20010420: UACROSS segmentation violation on OSF/1; KFGZ not in STNDB.CORE

>From: "Alliss, Randall J." <address@hidden>
>Organization: TASC
>Keywords: 200104201654.f3KGsIL13905 McIDAS-X UACROSS STNDB.CORE

Randy,

>I have been trying to use the UACROSS McIDAS command on the ALPHA but am
>getting a floating point error each time.
>On my IBM which runs SSEC's Mcidas it works fine.
>
>the command i use is : UACROSS KMIA KBUF MAP=YES IDLABEL=NAMES PARAM=MIX THA
>SPD DEV=CCC
>
>it gets to the output line corridor orientation 4.27397 deg before i get the
>floating point error.
>
>Do you have similar problems on your alpha?

I just ran the exact same invocation of UACROSS on our DEC Alpha (OSF/1 4.0E).
I also got a floating point error at the same place:

UACROSS* get cross section axis orientation:
UACROSS* beg id       72202   25.7905     80.3163
UACROSS* end id       72528   42.9408     78.7358
UACROSS* range between stations     = 1910.9       km
UACROSS* xsection corridor width    = 250          km
UACROSS* corridor orientation       = 4.35006      deg
UACROSS*
Program terminated, floating point error
UACROSS failed, RC=1

I will have to dig into this to find out what is wrong.

>also station KFGZ (flagstaff) apparently is not in the STNDB.* file
>therefore McIDAS is unable to UAPLOT or UALIST it.
>any ideas?

There is no station KFGZ (at least not officially).  KFGZ is the
issuing station for RAOB reports for Flagstaff, but it is not the ID of
the RAOB site itself.

The raob site at Flagstaff is in the STNDB.CORE database, but it only
has an IDN:

72376  ----  Flagstaff              36R           AZ US   35:14:00  111:49:00  
2192

We just went to the NWS page from which you cal lookup station
information and they show that the station with WMO IDN 72376 has not
4-character station ID.  You will, therefore, have to use the station
IDN to plot/list the sounding information.  I just tried this, and it
works fine.

Now, you can override the definitions in STNDB.CORE if you _really_ want
to.  This is done by creating either an user station database definition
file, STNDB.USER, or a site station database definition file, STNDB.SITE.
I already include a STNDB.SITE file in my distribution of McIDAS, so
you could add your definition for the Flagstaff RAOB to it.

Here is the relevant snippit from the McIDAS User's Guide that pertains
to use and creation of station database files (this is in the section
for STNLIST):

STNLIST lists stations in the station database files STNDB.CORE ,
STNDB.SITE and STNDB.USER . The .CORE file is supplied with McIDAS-X
and should not be modified. The .USER file overrides the .SITE file,
which overrides the .CORE file. This order of precedence allows you or
your site to change existing stations and/or add new stations in your
.USER or .SITE file.

To create a .USER or .SITE file, first run a command similar to the
following to create the file in the first writable MCPATH directory.

STNLIST KMSN FORM=USER DEV=T STNDB.USER A

Then edit the file and remove the first line (the STNLIST output
header) and the last two lines (the Number of stations and STNLIST:
Done lines). The file now contains one long line that defines the data
for station KMSN. An equal sign (=) denotes the value of each of the 10
fields (IDN, ID, LATLON, ULATLON, ELE, UELE, ST, CO, NAME, and
DATATYPE). Replace the values in the KMSN entry with those for your
station and add lines as needed for additional stations. Entries do not
have to include all ten fields. The required fields are LATLON and at
least one of the following: ID, IDN, USERID. Other fields like CO, ST
and NAME are useful but not required. Note that you must follow the
one-entry-per-line format for all stations in your .USER and .SITE
files. Line breaks are not permitted.

Three additional fields, USERID, COMMENT and VALID, may be optionally
added to any station in your .USER and .SITE files. The USERID field is
used to assign a unique identifier to your local stations. The
COMMENT='comment1' . .  'commentN' field values are listed with the
FORM=ALL keyword. The VALID field is used to enter a date range for
which the station is valid. If you specify a date range that has passed
(e.g., VALID=2000001 2000111), the station is no longer considered
valid so will not be listed or plotted with commands S, STNLIST or
STNPLOT. The VALID field is useful for leaving station information in
your local file and thus providing an audit trail of changes and
storing the information in case the station needs to be re-entered at a
later date.

>thanks,

You are welcome.

Tom