box locations
WINDFLAG SSEC Plots wind flag at specified location
WRTEXT SSEC Displays the contents of a text file on a graphic frame
WXSDITH SSEC Writes weather symbols into a temperature image
XFGRID SSEC Subsects grids by reducing the geographic coverage and/or grid point interval
XSECTG Unidata Displays a vertical cross section of gridded fields
Data Files Included in McIDAS-XRD for XP 2004:
Data File Contributing Site Description
ADVDISP.CORE SSEC Configuration file for ADVDISP
CIRCLE.CORE SSEC Configuration file for CIRCLE
RADARDATA.CORE SSEC Configuration file for predefined products created by RADAR
topography.image SSEC Area file containing world-wide values for heights above sea level. Gray
shades 0-149 are below sea level, 150-255 are values above sea level. The following DSSERVE
command enables you to access the data with the IMG* commands:
DSSERVE ADD XRD/TOPO AREA TYPE=IMAGE
DIRFILE='//D/home/mcidas/data/topography.image'
TOPOIMG.ET SSEC Color enhancement for topography.image