[IDV #YMJ-686252]: radar level II

Hi Donna-

Thanks for the file, that clears things up for me.

> OK, the build date is Build Date: 2007-04-11 07:04
> UTC.  I am not sure that is relevant, however, I just
> sent a follow up message.  As it turns out, I still
> have IDV 2.1 and 2.0 on my disk - sometimes being lazy
> pays off.  The files load with IDV 2.0 but not with
> IDV 2.1  Thus, I can use 2.0 in class tomorrow.  I
> have attached one of the files.  I think they are all
> downloaded from the IDD but I am not sure.  These are
> radar files of the Lawrence microburst.  We did get a
> fair amount of data before the power went out.  I
> might have downloaded two or three times from NCDC, I
> just don't remember.  I did try several individual
> files as well as the whole group.  Thus, I do not
> think the problem is with any individual file.


Here's a synopsis of the problem.  First, the error you are 
getting is due to a problem in code repository.  You are
picking up a bad version of the program that decompresses
the data.  I've fixed that one.  But, since the files all end
with .bz2, the IDV now thinks that they are bzipped and tries
to uncompress them.  In reality, the files are bundles of
compressed radials that were sent out in the IDD, not one big
file that was BZIP2 compressed.  

In version 2.0, we were using a different file reader that 
couldn't handle compressed files.  Now, we are going through
the netCDF for Java Common Data Model which does try to 
decompress the files first, depending on the suffix.  So, for
.Z files, it tries to uncompress them, for .gz files, it tries
to gunzip them, and for .bz2 files it tries to decompress
them with the  BZIP2 algorithm.

What does this all mean for you?  At present, if you want to
read the files in, you'll need to rename them to get rid of the
.bz2 extension.  Alternatively, you can check off the "Use CDM" box
on the Level II chooser and it will read them in using the old
style of reading.  However, sometimes the displays for that
method are not correct, but at least they will be no worse than
when you used them last time.

In the long run, it would be wise to remove the .bz2 extension from
your files, but I understand that if you have a lot, that is a pain.
But, it's like having a .doc extension on them and trying to open
it in Windows.  Windows would guess that they would be Word files based
on the file name extension.

Don Murray

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: YMJ-686252
Department: Support IDV
Priority: Normal
Status: Open