20040616: NEED GRID FILES (GRIB or McIDAS format) (cont.)

>From: address@hidden (Jennie L. Moody)
>Organization: UVa
>Keywords:  200406111606.i5BG6xtK025884 McIDAS-XCD GRID GRIB gribdec

Hi Jennie,

>I am looking at the unidata archive that Jeff Weber pointed me to, and
>files are quickly slipping away...but I cannot figure out how to grab
>them from this link (stupid question I guess).  Its an http site, when
>I click on the files from my desktop machine (which does have plenty of
>space to store them until I move them to a unix system for decoding),
>the Window's Media Player opens (maybe because of the .wmo extension??)
>and shows an error (object not found).

Here is what to do in Netscape to configure a MIME type so you can
download the data:

- click on Edit
- click on Preferences
- click on Helper Applications
- click on New Type
- enter:

MIME Type:   data/binary
Description:                         <- leave blank
Extension:   wmo                     <- NOTE: 'wmo', not '.wmo'

- select Save it to Disk
- click on OK
- click on OK

Next, go to the web page:

http://motherlode.ucar.edu

- click on Access Data Archive
- click on Raw [unconverted] data archives
- click on hrs
- click on model
- click on the type you want
- find the file you want to download
- left click on the file name link
- choose the directory you want to download to

The problem is that an unknown MIME type defaults to opening the
Windows Media Player -- BAD --.

Please let us know if this doesn't work for you.

>When I try to ftp to
>motherlode, rather than use the http link Jeff Weber provided, I am
>denied acces.

I am suprised by this.  Do you want me to logon to windfall and
try an FTP from it to scope out the problem?

>When I try to click on the link running netscape on
>windfall (where there is no Media Player software problem), it just
>shows that its trying to display the binary file to the screen).  So,
>not only have I screwed up and missed retrieving a bunch of these dates
>already.  I cannot figure out how to grab whats there.  I also could
>use a refresher on the WMO headers (this is how the archive is listed),
>so I have to go find a link to those before I can proceed.

The problem you are seeing is related to Netscape not knowing about
the MIME type.  Setting it through the procedure above will allow
you to save to disk like you want.

>Feeling just a little frustrated by this.  If you can offer a solution
>that would allow me to at least grab one or two of these files before
>they disappear, that would be great.

Jeff and I worked through the procedure above and it worked for us
using Netscape on Windows XP and Mozilla on AIX 5.1 (the machine I use
in my office).  It should work just the same under Solaris.  Since
the versions of Netscape and Mozilla that we were using are newish,
you may run into a different set of button labels, etc. in the
version of Netscape you are using.  The concept for setting the MIME
type will be the same, however.

>I am trying to get the equivalent
>of the McIDAS versions of the RUC (the 52xx grids that I regularly
>decode) or the AVN grids (eg. the 57xx or 58xx grids that I decode).

I understand.  If there was more disk space on motherlode, we
would have more days of McIDAS-decoded GRID data.  One news item:
SSEC has been working on an ADDE server for GRIB data.  As soon
as this is working, I will add it to my v2004 release (which
I am putting together now).  The GRIB server will eliminate the
need for running the XCD GRID decoder and will save LOTS of disk
space.

>I already missed the data from May, was out of the office until Tuesday
>morning and just got around to this task.  Any hope for finding these
>someplace else???

I am sure that you will be able to find the GRIB data at the
SCD data portal:

Unidata HomePage:
http://my.unidata.ucar.edu

  List All Stories
  http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/allstories.php

    IDD Model & Observation Data-90 days
    http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/article.php?sid=51

     Data Support Section
     http://dss.ucar.edu/

       Datasets
       http://dss.ucar.edu/catalogs/

If you can't find the GRIB data there (you should be able to), you can
subscribe to the address@hidden email list (you already sent
a note to this list, so you are already subscribed :-) and then send
another request for the data.

Even though I _know_ that this data is out there in the Unidata
community, you should be able to get it from NCDC:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov

>Thanks if you can offer any help.

No worries.

>P.S. Hope all goes well, I'll get around to dropping a line some day
>soon...

I have been wondering how you have been!  I'm looking forward to
some news :-)

Cheers,

Tom
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