20040209: idv question

>From: "Happel, Shelly" <address@hidden>
>Organization: UCAR/Unidata
>Keywords: 200402091951.i19JpAp1017214

Hi Shelly-

>We're going to use the IDV for a lab exercise tomorrow. We'd like to use the
>data probe to show precipitation. The default units are kg/sq m

Oooh, this is one I've been struggling with.  I don't know who came up
with those units in the first place.  I always assume that they are
really mm.  

we have:  kg/m2
1 kg of water is approximately 1 liter
1 liter is approximately 1000 cm^3

so, we have 1000 cm^3/m2 == 1 mm  (or there abouts)

So, you could think of the display as mm/accumulation period 
where accumulation period is the timestep between each valid time.

>Is there a way to change the units to something like mm/hour? Thanks in
>advance,

Not really without some really ugly Jython script.  I'll look into
this and see if I can come up with something for the next release.

Don
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