The Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) version 5.5 is now available. This is a major release and is recommended for all users. Version 5.5 incorporates several new analysis and display types, notably features for isentropic analysis, scatter analysis, and display of data from the GOES-16 Geostationary Lightning Mapper. In addition, the release includes updates to existing features and incorporates the latest netCDF-Java library.
Isentropic Analysis
Isentropic analysis can be used to study the motion of airmasses above the boundary layer. Parcels that follow an isentropic surface are assumed to be subject to an adiabatic process — that is, they do not gain or lose heat as they move. Among other areas, isentropic analysis is useful in the study of weather fronts; warm fronts are found where air parcels cross lines of a specified potential temperature while moving upward, and cold fronts occur where the air parcels are decending. The IDV's 3D isentropic analysis feature makes it intuitive to diagnose the horizontal and vertical motion of parcels in the atmosphere, providing insight into the dynamic and stability of weather phenomena.
To easily investigate the isentropic analysis feature, load this bundle from Unidata's RAMADDA server into IDV 5.5.
Scatter Analysis
The IDV can now construct scatterplots to illustrate the strength of relationships between different weather parameters, where the values of one variable are along X axis and the values of the second variable are along the Y axis. The new scatter analysis feature is used to create a scatter plot to study the relationships between two 2D parameters. Scatter analysis can also provides statistical information about the data as a whole, as well as the subset regions of the data.
For more information, see the IDV 5.5 documentation. (Note that scatter analyses are shown in the Displays tab of the IDV Dashboard rather than in the Main window.)
GOES-16 Geostationary Lighting Mapper (GLM) Display
The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) is a satellite-borne single channel, near-infrared optical transient detector operating on the GOES-16 satellite. The GLM detects all forms of lightning during both day and night, continously, with a high spatial resolution and detection efficiency.
The IDV can display event, group, and flash information from the GLM (as defined by NOAA).
Additional New Features
IDV 5.5 includes a number of other new features. See the Release Notes for information.
IDV 5.5 can be downloaded from:
https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/downloads/idv/current/
