20000302: McIDAS GINI-to-netCDF conversion (cont.)

>From: David Harper <address@hidden>
>Organization: NCAR/RAP
>Keywords: 200003012325.QAA04248 McIDAS-X GINI netCDF

Dave,

>Please forgive me as I am a little out of my home waters (someone
>thought experience in serial port ingestors would translate directly).
>
>Yes I am in RAP, but I am working on a project for the Army.

OK, this may change things.  The conversion inherent in ADDE copies
requires the use of McIDAS routines and that code must be licensed.

>Since we
>are going to distribute to five (maybe more) sites, we have been trying
>to avoid licence entanglements.  I assume that since a licence is
>required the conversion is more complex than just the header
>information?

Yes.  RAP could get the code since it is already licensed for McIDAS,
but it can not be passed along to non-licensed sites.

>The reason I ask is that if the image is consistant, I could modify our
>netCDF reader to be able to understand the header info comming in from
>the NOAAport.

The image is not consistent at all.  The GINI imagery is served up to
look like imagery in McIDAS AREA files.  The netCDF output puts the
data into a format where each pixel has a defined value, latitude, and
longitude.  This makes the netCDF files much larger than either the
GINI format or McIDAS AREA format.  A netCDF output format is what is
used by the NWS for AWIPS, but I _think_ that a different routine
developed by SSEC does this.

Can you give me some more detail about exactly what you are trying to
do with GINI/netCDF images?  Are you working with Doug Lindholm?  If
so, VisAD can access McIDAS ADDE servers and write netCDF files for
image and point source data.  This may be a way for the project you are
working to distribute data to your sites (or maybe not).

Tom