20010813: grib to grid conversion in 7.8? (cont.)

>From: "Molenar, Deb" <address@hidden>
>Organization: CSU/CIRA
>Keywords: 200108131538.f7DFcu123516 McIDAS-X 7.8 DMGRID

Deb,

>Hey Tom, how are you?  Having a good summer I hope.

The summer has been awfully busy, but things are now looking up.  I
finished hosting the McIDAS workshop last Friday, so I will now have
time to get to all of the things I have been putting off since June.

>Are you & Don going to AMS and/or MUG this year?

We are probably both going to AMS, but only I do McIDAS in Unidata
anymore, so it will be just me at the MUG meeting.

>I did a make all the first time around.  There is an executable for
>dmgrid on ../src, but the .hlp file is 0 bytes.

DMGRID runs unattended off of information in the XCD HRS spool file
(default name HRS.SPL; located by REDIRECTion or MCPATH).

>So my questions are:
>
>1.  is dmgrid what I should be looking into to convert grib to grid
>files?

If you are receiving the NOAAPORT TG feed and want to decode the grids
contained there, yes.  If you are looking to decode individual grib
messages, then no.  In that case, you should be looking to use the
gribdec.k routine that can be built from the gribdec.tar.Z "repackaging
of McIDAS grib decoding stuff" (note the quotes!) done by Chad Johnson
a couple of years back.  This "package" is not being kept up to date
(that I know of anyway), so one will undoubtedly run into the need to
_perhaps_ replace the grib tables bundled in gribdec.tar.Z with those
in the latest McIDAS release.

You can grab the gribdec.tar.Z bundle from the unix/gribdec directory
under the passworded Unidata McIDAS FTP account (user: umcidas; pass:
XXXXXX) on our FTP server, ftp.unidata.ucar.edu.

>2.  if so, can I get a copy of the help file?

Again, unless you _really_ want to get into the nuts and bolts of how
DMGRID reads from the HRS.SPL file, you would do better to use the
gribdec.tar.Z stuff.  If you _are_ interested in how to go about using
DMGRID, I can explain the process to you (it really isn't that hard,
but it requires a number of steps that have to be followed).

Tom

>From address@hidden Mon Aug 13 15:06:32 2001
>Subject: re:  dmgrid

Back to gribdec (wahh!!!).  This is one of those endless loops from hell
-- we tried gribdec last winter, and tried replacing the tables with the
latest mcidas ones, but still found that it didn't produce output in the
right resolution for some of the newer formats (AVN). Then, someone said
"Don Murray wrote a grib converter that should be up to date..." so that
was my hope for dmgrid.  HOWEVER, I did not personally try the modified
gribdec and am relying on the word of someone from met staff
(notoriously unreliable those mets) and so will give it a try to be
sure.  If it does not work, I will investigate other options & might be
getting back to you.

Thanks!  Hope you can relax now that you're training is over, and enjoy
what's left of the summer!