Hi Kwan,
re:
> In my last email, I told you that the surface data could be listed by
> PTLIST. As I tried to display the data, I encountered a few
> problems. The first problem was that McIDAS did not display any data
> at all. This baffled me for more than a hour before I recalled that
> latitude in the western hemisphere in McIDAS is defined as positive
> instead of negative.
The western-hemisphere positive convention in McIDAS is hard to remember
for those who are used to working in "the real world" :-)
> The second problem I got was that when I tried using HMS, McIDAS could
> not find it in the MD file. So I added a HMS column in the data, and
> that worked.
Yup, only keys defined in the MD file can be accessed. So, asking for HMS
requires that HMS be in the file.
> The third problem was the following.
>
> PTDISP PTSRC/METAR.1 1 PAR=T[F] TD[F] PSL[MB] GUS[KT] MUL=X X 10 X
> LSI=6 6 6 6 COL=8 8 8 8 OFF=-8 -13 3 -13 -8 4 3 4 FORMAT=I3 I3 K3 I3
> SEL='DAY 2007106 2007106; HMS 11:40:00 12:00:00' DEC=YES LIN=1 MAX
> ELE=1 MAX TITLE=' '
> PTDISP: WARNING: Too many digits for FORMAT on PARAMETER = GUS
> PTDISP - done
I just added the schema defined in the KSFC.txt file you sent to my SCHEMA
file and created an output MD file on my home Fedora Core 6 development
system:
SCHE KSFC.txt
KSFC.txt will be treated as a text file
" KSFC (JSP) 07330 SCHEMA -- GENERAL SURFACE SCHEMA
" NAME VSN DATE ID "TEXTID
" ---- --- ----- -- -------
SCHEMA KSFC 1 2007330 0 "Archived METAR data
*--SCHEMA * KSFC *, VERSION * 1 * ADDED TO SCHEMA FILE * KEYS=15
--END OF SCHEMA REGISTRATION PROGRAM
LSCHE KSFC
NAME: KSFC VERSION: 1 DATE: 2007330 TEXTID: "Archived METAR data
---- -------
DEFAULT NUMBER OF ROWS: 24 INTEGER ID: 0
COLS: 5000 MISSING DATA VALUE:
-2139062144
REPEAT GROUP: NUMBER OF REPETITIONS: 1
STARTING POSITION: 3
SIZE: 13
NUMBER OF KEYS IN ROW HEADER: 2
COL HEADER: 0 STARTING AT POSITION 3
DATA RECORD: 13 STARTING AT POSITION 3
----
15 TOTAL
KEY SCALE UNIT KEY SCALE UNIT KEY SCALE UNIT
---- ----- ---- ---- ----- ---- ---- ----- ----
DAY 0 CYD HMS 0 HMS ID 0 CHAR
TIME 0 0 LAT 4 DEG LON 4 DEG
T 2 F TD 2 F PRE 2 MB
PSL 2 MB DIR 0 DEG SPD 1 KTS
GUS 1 KTS WX1 0 0 ZS 0 0
LSCHE: DONE
REDIRECT ADD metar-mc.txt "/data/casestudy
REDIRECT: Done
TXT2MD metar-mc.txt 1000 KSFC MISS=-9999.00
TXT2MD -- BEGIN
NEW MD file: 1000
TXT2MD -- DONE: 1000
I then listed out all of the data using:
PTLIST MYDATA/PTSRCS.1000 PAR=ROW COL DAY HMS ID TIME LAT LON T TD PRE PSL DIR
SPD GUS WX1 ZS NUM=100
and got the listing I expected/wanted. I have attached this listing (KSFC.out)
for
your review.
> I checked the graphics output. It displayed *** for some stations
> where the gusts were -9999.00, which represented missing. (I had the
> surface data in a GEMPAK file, I then listed it and changed it to
> McIDAS text format.) So it seemed to me that when I ran
As you will see from the attached PTLIST listing, my conversion to MD
did not fail to correctly mark missing data values as truely missing (i.e.,
I have no -9999.0 values in my MD file).
> txt2md.k metar-mc.txt 100 KSFC MISS=-9999.00
This is the same thing that I did.
> it did not really save -9999.00 as a missing flag but treated it as an
> actual value.
OK, very weird.
Question:
- what OS are running McIDAS on
- what version of McIDAS are you using (SSEC or Unidata and
the version number of the distribution)
- does your distribution contain the Unidata version of TXT2MD, or
does it have the SSEC version. You can tell which version
you have by getting a HELP listing for TXT2MD. The Unidata
version will look like:
HELP TXT2MD
TXT2MD - Creates an MD file from an ASCII text data file
TXT2MD sfile dfile schema <keywords>
Parameters:
sfile | source ASCII text file name and extension
dfile | destination MD file number
schema | MD file schema name, e.g. IRAB, ISFC
Keywords:
MISS=numeric character
| numeric - value representing missing numeric data
in sfile (def=-9876)
| character - value representing missing character data
in sfile (def=MISS)
Remarks:
TXT2MD is used to convert files containing lists of data to
MD files.
Rules:
1) The source file (sfile) must be in ASCII text format, i.e.,
created with an editor that stores ASCII text with a new line
specifier at the end of each line.
2) The format of sfile must be columnar:
o the first line containing the names of the schema keys;
schema key names must be no more than 4 characters in
length
o <optional> the second line can contain a list of units
for the data values in the file; if these units do not
match those specified in the MD file schema, the data
will be converted to match the schema units; for units
that do match the schema units, an X may be used as a
placeholder; units must be no more than 4 characters in
length; in addition, data values may be:
o multiplied by a scaling factor
specify the new unit as a '*' followed immediately
by a number (no spaces!)
o divided by a scaling factor
specify the new unit as a '/' followed immediately
by a number (no spaces!)
o have a positive offset added
specify the new unit as a '+' followed immediately
by a number (no spaces!)
o have a negative offset subtracted
specify the new unit as a '-' followed immediately
by a number (no spaces!)
