20010220: Calculating moisture flux divergence (cont.)

>From: "Paul L. Sirvatka" <address@hidden>
>Organization: College of DuPage
>Keywords: 200102162013.f1GKD9L01250 McIDAS-X SFCCON GRDDISP

Paul,

re: how to use the '%' key in vi to show matching parentheses
>Thanks for the tips in vi. I still use that so that will help.

It really is quite a handy thing.

re: how the SFCPLT and GRDDISP displays are different
>I suppose it is not a big deal since I KNOW that my way is fine. If I find
>anything intersting I will let you know.

OK.  If you do uncover something, I will send it back to SSEC for
detailed investigation.

re: losing the image window
>Yes...I have run the same commands other times and I got that erro and the
>window went away. I have gotten that in the near past with THAE on the
>SFCCON stuff. Sometimes things work well...other times they crap out.

OK, this is important to know.  It may have to with building the code
with optimization turned on.  It may be some faulty coding.

re: unexpected display color in frame 6 when using incorrect MATH clause
>I saw this too. I have no idea why.

To me, this means that something is definately being stepped on.  This
really does warrant further investigation.

Also, what version of Linux are you using (e.g., RedHat 6.2, RedHat 7.0,
Debian x.x, Slackware y.y)?  I have uncovered a problem in serving
sounding data through the remote ADDE server hosted on RedHat 6.2
and 7.0.  I am searching around for a site not running RedHat to see
if the problem exists there.  For reference, the problem does not occur
on RedHat 5.2, FreeBSD 4.2, or Solaris x86 2.[78].  This one has been
my bane for over a week now.

re: perhaps multiplying that single term by 36000 was causing the floating
point exception
>Maybe...should I make that 36**3 ?

???

>Now for the ADDE vs local-data. I do not understand. Here is the output of
>DSSERVE and DATALOC.
>
>DSSERVE
>Group/Descriptor         Type  Format & Range     RT Comment
>------------------------ ----- ------------------ -- --------------------
>MYDATA/GRIDS             GRID  GRID 1-9999           All gridded data in
>GRID fo
>                                                     rmat
>MYDATA/IMAGES            IMAGE AREA 1-9999           All images in AREA
>format
>MYDATA/PTSRCS            POINT MD   1-9999           All point source data
>files
>                                                      in MD file format
>MYDATA/TOPO              IMAGE AREA 9000-9019        All topographic
>images in A

DSSERVE is used to setup datasets.  It creates an association between a
dataset group/descriptor and actual data files.  In the your DSSERVE
listing above, there is one dataset setup:  MYDATA.  MYDATA has four
different descriptors in it: GRIDS, IMAGES, PTSRCS, TOPO.  A descriptor
should be thought of as a subsetting of a larger dataset.  Subsetting
can be by gross data type (like MYDATA above) or by finer resolution of
type (like creating one descriptor for GOES-East VIS images; another
for GOES-East IR iamges; yet another for GOES-West VIS images; etc.)

When a user creates a dataset using DSSERVE, s/he specifies the
granularity of the access to elements in the dataset.  For instance.
the MYDATA/IMAGES is a definition that encompasses all images in AREA
file format and using AREAnnnn naming;  MYDATA/GRIDS is a defiition
that encompasses all grids in McIDAS GRID file format using GRIDnnnn
naming; etc.  This is what I would call a gross categorization.

The setup for imagery in the Unidata-Wisconsin datastream imagery is
more finely differentiated.  The recommended definition for those
images is contained in the McIDAS BATCH file DSSERVE.BAT.  This file
gets installed in the ~mcidas/data directory.

What account are you running the DSSERVE and DATALOC commands from?

>DATALOC
>Group Name                    Server IP Address
>--------------------         ----------------------------------------
>BLIZZARD                     144.92.109.163
>G8-GHCC                      198.116.59.198
>MYDATA                       <LOCAL-DATA>
>RTGINI                       ADDE.UCAR.EDU
>RTGRIDS                      <LOCAL-DATA>
>RTIMAGES                     <LOCAL-DATA>
>RTNEXRAD                     ADDE.UCAR.EDU
>RTNIDS                       ADDE.UCAR.EDU
>RTNOWRAD                     <LOCAL-DATA>
>RTPTSRC                      ADDE.UCAR.EDU
>RTWXTEXT                     ADDE.UCAR.EDU
>TOPO                         ADDE.UCAR.EDU

This shows that you will be going to adde.ucar.edu for all of the datasets
listed except MYDATA and RTNOWRAD.

>Does SFCCON use RTPTSRC?

SFCCON and SFCPLOT both use RTPTSRC/SFCHOURLY.  To see the descriptors in
a dataset, run:

DSINFO ALL group_name

DSINFO ALL RTPTSRC

- or  since RTPTSRC only has POINT data -

DSINFO POINT RTPTSRC

>If I change that to LOCAL-DATA I get RTPTSRC/SFCHOURLY unable to resolve
>that data.

Right.  The reason for this is that the dataset has not been setup on
your machine.  Since I don't know if you are creating the data files
that will comprise RTPTSRC/SFCHOURLY, let's start with the TOPO data.

