20010615: McIDAS-X and NEXRAD data (cont.)

>From: alan anderson <address@hidden>
>Organization: St. Cloud State
>Keywords: 200106142120.f5ELK1p12482 McIDAS NEXRAD

Alan,

>Thanks Tom,  as usual your suggestions help a lot.   A couple more questions.
>
>1. I have looked at the User's Guide documentation on the web, checking to 
>   see if there was any specific information for suggestions on how to best 
>   display  nexrad data.  I did not see any.  
>   Is there a section that I missed, or is one in the works ?

Since my NEXRAD server was adopted by SSEC, there has been more of an
effort to document the use of the data. The documentation will improve
with time.

>With the recent availability of this data apart from WSI,  I assume there
>are at least some new issues, and more sites looking at the data.

The only thing pertinent to NEXRAD data is the use of the ID= keyword.
All other things are exactly the same as for other imager.

>   An item that comes to mind is  which  EU choice works best with the
>   different kinds of products ?

This isn't in the documentation yet, but most likely will in 7.8.  The
recommended enhancements by data type are:

dataset group  enhancement description
--------------+-----------+----------------------------------------
N0R             BREF.ET    Base reflectivity at tilt 1
N1R             BREF.ET    Base reflectivity at tilt 2
N2R             BREF.ET    Base reflectivity at tilt 3
N3R             BREF.ET    Base reflectivity at tilt 4
N0V             RVEL.ET    Radial velocity at tilt 1
N1V             RVEL.ET    Radial velocity at tilt 2
N2V             RVEL.ET    Radial velocity at tilt 3
N3V             RVEL.ET    Radial velocity at tilt 4
N0S             RVEL.ET    Storm relative mean radial velocity at tilt 1
N1S             RVEL.ET    Storm relative mean radial velocity at tilt 2
N2S             RVEL.ET    Storm relative mean radial velocity at tilt 3
N3S             RVEL.ET    Storm relative mean radial velocity at tilt 4
NET             TOPS.ET    Echo Tops
N1P             PRE1.ET    1-hour precipitation totals
N3P             PRE3.ET    3-hour precipitation totals
NTP             PRET.ET    Storm Total Precipitation
NVL             VIL.ET     Vertically integrated liquid water
NCR             CREF.ET    Composite Reflectivity
N0Z             BREF.ET    248-nm Base Reflectivity
N0L             LREF.ET    Layer Reflectivity - SFC-24 K ft
N1L             LREF.ET    Layer Reflectivity - 24-33 K ft
N2L             LREF.ET    Layer Reflectivity - 33 - 60 ft

(I am not fixed on the group names for layer reflectivity yet).

>   For now, I and our students will look at the imagery section in the
>   Learning Guide more carefully,  along with the  Help 'command name'
>   feature in McIDAS.

Good move.

>2.  When using  adde.ucar.edu as our site,  I was able to see NEXRAD/NTP
>    data, but when I tried to display or list  NEXRAD/NOR  I got a message
>    saying the data set could not be resolved.  My command DATALOC  returns
>    a line with RTNEXRAD   adde.ucar.edu
>
>    eg.  IMGLIST RTNEXRAD/NOR  ID=MKX ......   failed
>
>    but  IMGLIST RTNEXRAD/NTP  ID=MKX .....  worked fine.
>
>    What did I do wrong ? 

The group name is N0R - N zero R.  It look like you were trying NOR -
N oh R.  You will see from the list above that the dataset group names
use a number to indicate the tilt level for a number of products
(base reflectivity, radial velocity, storm relative mean radial velocity,
storm precipitation, and layer reflectivity).

I hope that this helps.

Tom