[McIDAS #HCA-416412]: mcidas command to calculate cloud drift (velocity and direction)

Hi Tyn,

re:
> I hope this message finds you well.

I am well, thanks.  I am currently in Vienna, Austria where I attended
the EGU 2011 General Assembly up to its close yesterday evening.

re:
> Does McIDAS-X have the ability to calculate wind speed and direction
> based solely on the images of the clouds?

It should since this was one of the original purposes for the software
that eventually became McIDAS.  The process is generically know in 
McIDAS as cloud drift winds.

re:
>What commands, and how can one store/serve these outputs?
I found the routine VVCALC, but it says that it
is designed to be run by VV.  VV doesn't exist, so I am left
scratching my head.

In the Users Guide I see that cloud drift winds are calculated
by the Velocity toggle, V.  The suggestion is that one displays
a loop of images of the same type with the same navigation, etc.
and then hand-tags a spot to track in the first and second
images, and then the velocity is then computed for you.  This
seems very cumbersome to me.  It seems to me that sites like
NOAA who are calculating cloud drift winds routinely and making
those values available must have put together some procedures
and routines needed to do the job in McIDAS.  I will send a
note to the MUG folks asking them for guidance.

re
> If so, does McIDAS-V have something similar?

I don't think so, but I will ask in the same email that asks
about how to get fields of velocities from sequences of images.

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: HCA-416412
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed