20000711: Strange date jump with certain CIMSS files (using pnga2area) (cont.)

>From: "C. Vandersip" <address@hidden>
>Organization: FSU
>Keywords: 200007031756.e63HugT00060 ldm-mcidas

Chris,

>Thanks. I probably was being a little too impatient.  It's just that you
>guys are usually so quick to respond, the silence was deafening :).

Sorry I couldn't respond earlier.  I am trying to prepare a new distribution
of McIDAS, and Chiz is preparing a new distribution of GEMPAK.

>Below is the CIMSS section from our pqact.conf.

>#                                                                       #     
>   
>#  NEW (28-Jun-2000) CIMSS products in PNG-compressed AREA file format  #
>#  for use in GEMPAK/GARP/McIDAS                                        #
>#
>
>#CIMSS Cloud Top Pressure - McIDAS product code CA
>MCIDAS  ^pnga2area Q. CA .... (.*) (.*) (.*) (........) (....)
>        PIPE    -close
>        pnga2area -xl /usr/local/ldm/logs/CIMSS_CTP.log 
>        -a /usr/local/ldm-mcidas/etc/SATANNOT
>        -b /usr/local/ldm-mcidas/etc/SATBAND
>        data/garpdata/images/sat/SOUNDER/\3/CTP/CTP_%y%m%d_\5

<snip>

OK, I see the problem without.

The strftime syntax in your name specification:

         data/garpdata/images/sat/SOUNDER/\3/CTP/CTP_%y%m%d_\5

(i.e., the %y, %m, and %d) as specified will be interpreted by the
LDM itself, not pnga2area.  These items will be filled in with 
clock values: %y by the two digit year at the time the invocation is
run; %m by the two digit month at the time the invocation is run;
and %d by the two digit day at the time the invocation is run.

What you want to do is "escape" these specifications so that they
will be passed to pnga2area which will then fill them in using
values from the image itself.  Escaping the strftime specifications
is done by doubling the '%' (percent) characters:

replace:

         data/garpdata/images/sat/SOUNDER/\3/CTP/CTP_%y%m%d_\5

with:

         data/garpdata/images/sat/SOUNDER/\3/CTP/CTP_%%y%%m%%d_\5

The doubled '%' ('%%') will be interpreted by the LDM parsing of
strftime as single precent signs which are then passed to pnga2area
which will then fill in the values using the day and time information
from the image.

What you need to do then is:

o update your ~ldm/etc/pqact.conf entries
o send a HUP signal to the pqact process
o let me know if this doesn't solve your problem

Tom

>From address@hidden Tue Jul 11 20:06:36 2000

Ahh, a very subtle correction.  I never would have figured that one out.
I've made the changes and will monitor.  

I'm hopeful that Garp will be able to display these new images with the
correct scale.  They are great additions to the family.  We are not a
McIDAS shop here.  Apparently, it's use declined a few years before I
arrived in late '98.  But if Gempak/Garp won't handle the scaling, then
I'll be digging into the McIDAS guides to get it fully functional. It
definitely has real advantages for sat display and analysis. Of course,
you might be hearing alot more from me if I go this route (oh joy, eh?
:-o)

I'll let you know how things are going.  Thanks again for the great
support.

Regards,
Chris