20000929: McIDAS problem drawing fronts

>From: "Neil R. Smith" <address@hidden>
>Organization: Texas A&M
>Keywords: 200009292228.e8TMSrb12994 McIDAS-X FRONT

Neil,

>Our previously working ldm-mcidas batch job is not generating fronts
>and sfc. press on the output graphic.

Hmm...  This can't have anything to do with the imagery change in the
Unidata-Wisconsin datastream since that had nothing to do with the
front data.

>The batch file, MDRTOPO.BAT, looks like:
>
>REM Create Radar Image on Topography
>REM - Display the image on frame 1 (DF)
>REM - Draw a map (MAP)
>REM - Put a bar on it (BAR)
>REM - Save to file for WWW (SVGIF)
>
>GU REST GRAPHIC 1
>DF %2 2 EC 40 98 1 EU=TOPOMDR SF=NO
>REM BAR 2
>FRMLABEL C IMA=2 LEV=254 "MDR RADAR (DAY) (JDAY) (HHMM)Z - TEXAS A&M
>METEOROLOGYSVGIF 2 MDRTOPO.GIF
>
>REM Overlay Surface Features with Radar
>REM - overlay surface pressure contours (SFCPLOT)
>REM - draw fronts (FRONTS)
>REM - Save to file for WWW (SVGIF)
>
>SFCPLOT PSL OLAY #SYS(2002) MDF=#SYS(2001) OUT=CON GRA=2 GRIDF=#?GFILE SF=NO 
>FRONT GRA=2 LWIDTH=2 2 1 LSIZE=12 6
>FRMLABEL C IMA=2 LEV=254 0 "RADAR/PSL/FRONTS COMPOSITE (DAY) (JDAY) (HHMM)Z - 
>TX A&M METR
>SVGIF 2 MDRNICE.GIF

A couple of things that need to be noted:

o the McIDAS applications you are using (DF, SFCPLOT, and FRONT) are being
  sunset in the next release of McIDAS.  ADDE replacements are available
  and are Y2K compatible

o you might want to be more specific in your FRONT invocation:

  FRONT OLAY FRAME GRA=2 LWIDTH=2 2 1 LSIZE=12 6

>Output from batch job (this from interactive session test):
>
>BATCH N5 261 00273 170712 1  TWIN=0 "MDRTOPO.BAT
>GU REST GRAPHIC 1
>GRAPHICS TABLE GRAPHIC.GRX HAS BEEN RESTORED
>GU:
>Done                                                                          
>    
>DF 261 2 EC 40 98 1 EU=TOPOMDR SF=NO
>BEGIN TV LOAD PROCESSING FOR FRAME 2
>Processing completed for frame= 2
>FRMLABEL C IMA=2 LEV=254 "MDR RADAR (DAY) (JDAY) (HHMM)Z - TEXAS A&M 
>METEOROLOGY
>FRMLABEL: Done
>SVGIF 2
>MDRTOPO.GIF                                                                  
>Frame saved in
>/www/htdocs/mcsat/mcimages/MDR/MDRTOPO.GIF                       
>SFCPLOT PSL OLAY -1 MDF=-1 OUT=CON GRA=2 GRIDF=132 SF=NO
>SFCPLOT: No data available
>FRONT GRA=2 LWIDTH=2 2 1 LSIZE=12 6
>FRONT --- BEGIN
>FRONT: No fronts available in ASUS file(s)
>FRMLABEL C IMA=2 LEV=254 0 "RADAR/PSL/FRONTS COMPOSITE (DAY) (JDAY)
>(HHMM)Z - TX A&M>
>FRMLABEL: Done
>SVGIF 2 MDRNICE.GIF
>Frame saved in /www/htdocs/mcsat/mcimages/MDR/MDRNICE.GIF
>BATCH: BATCH done
>/unidata/mcidas/workdata/MDRTOPO.BAT                               

>The SFCPLOT and FRONT output are telling, but I don't know what.

This may mean that the surface decoding is not working; are your XCD
decoders running?  Are MD files being created?  Can you list data from them?

As far as the FRONT display working, your invocation is asking for the
most current frontal analysis to be put on top of the display.  What you
reall want is for the frontal analysis closest to the display time to
be put up there.  This is what 'FRONT OLAY FRAME' means.

>I can confirm that the front files are in the .NAM:
>
>" Front files (the location on your system depends on how the entry for
>"   ASUS is setup in the LDM's pqact.conf file)
>"
>ASUS1*       /data/ddplus/fronts
>"
>" Forecast Fronts (FSUS02 Bulletins)
>"
>FSUS2*       /data/ddplus/fronts

Yes, but are these REDIRECTions active?  Examine the output of:

REDIRECT LIST

>which are there, with content of /data/ddplus/fronts:
>
>-rw-r--r--    1 ldm      data        8197 Sep 28 14:30 ASUS1272
>-rw-r--r--    1 ldm      data        8738 Sep 29 14:45 ASUS1273
>-rw-r--r--    1 ldm      data        8787 Sep 28 14:34 FSUS2272
>-rw-r--r--    1 ldm      data        8186 Sep 29 13:59 FSUS2273
>
>Any ideas?

Can you do any/all of the following:

SF 1
EG B
MAP NA
FRONT 6
FRONT 12
etc.?

Tom