NOTE: the line containing units MUST begin with 'UNIT='
o subsequent lines must contain data values corresponding to
the schema keys; the first datum in the list must NEVER be
a missing data value (see 7) below)!
o extra spaces between the columns are ignored
Example 1, the first 3 lines might look like (T is
in K; SPD is in KT):
TIME ID LAT LON T PSL DIR SPD
12 MSN 43.13 89.33 280.42 1020.95 270 12
12 MKE 42.95 87.90 278.04 1020.3 290 14
Example 2, the first 4 lines might look like (here we
specify that T is in C and SPD is in MPS):
TIME ID LAT LON T PSL DIR SPD
UNIT=X X X X C X X MPS
12 MSN 43.13 89.33 7.26 1020.95 270 6.17
12 MKE 42.95 87.90 4.88 1020.3 290 7.20
Example 3, the first 4 lines might look like (here we
specify that T is in C, SPD is in MPS,
and LON should be multiplied by -1):
TIME ID LAT LON T PSL DIR SPD
UNIT=X X X *-1 C X X MPS
12 MSN 43.13 89.33 7.26 1020.95 270 6.17
12 MKE 42.95 87.90 4.88 1020.3 290 7.20
3) all lines in sfile must be less than or equal to 1024
characters in length
4) the field length for each datum must not exceed 12 characters
5) Each data line in sfile is placed into one record in the
destination MD file (dfile). Each data line must also include
any data to be stored in the record's repeat groups (if repeat
groups are defined in the schema).
6) the first ROW header key in the file schema must have a valid
value (i.e. not a MISSing data value)
7) the first DATA key in the file schema must have a valid value
(i.e. not a MISSing data value)
8) dfile will be created if it does not exist. If dfile already
exists, the data will be appended to the first available row.
Used, any columns in the dfile row that match the column headers
from sfile will be replaced. If the column headers in sfile do
not match any column headers in dfile, the data will be appended
to new columns at the end of the row.
9) The values for the row header keys (e.g., DAY, TIME) in dfile
are set to the values found in the first data line of sfile.
Values of the row header keys in subsequent data lines in sfile
are ignored.
10) The dfile must not exceed 6 column header keys or 10000 columns.
Each record in dfile, including any repeat groups in that record,
may not contain more than 64 keys.
----------
If you are using the SSEC version, then either you are using a Unidata
McIDAS distribution that did not have the Unidata version of TXT2MD in it
(this did happened right around the time of the training workshop this past
August; I updated the Unidata distribution with the correct version just after
the workshop), or you are using an SSEC distribution. If you do not have
the Unidata version of TXT2MD, then I recommend that you upgrade to the Unidata
version. I have attached the source code for the Unidata version (txt2md.pgm)
so that you can easily upgrade.
To build a new TXT2MD executable, do the following:
<as 'mcidas'>
cd ~mcidas/mcidas2007/src
mv txt2md.pgm txt2md.pgm.ssec
-- copy the Unidata version of txt2md.pgm here
make txt2md.k txt2md.hlp
rm ~/bin/txt2md.k && ln txt2md.k ~/bin
rm ~/help/txt2md.hlp && ln txt2md.hlp ~/help
> The next problem is this:
>
> SFCCON PMSL OLAY 12 2007106 LSIZE=12 COL=2 LLI=.75 .75 CIN=4
> DAT=PTSRC/METAR.1 PTSRC/SHIP.1 PTSRC/SYN.1 LAB=X 2 15 X X
> Accessing Dataset Name = PTSRC/METAR.1
> Accessing Dataset Name = PTSRC/SHIP.1
> Accessing Dataset Name = PTSRC/SYN.1
> PTCON: No data found matching search conditions
> PTCON: Done
> SFCCON: PTCON command failed 1
> SFCCON - Done
> SFCCON failed, RC=1
> So, it seemed that it could not understand PMSL.
The problem here is that the schema for your PTSRC/METAR is not what is
being specified in the definition of PMSL that is used by SFCCON.
The configuration file entry in question is:
PMSL UNIT=MB \
ISFC=PRE SVCA=na SYN=PSL ISHP=PSL
This is in the file SFCCON.CORE which should be located in your ~mcidas/data
directory. You will see that this entry specifies the key to use based on schema
name:
ISFC -> PRE
SVCA -> not available
SYN -> PSL
ISHP -> PSL
What you should do is create a file named SFCCON.USER in your $MCDATA
directory. The contents of this file should be a replacement definition
for PMSL or a definition for a new name. For example:
replacement that overrides the definition in SFCCON.CORE:
PMSL UNIT=MB \
KSFC=PRE SVCA=na SYN=PSL ISHP=PSL
new definition:
MYPMSL UNIT=MB \
KSFC=PRE SVCA=na SYN=PSL ISHP=PSL
I suggest the new definition approach since it will not interfere with the
definition used for "standard" MD files.
> I am attaching a subset of the data (northeastern US), the schema, and
> a gif file of the graphic output I got.
Thanks. As you can see from my comments above and the PTLIST listing that
is attached, I used the data and got the results that I wanted.
> Thanks,
No worries.
Cheers,
Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: YAF-607526
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: ClosedAttachment:
KSFC.out
Description: Binary data
Attachment:
txt2img.pgm
Description: Portable graymap