20000412: Problem reading MD file FTPed from UW archive (cont.)

>From: Mark Anderson <address@hidden>
>Organization: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
>Keywords: 200004111444.IAA02473 McIDAS-X 7.60 SFCPLOT ADDE

Mark,

>You raise a tough question in whether to produce the lat/long/etc file
>to be used. I have students using the data to generate case studies so
>yes it would be nice. However if it is a big problem then I can get
>around it now, though it would be nice.

OK, I will try to jam something together in the next couple of days
that will do the job.

>The bigger question is the SSEC
>archive. Hasn't anyone else in the past year tried to use the data.

I think that most people were of the mind that since the point source
data stopped being sent in the broadcast on July 1, 1999, it would
not be available in the Unidata-Wisconsin archive.  It is probably also
the case that after the July 1 date, SSEC stopped worrying about QC
of the data files in the archive.

>I should point out the upper air works fine.

Yes, I checked this out.

>Wouldn't someone at wisc have done this??

Not after July 1, 1999.

>Wouldn't they also want the fix.

No.  Their "real" archive, the one that I got them to allow .EDU sites
to request data from, is fine.  It is only the surface MD files that
would have been sent out in the Unidata-Wisconsin datastream that are
hosed up.  On the off chance that you did not see the announcement of
free .EDU access to the SSEC archives, I have included the announcement
below (Clint may have been the contact at UNL that got the email).

>I guess my answer is yes create the file, I know I will use if now and
>in the future. I'm hoping someone else will also need the fix in the
>future.

OK.  Just for reference, what I have in mind is a McIDAS routine
called, say, MDFIX, whose sole job in life is to modify a UW archive MD
files to add LAT, LON, ZS, ST, and CO.  This would "repair" the file
and make it usable for plots/contours.  There will be no additional
files to have to worry about.  SSEC will not, I would guess, be keen on
rewriting their archive tapes to fix the problem since the
Unidata-Wisconsin archive project is not funded (i.e., done catch as
catch can gratis for Unidata sites).

>Thanks for the help and I hope this will not be a long process.

I will try to jam something together pretty quickly.  I will then test
it on the files I grabbed from you and others I got from
unidata.ssec.wisc.edu that were damaged.  When I have something that
works, I will blast you an email telling you where to grab the code and
how to build, install, and run it on your system.

>I only have two weeks of school left (yippie I think).

Lucky you!

Tom