20001130: McIDAS: memory allocation problem

>From: Gary Cunning <address@hidden>
>Organization: NCAR/RAP
>Keywords: 200011061722.eA6HMI408974 GOES imagery

Gary,

>I have recently ran into to a problem with mcidas. When I try to run the
>imgremap command I get an error message. I recall that I was able to run
>imgremap at an earlier time .For example:
>
>IMGREMAP GV4.3 MI.1 LATLON=35 93 PRO=LAMB 25 25 95                     
>IMGREMAP: Failed to acquire memory to store source image               

This is telling you that your system doesn't have either enough disk
space or shared memory to do the operation.

>Here are my aliases:
>
>AKA                                                                    
>Alias Name                     Group/Descriptor                        
>--------------------          ---------------------------------------- 
>GI4A                           GOES8/IR4KM                             
>GI4B                           GOES8/IR4KM2                            
>GI4C                           GOES8/IR4KM5                            
>GV4                            GOES8/VIS4KM2                           
>MI                             MYDATA/IMAGES                           
>AKA -- done                                                            

Hmm...  I am suprised that you don't have enough memory to create a Lambert
Conformal representation of a 4km VIS image.  How large is the original
image?  Also, the default output resolution shown by the online help
for IMGREMAP is '1':

HELP IMGREMAP
IMGREMAP -- Remaps an image into a different projection
  IMGREMAP sdataset ddataset <keywords>
Parameters:
   sdataset | source ADDE dataset name and position; specify as
              alias.position or group/descriptor.position; to use default
              position, either enter "0" or omit .position portion
              (no def for alias or group/descriptor, def=0 for position)
   ddataset | destination ADDE dataset name and absolute position;
              specify as alias.position or group/descriptor.position;
              only positive integers are valid for the position number
Keywords:
*********************  Image Selection Keywords  *************************
  DAY= | selects the most recent sdataset image from the specified day
         (def=most recent image)
  TIMe=btime etime | selects the most recent sdataset image in the
                     specified time range (def=most recent image)
  MAG=lmag emag | line and element reduction factor to apply to source
                  data before it's remapped; valid range is 1 through -999
                  where 1, 0, and -1 mean no reduction, -2 means a 2x
                  reduction, etc; see Remarks (lmag def=1, emag def=lmag)
***************************  Output Keywords  ****************************
  BANd= | image band number (def=existing band if image is single-band;
          no def if image is multi-band)
  ID= | NIDS station ID; valid only with Unidata NIDS ADDE server
  LATlon= clat clon | center latitude and longitude for ddataset
                      (def=center latitude and longitude of sdataset)
  STAtion= | station ID, e.g., MSN, YSSY, 72201 to place at center
             of remapped image
  MERge=YES | merge data in sdataset with what is in ddataset; valid
              only with PRO=DEST
       =NO  | overwrite data in ddataset (def)
  PRO=DEST | use the navigation of ddataset (def)
     =LAMB slat1 slat2 slon | Lambert Conformal, standard latitude
                              and standard longitude (slat1 def=30,
                              slat2 def=50, slon def=center longitude)
     =MERC slat | Mercator projection and standard latitude (slat def=0)
     =MOLL slon | Mollweide projection and standard longitude (slon def=0)
     =PS slat slon | Polar Stereographic projection, standard latitude
                     and standard longitude
                     (slat def=60, slon def=center longitude)
     =RADAR rot | Radar projection and rotation angle (rot def=0)
     =RECT | Rectilinear projection
     =SIN | Sinusoidal Equal Area projection
     =TANC slat slon | Tangent Cone projection, standard latitude and
                       standard longitude (slat def=30 if center latitude
                       is in northern hemisphere, -30 if center latitude
                       in southern hemisphere; slon def=center longitude)
  RES= | resolution of ddataset in km; not valid with PRO=DEST (def=1)
  SIZe=line ele | number of lines and elements in ddataset; the 'ele'
                  value must be a multiple of 4; SIZE is not valid with
                  PRO=DEST (def=480 640)
      =ALL      | creates an image large enough to include entire
                  geographical coverage of sdataset
  SMOoth=limb data | provide limb or data smoothing, where:
                     limb - NO or YES for limb smoothing (def=NO)
                     data - NO or YES for data smoothing (def=NO)
  SPLine= | spline size in image pixels; range is at least 1 to 100; the
            range minimum may be computed base on source data (def=20)

You probably want to keep the output resolution the same as the input,
so you should add the RES=4 keyword to your invocation.

>I have tried logging out of my account and rebooting my computer. But
>neither actions help resolve the problem.

How much memory does your machine have?  This is a Linux box, true?
If so, you can use

o top 

or

o run 'cat /proc/meminfo' and look for the line that defines 'MemTotal:'

Please don't think that Linux necessarily sees all of the memory installed
in your workstation; it might not.  If it doesn't, your system administrator
will have to take steps to tell Linux to recognize all of the memory that
you have installed.

You can find support-user discussions on this and other McIDAS issues
at:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/glimpsedocs/ghmcidas.html

In the case of shared memory for Linux, use shared and/or memory and/or
Linux as your search key(s).  For instance, 'shared memory, Linux'.

Tom