[McIDAS #XGD-732939]: McIdas and LDM

Hi Ben,

re:
> Its been awhile since I've had a few questions for you. ;)  Today I
> have three.

Ready...

> The first relates to the email below.  I have a logging
> problem on another machine I've been setting up LDM for, and wondered if
> you'd been able to figure out anything with the system logging.  One
> thing I found is that if I start syslogd with root permissions (default
> if no -u option specified) then logging ran fine for the LDM.

This is very interesting.  I was under the impression that syslogd _always_
ran as 'root'.  The setup to run as the user 'syslog' is different from
our experience on other Linux distributions.

> The OS
> installation (for Ubuntu) setup syslogd to start as user syslog (or
> something similar to that), so maybe I need to look into what
> permissions that user has, and if I need to modify any.  Anyway, I just
> wondered if you'd found out anything that might help.

I have not found anything else largely because we do not have an Ubuntu
test machine here at the UPC.  This may be important in the future since
I have seen more questions being asked about the setup on Ubuntu lately.
Also, if the Ubuntu web page is to be believed, the distribution is based
on Debian.  Debian and SuSE distributions appear to be the most commonly
used ones in the Unidata community other than RedHat/Fedora Core.

> The second question - I was wondering what NEXRAD composites were
> available in McIDAS.  I've started with generating the Base reflectivity
> and composite radar for station ID MTX (Box Elder - near SLC, Utah), but
> wondered about generating imagery that showed these for more than one
> station ID (like also showing the imagery for the station down in Cedar
> City).  Perhaps even coverage for the entire US would be interesting.
> Are there products like this currently available, or can I easily make
> them with McIDAS?

Yes.  The IDD FNEXRAD feed contains NEXRAD Level III composite imagery
that you can ingest, file and/or decode (the images are compressed) and
use in McIDAS via an ADDE server dataset.  I believe I mentioned in one
of my earlier emails that you might like to take advantage of these data.

In advance of you changing your LDM/IDD data ingestion, you can see what
the imagery looks like easily by doing the following:

<login as 'mcidas'>
- start a McIDAS-X session.  I suggest doing this using:

mcidas -config

  This will popup an interactive GUI that allows you to specify how many
  image frames and their size to run your session in; which GUI to run
  (Unidata's MCGUI, SSEC's GUI, or none), etc.  Start a session with
  at least 17 frames and make them large enough for good viewing (at
  least 600 lines by 800 elements).  I typically run sessions with 35 frames
  that are 750 lines by 900 elements, and run the MCGUI.

- after you bring up a MCGUI session, click on the ADDE Client Routing Config 
button
  near the top of the menu (the button just to the right of the one with the
  large red 'Z' (for Zoom)).  When the Client Routing Table Configuration GUI
  comes up, click on the tab labeled IMAGE.  Find the line that starts with 
'NEXRCOMP'
  and and select the machine STRATUS.AL.NOAA.GOV from the dropdown selector.  
After
  doing this, click on the Update and Exit button at the bottom of the GUI.

- next, click on the Display label at the top of the MCGUI and click on the 
Imagery
  and then NEXRCOMP options

  After the above, you will be looking at a new GUI that allows you to view 
images
  from the NEXRCOMP dataset hosted on the machine stratus.al.noaa.gov.

- from the Image type to load line, select the 1KN0R-NAT images and then click 
on
  the Display button at the bottom of the GUI.  This will load the most recent
  1km N0R national composite blown down so that most, if not all depending on 
your
  frame size, of the image will be displayed.

- after successfully loading the 1km National composite using the default load 
parameters,
  move the GUI off to the side and roam your mouse around the image to a 
location
  containing high radar reflectivities.  Read out the mouse cursor Lat and Lon 
at
  the bottom of the screen.

- back in the NEXRCOMP display GUI, click on the Custom radiobutton so you can 
specify
  how the image is to be loaded.  Enter the Lat and Lon you read out from the 
previous
  stem into the entry labeled Center (after clearing out what is already there.
  Please make sure to remember that in McIDAS Longitudes are _positive_ west of 
Greenwich,
  so you should NOT change the sign of the latitude you read out!

- drag the LIN blowdown/blowup slider to read 1.  The ELE slider will track the 
one
  for LIN (it can be set independently, but the NEXRCOMP images have the same
  resolution in the LINe and ELEment dimensions).

- after entering the Lat and Lon and magnification factors, click on the 
Display button
  and take a look at the full resolution image just loaded.

- finally, click on the Command Modes button near the top of the MCGUI (the one 
to the
  left of the button with the red 'Z') and take a look at the McIDAS command 
that
  was run to create the display

After you convince yourself that the composite imagery contained in the FNEXRAD 
IDD feed
are very useful, we can work through setting up the ingestion and decoding or 
filing,
of the images and creation of the ADDE dataset on your ingesting machine so you
don't have to go to a remote ADDE server to look at the data.

> Lastly, Rob Gillies wanted me to ask you about GIS overlays in McIDAS.
> He said you'd shown him some "undocumented" things like overlaying
> roads, rivers, and/or other such things.  Any info you can provide me
> with that?

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that there are GIS overlays in McIDAS,
but I do include a number of MAP databases in the Unidata McIDAS-X distribution
that have things like interstates, US highways, State roads, railroad lines,
tectonic fault lines, rivers, lakes, etc.  These MAP databases do NOT, however,
have labels for the various features.  What will be drawn are simple connect
the dots plots.

Try the following:

- from the McIDAS session that you started above, open the Command Modes
  GUI (left mouse button click) and type in the following McIDAS commands:

SF 1
ERASE
MAP USA
MAP X 7 FILE=OUTUSINT

SF 2
ERASE
MAP UT PRO=CONF
MAP X FILE=OUTUSINT OUTUSHIW MCOLOR=7 3

SF 11
MAP X FILE=OUTUSINT OUTUSHIW MCOLOR=7 3

The last example will work only if you displayed a radar image in the previous 
set
of examples.

So, the "GIS overlays" in McIDAS consist of MAP databases of a variety (but not
exhaustive) features.  You can list all of the MAP databases from the
McIDAS Command and Text window using DMAP:

DMAP OUT

The "GIS type" MAP databases that may be of interest are:
OUTARGENTST - states of Argentina
OUTBRAZILST - states of Brazil
OUTCANAL    - US canals
OUTINDIADS  - "counties" of India
OUTINDIAST  - states of India
OUTLCNTY    - US counties
OUTMEXICOST - states of Mexico
OUTRAIL1    - US raillines #1
OUTRAIL2    - US raillines #1
OUTRAIL3    - US raillines #1
OUTSTHIW    - US highways
OUTSTRD     - US state roads
OUTTECTN    - tectonic plate boundaries
OUTUSHIW    - US highways
OUTUSINT    - US interstates
OUTUSRIV    - US rivers
OUTWOLAK    - major world lakes
OUTWORIV    - major world rivers

> Thanks Tom!

No worries,

> I hope things are going great for you.

Things are going well, thanks; I hope that you are well and happy as well.

Please send along a big HELLO to Rob for me!

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: XGD-732939
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed