20020621: ingesting NEXRCOMP FNEXRAD products and displaying them in McIDAS (cont.)

>From: Gilbert Sebenste <address@hidden>
>Organization: NIU
>Keywords: 200206182234.g5IMYN621495 McIDAS-X 7.8 NEXRCOMP ADDE

Gilbert,

re: request FNEXRAD "^rad" flood.atmos.uiuc.edu

>Yeah, that was overkill. And, I missed...

The good thing about regular expressions is that there are a lot of ways
to accomplish the same thing.

re: For reference, the breakdown in which composites are which:
>> 
>> NEXRCOMP         Composite       Decoded
>> Descriptor      Description      format
>> -----------+--------------------+---------------
>> 1KN0R-NAT    1 km National N0R   GINI
>> 2KN1P-NAT    2 km National N1P   GINI
>> 4KN1P-NAT    4 km National NTP   GINI
>> 6KN0R-NAT    6 km National N0R   AREA
>> 10KRCM-NAT  10 km National RCM   AREA
>
>OK. I still don't see the 2 and 4 KM stuff yet, even after using the
>new request line you suggested above. Yep, I did restart the LDm after I 
>changed pqact.conf.

As a reminder, you don't have to restart the LDM after making a change
to pqact.conf.  What you should always do, however, is check the
syntax of pqact.conf before sending a HUP signal to pqact to reread
the file:

ldmadmin pqactcheck
<if this does not show an error then>
ldmadmin pqactHUP

You _do_ have to stop and restart the LDM if you make a change in
ldmd.conf, however.

re: getting both the 6 km and 1 km N0R composites

>Right. I can see that! Been there, done that.

OK.

re: check your ldmd.conf requests by using notifyme

>Right.

re: recommendations on the web images you are creating

re: make them larger

>Actually, people want them that size. I make them bigger, and people have 
>trouble seeing them. For some horrid reason, I find many people operate 
>Windows at 800x600 resolution on campus. Cater to the masses. Sigh.

OK.

re: make the county outline colors a gray so the display is muted

>OK. I need to refresh my memory on how to do that. I was thinking the same 
>thing.

Here is something to try out in your McIDAS session:

o start McIDAS (with the MCGUI being run)
o click the left mouse button over the button with the keyboard icon
o type in the following commands:

SF 1
EG B
IMGDISP NEXRCOMP/1KN0R-NAT STA=KORL EU=BREF24
MAP X FILE=OUTLCNTY OUTLUSAM MCOLOR=8 1
BAR

The MAP invocation plots both the county outlines and state outlines in
one run AND sets the colors for each map.  What color is actually
plotted, of course, depends on the graphic palette associated with the
frame.  If the GRAPHIC palette is associated with the frame (and that
is the default), the colors will be a medium bright gray for the county
outlines and magenta for the state outlines.

With current versions of MAP, you can plot many different maps with
one invocation.  Here is the same example, but with the US interstates
also included in color level 7 which is white in the GRAPHIC palette:

SF 1
EG B
IMGDISP NEXRCOMP/1KN0R-NAT STA=KORL EU=BREF24
MAP X FILE=OUTLCNTY OUTLUSAM OUTUSINT MCOLOR=8 1 7
BAR

To see all of the map outline files that are available to you, use
the DMAP command:

DMAP OUT

Your listing should look something like:

DMAP OUT
PERM      SIZE LAST CHANGED FILENAME DIRECTORY
---- --------- ------------ -------- ---------
-rw-     42796 Dec 22 19:00 OUTCANAL /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-      2332 Nov 26  2001 OUTGLACR /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-    686684 May 30  1997 OUTLANT  /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-     22268 Nov 04  1997 OUTLAUSS /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-    722116 Oct 24  1997 OUTLAUST /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-      6420 Oct 24  1997 OUTLAUSW /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-   1989644 Dec 22 19:00 OUTLCNTY /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-    282636 Oct 09  1997 OUTLEURO /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-    177828 Apr 01  1997 OUTLHPOL /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-    725924 Oct 13  1997 OUTLHRES /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-    565628 Oct 24  1996 OUTLSUPU /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-     89956 Oct 24  1996 OUTLSUPW /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-      3164 Oct 24  1996 OUTLUSAL /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-    450220 Apr 03  1997 OUTLUSAM /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-     33608 Oct 24  1996 OUTLWRLD /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-     56204 Nov 26  2001 OUTMARSH /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-    727220 Dec 22 19:00 OUTRAIL1 /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-    601724 Dec 22 19:00 OUTRAIL2 /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-     88332 Dec 22 19:00 OUTRAIL3 /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-   1030876 Dec 22 19:00 OUTSTRD  /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-     17748 Dec 22 19:00 OUTTECTN /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-   1305404 Dec 22 19:00 OUTUSHIW /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-    411356 Dec 22 19:00 OUTUSINT /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-   1607548 Dec 22 19:00 OUTUSRIV /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-    106996 Dec 22 19:00 OUTWOLAK /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
-rw-    251372 Dec 22 19:00 OUTWORIV /home/mcidas/mcidas78/data
18456936 bytes in 31 files

The portion of the name after OUT gives you a clue to what kinds of
maps are available.

re: stop making the state outlines double width.  This looks clunky for
    the versions that don't have county outlines.

>Really? I like it.

The full US GIFs (tm) that don't have county outlines that I looked
at on your site look clunky with thick map lines, but hey, that is
a user preference.  MAP also lets you control the line widths.  To
demonstrate this, try:

MAP X FILE=OUTLCNTY OUTLUSAM OUTUSINT MCOLOR=8 1 7 WIDTH=1 2 3

You should be getting the idea that the color and width values are
associated with the map outlines in the same order:

Outline  Col Wid
--------+---+---
OUTLCNTY  8   1
OUTLUSAM  1   2
OUTUSINT  7   3

>BUT, with the states the same width/color as the 
>counties, it looked awful. So, taking grey to the counties may do the 
>trick. Will try it.

I think that muting the county outlines will result in a more pleasing
display.

As a reminder, you can see what the colors for a graphic palette are
by using the GU command:

GU TABLE          <- lists out the colors for the palette associated with the
                     current frame

GU TABLE GRAPHIC  <- lists out the colors in the palette named GRAPHIC.GRX

GU LIST           <- list out all palettes available to you

re: changing the number of graphic colors, image levels, and frame size

>OK, will give it a go.

>Thanks again for all your help!

No worries.

>Please check to see if the data is coming in on your ADDE end.

It is.  Also, since you are now getting the GINI and AREA composites, I
logged onto weather and added the ADDE definitions for the 6KN0R-NAT
and 10KRCM-NAT products (modified ~mcidas/data/NIUNEXRC.BAT; and then
made the definitions active by running 'batch.k NIUNEXRC.BAT from the
~mcidas/workdata directory).

I can point at weather2 and list/display all of the images from my machine
here in Boulder.  Looking good...

Tom