19990915: Several McIDAS related questions

>From: Anthony Rockwood - MSCD Meteorology <address@hidden>
>Organization: MSCD
>Keywords: 199909151637.KAA08815 NIDS MCGUI GEMPAK/GARP ROUTE DSSERVE

Tony,

>Can you help me with these:
>
>1.  I notice that FTG comes in every 10 min but floaters come in every 5
>min.  Can you tell me why? 

NIDS products are sent out with update rates depending on the mode the
radar is being operated in:

update rate        radar mode
   5 min           storm mode
   6 min           precip. mode
  10 min           clear air mode

Since the floaters are picked to look at interesting weather, they are
much more likely operating in precip. or storm mode.

>2.  I want to save more NIDS and satellite images.  Do I have the option
>of choosing how many of each type to save ?  If so, what file do I edit to
>do this ? 

The number of NIDS images you are saving right now is determined by how
you are scouring them.  Don and I went over this in previous emails.

The number of satellite images you keep is set in the McIDAS routing
table.  You can modify the numbers to whatever you like remembering
that the range of AREA numbers for the files can not overlap.  Right
now, the setup we send out with McIDAS/ldm-mcidas for 10 of each type
of image.  GOES-West IR images are stored in AREA0130 - AREA0139,
inclusive.  If you wanted to save 20 of these images at any one time,
you might think that you could simply change this to be AREA0130 -
AREA0149.  The problem is that the GOES-East Vis images are being saved
into AREA0140 - AREA0149, so you can't simply extend the ending
cylinder number.  What you would have to do is choose a new cylinder
range for the products you want to keep more of and then change your
routing table.  For instance, you might choose to save GOES-West IR
images into AREAs 2000 - 2019.  You would set the routing by doing
the following:

<login as 'mcidas'>
<start a McIDAS-X session>
<make sure that you have a REDIRECTion for the copy of ROUTE.SYS
 that the ldm-mcidas decoders use/update>
<change the routing entry for the GOES-West IR images>

ROUTE ADD U5 AREA 2000 2019 CC=3 SYS=2113 2114 2115 PP=GW-IR.BAT "GOES-West US 
IR Band 4
ROUTE REL U5

Modify the ADDE server definitions for new range of AREA numbers:

DSSERVE ADD RTIMAGES/GW-IR AREA  2000  2019 "GOES-West Western US IR

Now, new GOES-West IR images that come in will get stored in AREAs 2000
- 2019 and the ADDE remote server access to these images will work.  If
individual users are accessing the data files through LOCAL-DATA
access, then each one of them will have to go through and do the
DSSERVE ADD command above.

That will take care of McIDAS.  For GEMPAK/GARP, you will have to
modify the link script that sets up the mapping between AREA files and
names that GEMPAK/GARP uses.  The file to look at is nsat_links.  This
file (run by cron) will have to be modified:  KEEP is the number of
links that are needed; you will have to change the AREA numbers to
match your new setup.

>3.  In McIDAS, I'm not getting any meteorograms, soundings or NIDS using
>McGUI.  MG and SKEWT do work from the Command line, but is there
>something I need to set up,

The first thing we need to determine is why they are not working.  To
do this, you should open the GUI console window (click the left mouse
button over the keyboard icon at the top of the GUI) and run one of
the commands that fails.  In the GUI console we should see the error
messages generated by the command.  With this information, we can tell
what is not setup, or is not setup correctly.

>or is this what's meant by "under construction"?

No, the "under construction" means that the GUI will be undergoing
significant changes until its official release.  It should work
for you right now IF things are configured correctly.

By the way, you didn't mention for which account the GUI access is
not working.

Tom