19990317: 2 subjects: 1 HDF 2 McTABLE

>From: "Jennie L. Moody" <address@hidden>
>Organization: UVa
>Keywords: 199903171851.LAA20778 McIDAS HDF ADDE

Jennie,

>I have a graduate student who may get some satellite data from 
>folks at the NASA Goddard DAAC for a time/region she was in the
>field recently, but she was told it was in HDF format (GOES 
>data in HDF format).  Is this something I would be able to help 
>her get into McIDAS which is where she was going to try to work 
>with it?

We don't have anything here at Unidata to do the conversion or ADDE
access of HDF data.  It could be that some folks at NASA/MSFC
(Marshall Space Flight Facility) have such code.  The reason I mention
this is that they make GOES data available by FTP in HDF and McIDAS
AREA formats.  Perhaps your student could:

o get the data she needs from MSFC:

ftp://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/Weather     all GMS/GOES 8 + 10
ftp://geo.msfc.nasa.gov/Weather         all GMS/GOES 8 + 10*
ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/Weather all GMS/GOES 8 + 10
ftp://weather.cs.ucl.ac.uk/Weather      GMS-5 only

o find someone at MSFC who has a HDF to AREA converter

>Totally separate issue:
>
>I was just getting ready to do some work with sounder data 
>(access through ADDE dataset from Wisconsin).  I haven't used this 
>in about a month.  I went to refer to the dataset, and it wasn't
>defined.

The location of the dataset wasn't defined in your session or the
dataset is not defined at Wisconsin?

>I started digging around, and I realize I really
>don't understand the ADDE-world....(need to attend a workshop...)

Right.

>Anyway, it seems I should be reading my MCTABLE.TXT file (which defines 
>these things),

Right.

>but this is not being done (not automatically anyway).

It is always done automatically.  MCTABLE.TXT is the place applications
look to find out if a dataset is local or on a remote machine.

>Should this be in a .mcenv for me (indeed, each user), because
>I don't have one currently?

You can define the environment variables MCTABLE_READ and MCTABLE_WRITE
in your environment.  Please refer to:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/mcx/config_users.html

for details.

>Remember, these are things I tried to have Kevin set up, I had
>tasked him with getting up to speed on ADDE, now I need to
>get myself up to speed.  Its even more of an issue now since
>I need to set up a new account/environment for a new student.

Given that you are in the mode of setting up a new user account,
you really should review the information that is available under
the:

Configuring Unidata McIDAS-X Accounts
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/mcx/config_mcx.html

page of online documentation for McIDAS-X.  All of the information
you need is there, so it will be easier than me reiterating it through
email.

Tom