[McIDAS #VNE-851750]: Help with McIDAS

Hi Angel,

re:
> Thanks again, Tom. The scientist that wanted to generate JPG's is happy
> now.

Sounds good.

> I originally wanted to test with NEXRAD images but none were
> showing up. Are they not being generated by McIDAS?

Single station Nexrad Level III products are being processed on metofis.
They are available in the RTNEXRAD dataset:

<as 'mcidas'>
cd $MCDATA
dsinfo.k IMAGE RTNEXRAD
        Dataset Names of Type: IMAGE in Group: RTNEXRAD

Name         NumPos   Content
------------ ------   --------------------------------------
N0R           9999    Base Reflectivity Tilt 1
N0S           9999    Storm-Rel Mean Vel Tilt 1
N0V           9999    Radial Velocity Tilt 1
N0Z           9999    248 nm Base Reflectifity
N1P           9999    1-hour Surface Rainfall
N1R           9999    Base Reflectivity Tilt 2
N1S           9999    Storm-Rel Mean Vel Tilt 2
N1V           9999    Radial Velocity Tilt 2
N2R           9999    Base Reflectivity Tilt 3
N2S           9999    Storm-Rel Mean Vel Tilt 3
N3R           9999    Base Reflectivity Tilt 4
N3S           9999    Storm-Rel Mean Vel Tilt 4
NCR           9999    Composite Reflectivity
NET           9999    Echo Tops
NTP           9999    Storm Total Rainfall
NVL           9999    Vertical Liquid H2O

DSINFO -- done

imglist.k RTNEXRAD/N0R ID=AMX
Image file directory listing for:RTNEXRAD/N0R
 Pos Satellite/         Date       Time      Center   Band(s)
     sensor                                 Lat  Lon
 --- -------------  ------------  --------  ---- ---- ------------
7905  RADAR         22 MAR 08082  15:44:00     AMX    1
imglist.k: done


N.B.: It took a _long_ time to get the imglist.k listing for
the base reflectivity product for Miami's Nexrad because of the
number of products that are being kept online (1 month, 7905 images).
Access can be made _much_ faster by looking at only the "real time" images
meaning those from today (0Z - 23:59:59Z for the current day).  I
can change the ADDE dataset definitions for the RTNEXRAD dataset
in the 'mcidas' account  easily if you like AND setup
a different dataset for the full set of images on metofis' disk
Please let me know if you would like this.

Now, if you were wanting the 1 km national composite of base reflectivities,
you are not currently processing this data as images.  The entry that
would do this is commented out in ~ldm/etc/pqact.gempak:

# FNEXRAD Composite RADAR products
#
# png compressed 1km radar GINI format
#FNEXRAD        ^rad/NEXRCOMP/(...)/(...)_(........)_(....)
#       FILE    -close  data/gempak/images/sat/NEXRCOMP/\1/\2/\2_\3_\4

If you want to process the data (file it), simply uncomment the entry:



# FNEXRAD Composite RADAR products
#
# png compressed 1km radar GINI format
FNEXRAD        ^rad/NEXRCOMP/(...)/(...)_(........)_(....)
       FILE    -close  data/gempak/images/sat/NEXRCOMP/\1/\2/\2_\3_\4

then check the file for syntax errors:

<as 'ldm'>
cd ~ldm
ldmadmin pqactcheck etc/pqact.gempak

Correct any errors that are indicated and then send a HUP signal to the LDM:

ldmadmin pqactHUP

This will result in the 1 km base reflectivity, 2 km hourly total precip, and
storm total precip composites being written into subdirectories of
/data/ldm/gempak/images/sat/NEXRCOMP.  If you want the 6 km base reflectivity
(a blow-down of the 1 km composite) and 10 km radar coded message composites
a new entry will need to be made in your ~ldm/etc/pqact.gempak file:

# NEXRCOMP 6 km National BREF mosaic
FNEXRAD ^pnga2area Q5 (RL) (.*) (.*) (.*) (.*) (........) (....)
        PIPE    -close
        pnga2area -vl logs/ldm-mcidas.log 
data/gempak/images/sat/NEXRCOMP/6KN0R-NAT/\4_\6_\7
# NEXRCOMP 10 km National RCM mosaic
FNEXRAD ^pnga2area Q5 (RN) (.*) (.*) (.*) (.*) (........) (....)
        PIPE    -close
        pnga2area -vl logs/ldm-mcidas.log 
data/gempak/images/sat/NEXRCOMP/10KRCM-NAT/\4_\6_\7

N.B.: mind the tabs!

Remember that when any change is made to an LDM pattern-action file, it
should be checked for syntax errors (the 'ldmadmin pqactcheck' invocation
above).  If there is a syntax error, all actions from the point of the
error to the end of the file will no longer be executed.

Last comment:

When I logged on previously to fix the XCD decoding, I took the liberty of
downloading and building the current McIDAS release, v2007h.  I did not
install this code, however.  The question now is if you would like the
current McIDAS release installed on metofis?  The installation will cause
a short blip in processing, but it should go smoothly.

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: VNE-851750
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed