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[Support #YQH-326098]: Questions about IDV

This archive contains answers to questions sent to Unidata support through mid-2025. Note that the archive is no longer being updated. We provide the archive for reference; many of the answers presented here remain technically correct, even if somewhat outdated. For the most up-to-date information on the use of NSF Unidata software and data services, please consult the Software Documentation first.

  • Subject: [Support #YQH-326098]: Questions about IDV
  • Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:19:58 -0700
Hello-

> From what i have seen IDV program is a really interesting program
> for the visualization of meteorological products and satellite
> images . As i haven't heard for this software before i have few
> questions. First of all can IDV import raw satellite images (for
> instance i am using Meteosat 8 can the program support the Msg
> format .nat? or MSG images?) 

At present, we only support McIDAS AREA format from disk.  Other
formats (e.g. Meteosat) are accessible throught the McIDAS ADDE 
protocol if you have access to a server that can provide those
to you.

and does the software support data
> from synoptic stations in Ascii FORMAT (from Ecmwf)?I have synoptic
> stations data  from ecmwf in ASCII format but also in txt files but
> IDV can't read it, can you guide me what should i do?

The IDV has an adapter for ASCII comma separated point observations.
You need to edit the data and add in column headers that describe
the data.  There is no automatic generation of this metadata at
present.

> I am giving you a sample of the files from the synoptic stations   i
> downloaded from ECMWF.int , that i can't read with IDV

Thank you for the sample.  There are a couple of issues that 
would prevent the IDV from handling this.  The IDV requires the
date to be all one field, but in this file there are separate
columns for the year, month, day, hour.  Also, the time fields
are not zero padded so making a merge is problematic.

I imported the file into Microsoft Excel, merged the time fields
into one column, filled in the 0's and exported it as a comma 
separated value (csv) file.  I added in the lines the IDV needs
and opened it using the IDV File Chooser as a Text Point Data File.
I just guessed at the fields.  Do you have documentation on the
fields and standards for missing data (most looks like 555 is missing).
I will send you the sample I created in a separate message.

At present we don't have a way to subset the data by 
time, so you end up loading in the entire file.  You could
create several files from this one.

> I am looking forward to hearing from you soon

> >Giannakos Apostolos
> 
> >University of Aegean,
> >Department of Geography
> >laboratory of satellite meterology and Remote Sensing

Don Murray

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: YQH-326098
Department: Support IDV
Priority: Normal
Status: Open