[IDV #QWH-148314]: 20121104: IDV bundle for 20100429 dust case

Hi Rebecca,

First, it was nice meeting you at the IDV training workshop held last
week here in Boulder.  I trust that your trip home was uneventful...

Second, I played around with the Jpeg images that we downloaded at the
end of the IDV workshop mainly to see if navigation could be added to
them so they could be used productively in the IDV.  The good news is
that the navigation for the images saved in the Jpegs is a simple
rectilinear projection (even spacing in latitude and longitude).  Because
of this, I was able to add navigation to all of the Jpegs (e.g., CIRDIF_W6.jpg,
CIRDIF_W7.jpg, ..., CIRDIF_W42.jpg) using Unidata McIDAS-X capabilities
(the images that the Jpegs came from were created in McIDAS-X, and
McIDAS-X is the best took for converting the Jpegs back to McIDAS
AREA file images).

The results of the navigation efforts are:

- the pictures have been transformed into McIDAS AREA file images that
  have the dates "burned-in" to the Jpeg pictures

- I uploaded the AREA files to and created an ADDE dataset on one
  of the server machines we maintain, adde.ssec.wisc.edu.

  The name of the Dataset that I created is NMSU.

  You can see the images directly in the IDV by using:

  Dashboard -> Sat & Radar -> Images

  Server: adde.ssec.wisc.edu
  Dataset: NMSU

  Click on connect, etc.

- after reading through some blog posts on the UW/SSEC/CIMSS website
  for March 2010, I saw what I assume is a reference to the
  product they created to identify dust from GOES-11 imagery:

  http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/4920

  I believe that the information contained in this blog is directly
  applicable to the Jpeg pictures that we downloaded while you
  were here in Boulder.

  Since I think that the information contained in the blog is pertinent,
  I created an enhancement (color table) in McIDAS-X to match the
  color table shown in the blog post animation of GOES-11 channel
  4 minus channel 5 imagery.

- I created an IDV bundle that shows the animation and uses the color
  table that I created and uploaded it to RAMADDA on motherlode.ucar.edu.

Try loading the CIRDIF bundle in IDV and let me know what you think:

motherlode.ucar.edu

  RAMADDA Data Repository
  http://motherlode.ucar.edu/repository

    IDV Community Resources -> Bundles -> NMSU Dust Cases

As a reminder, you load this bundle in the IDV via:

Dashboard -> Catalogs -> Unidata's RAMADDA Server -> IDV Community Resources
 -> Bundles -> NMSU Dust Cases

I think that the bundle nicely shows the dust event that originates in
southern New Mexico/northern Mexico on 20100429.

Comments:

- the procedure for adding the navigation to the Jpeg pictures to create
  a McIDAS AREA file image is not trivial, but it is doable

- navigation can be added to individual images in the IDV, but the
  IDV has no mechanism (that I know of, at least; I could be wrong)
  to save the navigated image as a McIDAS AREA file

- the color table I created and include in the bundle on RAMADDA
  can be saved as a local color table in your IDV session:

  - load the bundle
  - right click on the color bar in the Legend
  - open the color table editor
  - save the color table in the Satellite Category keeping
    the name I gave it, CIRDIF

- after loading the bundle, you can use the range and bearing tool
  to estimate the dust event's direction and speed of movement

Question:

- what is the URL for the site we download the April 29, 2010 dust
  case from?

Hopefully, you will read this email before talking to your professor
about what you learned at the IDV workshop :-)

Cheers,

Tom
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