20040227: TAF's in McIDAS (cont.)

>From: "Rob Gillies ." <address@hidden>
>Organization: Utah State University
>Keywords:  200402070046.i170k7p1022599 McIDAS TAFRPT

Hi Rob,

Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you on this email.  I have
been in Costa Rica since February 22, and have not been able to look at
email as consistently as I would like.

>some other general questions for you re: stuff for my pilot's course in
>weather.
>
>(a) PIREPS - we have never been successful in displaying PIREPS using the 
>pull-down menu in Mcidas. Have tried for areas that I know have had P's
>issues - any ideas?

I have to admit that I havn't tried the PIREP plotting routines out
of the menu for some time.  When I added them to the MCGUI, they
did work, so if they don't now, something must have changed/broken.

>Also, I looked in the manual at the various commands - are there any 
>examples out there for the use of the commands that you know of or do
>you have a stash?

PIRPPLOT runs much the same as SFCPLOT.  The best I can offer at
this particular time is the online help:

PIRPPLOT -- Plots pilot and air report from PIRP schema point files
   PIRPPLOT parameter map time day <keywords>
Parameters:
   parameter  | ID, IDN, TYPE, ACFT, FLV1, FLV2, T, DIR, SPD,
              | WINDB, WINDV, VIS, CC, ZCL, ZCU, TTYP, TFRE, TINT,
              | ZTL, ZTU, ITYP, IFRE, IINT, ZIL, ZIU, LLWS, WX,
              | CLOUD, TURB, ICE, AIR, PLOT
   map        | mnemonic,SAT,OLAY,DEF (default=SAT)
                 mnemonic  any map mnemonic defined in MAP context table
                 OLAY      navigation from image; no map drawn (def)
                 SAT       navigation from image; no map drawn
   time       | hour of obseravtion (def= current)
   day        | date of obseravtion (def= current)
C ?
Keywords:
   COLor=     | display color of parameter (def=assigned by PIRPPLOT)
   DATaset=   | dataset names and position (def=RTPTSRC/AIRCRAFT)
   DEClut=YES | use plot decluttering (def)
         =NO  | do not use plot decluttering
   FORmat=    | display format of parameter (def=assigned by PIRPPLOT)
   LAYer=     | report layer; either 1 or 2 (def=1)
   LSIze=     | display height of parameter (def=assigned by PIRPPLOT)
   MCOlor=    | map color (def= taken from MAP context table(s))
   OFFset=    | display offset of parameter (def=assigned by PIRPPLOT)
   UNIt=      | display unit of parameter (def=see remarks below)

 ...

>(b) AIRMETs / SIGMETS and CONVECTIVE SIGMETS - is there any functionality for 
>the retrieval of these products?

The data is there and accessible as ASCII text.  Please take a look at
the manual listing for WXTLIST to get a flavor for how to run it to
retrieve any of the textual bulletins that are available in NOAAPORT.
The ADDE dataset that is accessed is RTWXTEXT.  If for some reason
your XCD setup is not decoding the RTWXTEXT data/not decoding it
correctly, please remember that you can "point" at a remote server
to get the data.  Here is one example:

DATALOC ADD RTWXTEXT adde.ucar.edu

The MCGUI has an interface that allows you to easily change who you
request data from for the basic types of data supported by McIDAS:
GRID, IMAGE, POINT, TEXT.

>As usual -- my thanks - have a nice beer c'est soir ... Rob

As I sit here in San Jose, CR, it seems like a small world indeed
since I can answer email while sitting in a friends living room :-)

Cheers,

Tom
--
NOTE: All email exchanges with Unidata User Support are recorded in the
Unidata inquiry tracking system and then made publically available
through the web.  If you do not want to have your interactions made
available in this way, you must let us know in each email you send to us.