Updates to Unidata IDD FNEXRAD and UNIWISC Datastream Products

Shortly after 0 UTC (18:00 MDT) on Saturday, March 21, 2014, the contents of the Internet Data Distribution FNEXRAD (NEXRAD Level III national composites) and UNIWISC (aka McIDAS Satellite Imagery Sectors) datastreams were updated with new products. Prior to the update, the FNEXRAD products were created on motherlode.ucar.edu and the UNIWISC products were created on unidata2.ssec.wisc.edu. Both datastreams are now being created in a 64-bit CentOS 6.5 Virtual Machine in the Amazon EC2 cloud.

The following is a brief overview of the contents of each datastream with special emphasis on new or altered products:

FNEXRAD - NEXRAD Level III composites
Product   Res   Cod  Type                Form   Status
--------+------+----+-------------------+------+----------------
National  1 km  N0R  base reflectivity   GINI   existing product
National  2 km  N1P  1-hour precip.      GINI   existing product
National  4 km  NTP  storm total precip. GINI   existing product
National  6 km  N0R  base reflectivity   GINI   existing product
National 10 km  RCM  base reflectivity   GINI   existing product
National  1 km  N0R  base reflectivity   GRIB2  existing product

National  1 km  DHR  base reflectivity   GINI   ? new product
National  1 km  DVL  dig. vert. liq H2O  GINI   ? new product
National  1 km  EET  enhanced echo tops  GINI   ? new product
National  1 km  HHC  hybrid hydro. class GINI   ? new product

Notes:

  • All products are updated every 5 minutes
  • All GINI images are PNG compressed
  • Additional information including sample displays, LDM/IDD Product IDs, and links to example LDM pattern-action file actions for these Level III composites can be found in: https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/data/radar.html#fnexrad
UNIWISC (aka MCIDAS) - Satellite Image Sectors
Product                                         Res   Form   Status          
----------------------------------------------+------+-----+-----------------
GOES-East Visible                               4 km  PNGA   existing product
GOES-East Shortwave Infrared                    4 km  PNGA   existing product
GOES-East Water Vapor                           4 km  PNGA   existing product
GOES-East Thermal Infrared                      4 km  PNGA   existing product
GOES-East Longwave Infrared (CO2)               4 km  PNGA   existing product 
GOES-West Visible                               4 km  PNGA   existing product
GOES-West Shortware Infrared                    4 km  PNGA   existing product
GOES-West Water Vapor                           4 km  PNGA   existing product
GOES-West Thermal Infrared                      4 km  PNGA   existing product
GOES-West Longwave Infrared (CO2)               4 km  PNGA   existing product
Antarctic Thermal Infrared composite            5 km  PNGA   existing product
Manually digitized radar                       10 km  PNGA   existing product

Global Mollweide Water Vapor composite         30 km  PNGA   ? higher resolution
Global Mollweide Thermal Infrared composite    30 km  PNGA   ? higher resolution
GOES-East HiRes Visible                         1 km  PNGA   ? new product
GOES-East/West NH Visible composite            10 km  PNGA   ? new product
GOES-East/West NH Shortwave Infrared composite 10 km  PNGA   ? new product
GOES-East/West NH Water Vapor composite        10 km  PNGA   ? new product
GOES-East/West NH Thermal Infrared composite   10 km  PNGA   ? new product
GOES-East/West NH Longwave Infrared composite  10 km  PNGA   ? new product
Arctic Visible composite                        4 km  PNGA   ? new product
Arctic Shortwave Infrared composite             4 km  PNGA   ? new product
Arctic Water Vapor composite                    4 km  PNGA   ? new product
Arctic Thermal Infrared composite               4 km  PNGA   ? new product
Arctic Longwave Infrared composite              4 km  PNGA   ? new product
Antarctic Visible composite                     5 km  PNGA   ? new product
Antarctic Water Vapor composite                 5 km  PNGA   ? new product
Global Rectilinear Water Vapor composite       20 km  PNGA   ? new product
Global Rectilinear Thermal Infrared composite  20 km  PNGA   ? new product

Notes:

  • Update cycles vary by product
  • All images are in a PNG-compressed McIDAS AREA format
  • Global Mollweide WV and IR composites are now higher resolution and larger in size
  • Additional information including sample displays, LDM/IDD Product IDs, and links to example LDM pattern-action file actions for these satellite image sectors can be found in: https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/data/datastream.html
Potential Impacts to End Users

The Global Mollweide composite products will be 4 times the size/double the resolution of the previous products. This may require updates to users' automated processing routines (e.g., IDV bundles, McIDAS BATCH/MCB files, shell scripts, etc.)

The exact wavelengths associated with several of the products have changed. If you are using LDM pattern-action file actions in the form suggested at the above link, you will not notice the change. Pattern-action file actions or other types of scripts that use more specific pattern-matching rules may need alteration.