I send topography images out in the McIDAS-X distribution, so I know
that you do have them on your system.  Let's do the following from
the 'mcidas' account on your machine:

<login as 'mcidas'>
cd workdata
batch.k TOPOADDE.BAT

TOPOADDE.BAT will run a series of DSSERVE commands to setup the TOPO
dataset with various descriptors.  Again, the DSSERVE commands establish
the link between dataset group/descriptor and sets of files.

After running BATCH (batch.k), a DSSERVE LIST TOPO should show:

Group/Descriptor         Type  Format & Range     RT Comment
------------------------ ----- ------------------ -- --------------------
TOPO/ALL                 IMAGE AREA 9000-9019        All topographic images
TOPO/CONF                IMAGE AREA 9011-9011        North America (Conformal)
TOPO/GLOB                IMAGE AREA 9000-9000        Global (Mercator)
TOPO/GOESE               IMAGE AREA 9016-9016        GOES-East (75W)
TOPO/GOESW               IMAGE AREA 9017-9017        GOES-West (135W)
TOPO/HIRES               IMAGE AREA 9001-9001        USA high resolution
TOPO/MDR                 IMAGE AREA 9018-9018        US Radar projection
TOPO/MERC                IMAGE AREA 9010-9010        North America (Mercator)
TOPO/MOLL                IMAGE AREA 9015-9015        Global (Mollweide)
TOPO/NPOLE               IMAGE AREA 9014-9014        Northern Hemisphere
TOPO/QUAD                IMAGE AREA 9019-9019        NW Quadrasphere
TOPO/SPOLE               IMAGE AREA 9013-9013        Southern Hemisphere
TOPO/WHEMI               IMAGE AREA 9012-9012        Western Hemisphere
DSSERVE: done

The next thing to do is verify that this account can access the AREA
files that comprise the TOPO dataset:

dmap.k AREA9

You should see a listing that looks something like:

PERM      SIZE LAST CHANGED FILENAME DIRECTORY
---- --------- ------------ -------- ---------
-rw-   1503728 Nov 13 19:17 AREA9010 /home/mcidas/data
-rw-   1503728 Nov 13 19:18 AREA9011 /home/mcidas/data
-rw-   1543904 Nov 13 19:18 AREA9012 /home/mcidas/data
-rw-   1003728 Nov 13 19:18 AREA9013 /home/mcidas/data
-rw-   1003728 Nov 13 19:19 AREA9014 /home/mcidas/data
-rw-    897680 Nov 13 19:19 AREA9015 /home/mcidas/data
-rw-    608288 Nov 13 19:19 AREA9016 /home/mcidas/data
-rw-    565512 Nov 13 19:19 AREA9017 /home/mcidas/data
-rw-    311008 Nov 13 19:19 AREA9018 /home/mcidas/data
-rw-    714288 Nov 13 19:19 AREA9019 /home/mcidas/data
-rw-       768 Nov 25  1996 AREA9982 /home/mcidas/data
-rw-       768 Nov 25  1996 AREA9983 /home/mcidas/data
-rw-      2816 Jun 02  1998 AREA9995 /home/mcidas/data

assuming, of course, that the HOME directory for your 'mcidas' user is
/home/mcidas.  If it is something else, you will see a different
directory under the DIRECTORY column.

After defining the TOPO dataset with DSSERVE, you should be able to
change your DATALOC for those files to be LOCAL-DATA:

DATALOC ADD TOPO LOCAL-DATA

And, you should be able to list and display those images in a McIDAS
session.

IMGLIST TOPO/ALL.ALL

IMGDISP TOPO/CONF EU=TOPO MAG=-3

etc.

Once we have the TOPO dataset setup, we can proceed with ones like
RTPTSRC, RTIMAGES, RTGRIDS, RTWXTEXT _if_ you are running decoders to
produce the data files that will populate these datasets.

>Sorry for the myriad questions. But I am learning by leaps and bounds.

No problem.  It might help to skim through the McIDAS installation
instructions as setting up the various datasets is described there:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/770/mcx/mcidas-x.html

One last comment for this email exchange.  After you have setup access
to the various McIDAS datasets on your own machine, you will want to
setup the remote ADDE server on your machine so that you can access
those datasets from other machines that are accessible by TCP/IP
Ethernet.  The way you are getting data right now, is doing just this.
The only difference is that you are now going to adde.ucar.edu when you
could be going to your own machine (access will probably be faster on
your own machine from your own network).

This is the really cool thing about ADDE.  You can go to your own
machine for data if you have it, or point to another machine for access
when you don't.  You could, for instance, look at data on Gilbert's
machine.  Example:

DATALOC ADD RTNEXRAD weather.admin.niu.edu
DSINFO I RTNEXRAD
IMGLIST RTNEXRAD/N0R ID=LIST
IMGDISP RTNEXRAD/N0R ID=ILX STA=ILX EU=BREF REFRESH='EG;MAP H;BAR'

Remember, however, that when you change who you are pointing at for
data (using DATALOC), that pointer stays that way until you change it
to a different machine.

>Paul
>
>
>-- 
>******************************************************************************
>* Paul L. Sirvatka          | Office: (630) 942-2118; Lab: (630) 942-2590    *
>* Professor of Meteorology  | COD Weather Lab: (630)-858-0032                *
>  
>* College of DuPage         | Address: 425 22nd St.  Glen Ellyn, IL 60137    *
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