19991030: Update on Jackson State LDM feed

>From: "Dr. Pat Fitzpatrick" <address@hidden>
>Organization: Jackson State University
>Keywords: 199910300447.WAA10430 IDD

Pat,

>As I'm sure you have noticed, the LDM feed has been halted to Jackson
>State because the machine santa.jsums.edu is experiencing (apparently)
>operating system problems, with one of the problems being lack of network
>access. 

Yes, we have seen numerous bounced emails to santa.jsums.edu and noted
that Jackson State was not participating in the IDD.

>We had future plans to change machines soon anyway, but now the timetable
>has been moved up. We have a new machine running the latest version of
>Linux from Red Hat.

Presumably, this is 6.1?

>The machine is called weather.jsums.edu
>(143.132.50.235). What is the best way to start up the LDM feed to this
>machine, and can you assist us with this effort?

Here is the procedure that you should follow whenever you change your
LDM machine:

o first, if you don't already know who your upstream feed site is, you
  should check:

  Unidata homepage
  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu
    Internet Data Distribution (IDD)
    http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/idd/index.html
      IDD site contact list
      http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/idd/sitelist.html

  On the last page, look for your institution and machine (santa.jsums). 
  In one of the columns, it you will find the name for your upstream feed site:

  stokes.metr.ou.edu

o after finding out who was feeding you, you need to find out the name of
  the contact at that site so that you can provide him/her with the
  new information about your site.

  Under OU (University of Oklahoma), you will find that the contact is:

  University of Oklahoma
  stokes.metr.ou.edu
  Mark Laufersweiler
  address@hidden|ou.edu
  405-325-6032

  The funny looking email address (met.fsu.edu|ou.edu) is due to Mark fomerly
  being at FSU.  You would use address@hidden.

o On the same IDD site contact list page, you will find who your secondary
  feed site is supposed to be.  You use this information to get the name
  and email address of him/her, since he/she will need to be contacted
  also.

o send emails to the contact at your primary and secondary feed site
  informing them of the change that is occurring at your site.  You
  should provide them with the name of your new IDD machine and its
  IP address.  You should also CC Unidata User Support
  (address@hidden) on your emails so we can log the exchange
  of information.

Your upstream feed sites will add ALLOWs to their LDMs' ldmd.conf files
for your machine.  As soon as you bring up the LDM and configure it to
request data from your primary feed site.  You can either build the LDM
from source, or you can get a binary distribution.  The LDM is
accessible through anonymous FTP at ftp.unidata.ucar.edu:

LDM source distribution
pub/ldm5

LDM binary distribution
pub/binary/linux_2.2.5-i686/

You should review our web pages on LDM installation and configuration:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/ldm

for details on how to install and configure the LDM (I believe that you have
done this in the past).

>Also, we'd like to start producing graphics on the web page for our
>meteorology classes of the model data, surface obs, satellite data, and
>upper-level data, and I am open to advice on how to do this using the
>decoders. We have actually become quite proficient at shell programming
>and automating scripts, but the area we need guidance on is the generation
>of weather graphics using the UNIDATA weather feed.

How you go about this will depend on which package you decide to use:
GEMPAK or McIDAS or both.  After you make this decision, you should
signup for the GEMPAK (address@hidden) and/or McIDAS-X
(address@hidden) email lists and then ask others for some
advice on what they have done.  The reasons that I suggest asking the
community are that Unidata does not try to have a set of prepackaged
scripts for display generation, and several sites have developed quite
extensive procedures for generating graphics for their department's web
pages.  In addition, the GEMPAK distribution does have a number of
whose purpose are the generatioun of CGM files that can be reviewed in
NTRANS.  This may be a good starting point for your efforts.

Please let us know if the above information on the LDM make sense to
you.  Also, it is better to send inquiries to address@hidden
since there are several of us who read messages there.  The problem
with corresponding directly with any one of us is that we may be on
travel (like I am now (Melbourne, Australia)) and, therefore, not able
to respond in a timely manner.

Tom
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