Unidata-maintained servers (e.g., adde.ucar.edu, atm.ucar.edu, adde.ssec.wisc.edu, lead4.unidata.ucar.edu) use the following McIDAS ADDE dataset names:

Satellite Image Sectors:

RTIMAGES/ANTARCTICVIS  Antarctic Visible composite
RTIMAGES/ANTARCTICWV   Antarctic Water Vapor composite
RTIMAGES/ANTARCTICIR   Antarctic Thermal Infrared composite
RTIMAGES/ARCTIC-VIS    Arctic Visible composite
RTIMAGES/ARCTIC-IRS    Arctic Shortwave Infrared composite
RTIMAGES/ARCTIC-WV     Arctic Water Vapor composite
RTIMAGES/ARCTIC-IR     Arctic Thermal Infrared composite
RTIMAGES/ARCTIC-IRL    Arctic Longwave Infrared composite
RTIMAGES/GE-1KVIS      GOES-East HiRes Visible
RTIMAGES/GE-VIS        GOES-East Visible
RTIMAGES/GE-39         GOES-East Shortwave Infrared
RTIMAGES/GE-WV         GOES-East Water Vapor
RTIMAGES/GE-IR         GOES-East Thermal Infrared
RTIMAGES/GE-CO2        GOES-East Longwave Infrared (CO2)
RTIMAGES/GW-VIS        GOES-West Visible
RTIMAGES/GW-39         GOES-West Shortware Infrared
RTIMAGES/GW-WV         GOES-West Water Vapor
RTIMAGES/GW-IR         GOES-West Thermal Infrared
RTIMAGES/GW-CO2        GOES-West Longwave Infrared (CO2)
RTIMAGES/GEW-VIS       GOES-East/West NH Visible composite
RTIMAGES/GEW-39        GOES-East/West NH Shortwave Infrared composite
RTIMAGES/GEW-WV        GOES-East/West NH Water Vapor composite
RTIMAGES/GEW-IR        GOES-East/West NH Thermal Infrared composite
RTIMAGES/GEW-CO2       GOES-East/West NH Longwave Infrared composite
RTIMAGES/GLOBAL-WV     Global Rectilinear Water Vapor composite
RTIMAGES/GLOBAL-IR     Global Rectilinear Thermal Infrared composite
RTIMAGES/MOLL-WV       Global Mollweide Water Vapor composite
RTIMAGES/MOLL-IR       Global Mollweide Thermal Infrared composite
RTIMAGES/MDR           Manually digitized radar

Note: The following Satellite Image Sectors have new names. The old names will continue to work, but the new names are preferred:

Old name: RTIMAGES/ANTARCTIC     New name: RTIMAGES/ANTARCTICIR
Old name: GLOBAL/WVCOMP          New name: RTIMAGES/GLOBAL-WV
Old name: GLOBAL/IRCOMP          New name: RTIMAGES/GLOBAL-IR
Old name: GLOBAL/MOLL-WV         New name: RTIMAGES/MOLL-WV
Old name: GLOBAL/MOLL-IR         New name: RTIMAGES/MOLL-IR

NEXRAD Level III National Composites:

NEXRCOMP/1KN0R-NAT     1 km N0R US Base Reflectivity Composite
NEXRCOMP/2KN1P-NAT     2 km N1P US 1-hr Precip. Composite
NEXRCOMP/4KNTP-NAT     4 km NTP US Storm Total Precip. Composite
NEXRCOMP/6KN0R-NAT     6 km N0R National Base Reflectivity Composite
NEXRCOMP/10KRCM-NAT    10 km RCM National Composite Radar
NEXRCOMP/1KDHR-NAT     1 km DHR US Digital Hybrid Reflectivity Composite
NEXRCOMP/1KDVL-NAT     1 km DVL US Digital Vert. Int. Liquid H2O Composite
NEXRCOMP/1KEET-NAT     1 km EET US Enhanced Echo Tops Composite
NEXRCOMP/1KHHC-NAT     1 km HHC US Hybrid Hydrometeor Class. Composite

Notes:

  • For the GLOBAL/WVCOMP (new name: RTIMAGES/GLOBAL-WV) and GLOBAL/IRCOMP (new name: RTIMAGES/GLOBAL-IR) composite images served by the Unidata-operated ADDE server adde.ucar.edu:
    • The resolution has been reduced by a factor of about five. (Images now have roughly 20 km resolution versus 4-5 km resolution previously.)
    • The band number referenced in the global images has changed from 1 to either 3 (water vapor) or 4 (thermal infrared).
    These changes may cause existing IDV bundles to misbehave. Opening the old bundles, re-selecting the data sources, and re-saving the bundles should solve the problems.
  • GOES calibration has been applied to the composite images. Within the bounds covered by the GOES-E and GOES-W images, the applied calibration should be correct. Outside the bounds covered by the GOES-E and GOES-W images, temperature calibration information should be interpreted as being approximate.

Please send any questions or comments to Unidata Datastream Support

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