19990425: problem(apparently) with McIDAS decoders, and follow up to previous question

I have been in the process of readying a web page for our upcoming
Alaskan campaign and have just noticed that apparently the McIDAS
decoders are not producing the 30 MBAG parameters.  The SFC MBAG params
are there.  This is true for the Alaskan projection (grid 203) and for
the standard default MRF grids(I believe it is a mixture of a couple of
grids).  I use the 30 MBAG level winds in GEMPAK for these models so I
know they should be there.  The 30 MBAG params are being produced by
McIDAS for the ETA.  I really would like these as for various reasons I
am using McIDAS to generate the images(GEMPAK for a lot of text).  I
checked both our Solaris Intel machine and our Ultrasparc and it is the
same on both.

In a follow up to a question I asked last week about using the ZA
command in a shell script, I have found that if I write a batch file
instead of a shell script and then run batch.k in a script without
passing any variables, ZA displays the text on the saved image.  My
problem then becomes how to pass the variables from the browser to the
script, to the BATCH file. I guess it can be done..unless you know of a
way to get ZA to work in a shell script.

>From address@hidden  Wed Jul 14 11:57:55 1999

In finishing up my web page, I discovered that you cannot plot
wind barbs for the 10 meter winds from the ETA grid 212.  This
is apparently because the winds are decoded as 10m DIR and SPD,
instead of 10m U and V.  There is no problem with grids 211 and 215
as they have 10m U and V. Is there a way to plot the barbs?

Thanks
Robert Mullenax

>From address@hidden  Wed Jul 14 14:28:07 1999

I am of course talking about the RUC.  Did not have that in my
message.

Robert