Unidata-Wisconsin Datastream (IDD feedtype UNIWISC (aka MCIDAS)) Archives

The Unidata-Wisconsin datastream products are archived at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC). Products from this datastream have been archived since 1991. There are occassional gaps in the archive, but most products are available since that time.

The archive is available to Unidata sites through a passworded HTTP account on idd.ssec.wisc.edu. The near realtime data are stored on line for at least 60 days, and data older than that will be loaded in from tape (a limited number of days of data at a time) upon request. Once loaded, historical data sets will be kept on line for approximately 7 days (depending on demand and disk space availability). The archive naming conventions for the datasets are listed below.

Requests for historical data sets should be sent to <datacenter@ssec.wisc.edu> specifying the day(s) of the data needed. You will be notified when the data are accessible and on what machine. All products for the days requested are loaded.

Please be reasonable in your requests and quick to retrieve the data. Also, let the operator know when you have retrieved the files you need so they can make room for other requests. Please remember that this machine is to be used only for archive retrieval, not as a source for realtime data. If you need realtime data, you should get it using the IDD.

For further details on how to access the archive machine (username and password), please contact Unidata User Support <support-datastream@unidata.ucar.edu>. Please note that this service is available to Unidata sites only.

Archive Structure on idd.ssec.wisc.edu

When you log in to 'idd.ssec.wisc.edu', you have the option of retrieving data from either of two directories:

    neartime 
    urequest

The 'neartime' directory contains the 'near realtime' archived data for at least the past 20 days. The 'urequest' directory is where data older than what is maintained online that is requested by a user. In both directories, the data are arranged in subdirectories by date. The format of the subdirectory name is:

    ccyymmdd
      ^ ^ ^___ dd - day number (01, 02, 03, ...)
      | |_____ mm - month number (01=January, 02=February, ...)
      |_______ ccyy - year (1999, 2006, ...)

So data for August 10, 2017 would be located in directory 20170810. If this day was online when you log in, you would:

    cd neartime/20170810

If you requested the operator to load these data and received acknowledgement that the data were loaded on 'idd.ssec.wisc.edu', then you would:

    cd urequest/20060121

In each day directory, files are stored as:

    ccyymmddhh(mm).type
     ^  ^ ^ ^  ^    ^____   type of data*
     |  | | |  |_________   mm - minutes (optional)
     |  | | |____________   hh - hour (01, 02, 03, ....)
     |  | |______________   dd - day number (01, 02, 03, ....)
     |  |________________   mm - month number (01=January, 02=February, ....)
     |___________________ ccyy - year

*The types are:

     goesXvis     - GOES-X Visible (where X is the satellite number)
     goesXirs     - GOES-X Shortwave Infrared (where X is the satellite number)
     goesXwv      - GOES-X Water Vapor (where X is the satellite number)
     goesXir      - GOES-X Infrared (where X is the satellite number)
     goesXirl     - GOES-X Longwave Infrared (where X is the satellite number)
     goesXco2     - GOES-X Longwave Infrared (where X is the satellite number)

     NB: the Mollweide global composites were increased in size from 350x640 to 700x1280 on March 22, 2014

     mollwv       - Global Water Vapor Composite in Mollweide projection
     mollir       - Global Infrared Composite in Mollweide projection

     NB: the following products were added to the archive starting on March 22, 2014

     arcticvis    - multi-satellite Visible composite over the arctic
     arcticirs    - multi-satellite Shortwave IR composite over the arctic
     arcticwv     - multi-satellite Water Vapro composite over the arctic
     arcticir     - multi-satellite Thermal IR composite over the arctic
     arcticirl    - multi-satellite Longwave IR composite over the arctic

     antarcticvis - multi-satellite Visible composite over the antarctic
     antarcticirs - multi-satellite short wave infrared composite over the antarctic
     antarcticwv  - multi-satellite Water Vapor composite over the antarctic
     antarcticir  - multi-satellite Thermal IR composite over the antarctic
     antarcticirl - multi-satellite long wave infrared composite over the antarctic

     globalwv     - multi-satellite global Water Vapor composite
     globalir     - multi-satellite global Thermal IR composite

     goesewvis    - GOES-East/West Northern Hemisphere Visible composite
     goesewirs    - GOES-East/West Northern Hemisphere Shortwave IR composite
     goesewwv     - GOES-East/West Northern Hemisphere Water Vapor composite
     goesewir     - GOES-East/West Northern Hemisphere Thermal IR composite
     goesewirl    - GOES-East/West Northern Hemisphere Longwave IR composite

     goeswhvis    - 1 km GOES-East Visible composite

     NB: the following products were added to the archive starting on June 24, 2017

     soundercape  - multisensor satellite convective available potential energy product
     sounderctp   - multisensor satellite cloud top pressure product
     sounderli    - multisensor satellite lifted index product
     sounderozone - multisensor satellite ozone product
     sounderpw    - multisensor satellite precipitable water product
     soundersst   - multisensor satellite sea surface temperature product

     NB: the MDR images were dropped from the UNIWISC IDD datastream

     mdr          - Manually Digitized Radar (low resolution CONUS radar)

     NB: the floater images were dropped from the UNIWISC IDD datastream in fall, 2006

     floater      - Educational Floater I
     floater2     - Educational Floater II

     NB: the following were available before July, 1999

     sfctxt       - UNIDATAS file
     sfcobs       - Surface MD file
     raobman      - RAOB Mandatory MD file
     raobsig      - RAOB Significant MD file
     research     - Research Floater (rarely available)
     ngm          - NGM Model Grid file
     mrf          - MRF Model Grid file (analysis)

     Example: the 1815 GMT GOES-12 Visible image for January 21, 2006 would be found in the file 200601211815.goes12vis.

NOTEs:


Questions or comments should be sent to <support-datastream@unidata.ucar.edu>.