20001011: pnga2area action for pqact.conf at UGa

>From: "Tony Wasilewski" <address@hidden>
>Organization: Georgia Tech
>Keywords: 200010021504.e92F4Wb00783 Unidata McIDAS-X

Tony,

>Thanks for the response. I figured out that I'm getting the feeds, but I am
>still not getting the products I need (sat imagery) as files. I am trying
>the following:
>
>MCIDAS ^(LWTOA3 .*)
> PIPE -close
> lwtoa3 -d /usr/local/ldm/data/mcidas -v
>
>in my pqact.conf file.
>LDM user has permission to write to this directory.

This action was used to decode the delta encoded images that were removed
from the Unidata-Wisconsin (LDM MCIDAS feed type) datastream on September
15.

>This should create the Delta compressed Unidata-Wisconsin channel image
>(AREA) files that I want:
>
>#  GOES-9 North America VIS       120 - 123
>#  GOES-9 North America IR        130 - 133
>#  GOES-8 North America VIS       140 - 143
>#  GOES-8 North America IR        150 - 153
>#  Educational Floater            160 - 163
>#  GOES-9 North America H2O       170 - 173
>#  Research Floater               180 - 183
>#  Antarctic Composite            190 - 193
>#  Manually Digitized Radar       200 - 205
>#  GOES-8 North America H2O       210 - 213

The delta compressed images no longer exist.  You can use pnga2area to
decode the PNG compressed image substitutes.

>But nothing shows up in the directory. I am, however, able to successfully
>get area files for the PNG compressed Unidata-Wisconsin channel image (AREA)
>files, using entries such as:
>
>MCIDAS ^pnga2area Q. CA .... (.*) (.*) (.*) (........) (....)
> PIPE -close
> pnga2area /data/ldm/gempak/nport/SOUNDER/\3/CTP/CTP_\4_\5

Excellent.  If your objective is to also decode the same imagery into
McIDAS AREA files, you simply need to perform a couple more steps.
See below.

>I performed an "ldmadmin watch -f  MCIDAS", and I noticed that one of the
>desired products, "manually digitized radar," came through. But unlike the
>http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/mcidd/ldm-mcidas-pqact.conf file
>example entry, the header was of type "pnga2area", not "LWTOA3" as expected.

The header was changed from LWTOA3 to pnga2area to signify that the
compression of the images had changed.  This change was specifically
designed to break people's old pqact.conf entries as they are no longer
valid.

>When I try to add a "pnga2area" pqact.conf entry for this product, and then
>perform a pqactcheck, is says: "unknown feed name."

This is telling you that the entry typed put in is incorrectly formatted.
I am betting that you don't have tabs where they are needed, or that there
is a space before the MCIDAS feed type name or after it.

The pqact.conf entry that you can use as a direct replacement for the LWTOA3
entry you showed above is:

MCIDAS  pnga2area Q1 (..) (.*) (.*) (.*) (.*) (........) (....)
        PIPE    -close
        pnga2area -v
        -a /usr/local/ldm/etc/SATANNOT
        -b /usr/local/ldm/etc/SATBAND
        -d /usr/local/ldm/data/mcidas -r \1,\2
        
This assumes:

o you copied SATANNOT and SATBAND from the ldm-mcidas distribution (etc
  directory in the binary distribution and src/decode in the source
  distribution) to /usr/local/ldm/etc

o you have a copy of ROUTE.SYS and SYSKEY.TAB in the /usr/local/ldm/data/mcidas
  directory AND these files are readable and writable by the user running
  your LDM

o you use tabs in appropriate places in your pqact.conf entry:

  o between MCIDAS and pnga2area
  o before PIPE
  o before -close
  o before -a
  o before -b
  o before -d

o you don't have spaces at the beginnings of any lines in pqact.conf

>Is there a way for me to
>add this entry to a table somewhere so it will be recognized as a valid feed
>name?

The invalid feed name is an indication of a typo.  The feed type was and
continues to be MCIDAS.

>Thanks ... Tony Wasilewski

After reentering the entry above, an 'ldmadmin pqactcheck' should show
no errors.  NOTE, however, that one problem that this does not find is
a line (or lines) that begin with a space.  These lines are invalid
and will cause the LDM to not process actions in pqact.conf from that
point on.

Tom Yoksas