20000327: MCIDAS AREA file headers

>From: Dave Dempsey <address@hidden>
>Organization: San Francisco State University
>Keywords: 200003280145.SAA13639 ldm-mcidas lwtoa3 header

Dave,

>Respected Unidaters,

Is this supposed to go to some other Unidata ;-)

>I'd like to include in my pqact.conf file an EXEC command that triggers a
>script upon receipt of MCIDAS AREA files containing GOES-west visible images
>at one particular hour (UTC) each day. To do that I've got to know where/how
>the date/time info is represented in MCIDAS AREA file headers. Where can I
>find that info?

Currently (this will change when we move to a different method for sending
products in the UW stream), the header looks like:

LWTOA3 nnnn CAL=YES DIALPROD=pp yyddd hhmmss
         ^                   ^    ^     ^____ nominal time for the image
         |                   |    |__________ year and Julian day
         |                   |_______________ McIDAS routing table product code
         |___________________________________ default AREA file number

The CAL= field is typically there, but it is not guaranteed.  The regular
expression I would use in pqact.conf to do the job you have in mind would
key off of the third positional parameter for the DIALPROD= keyword.

>Regards,

Tom