McIDAS Support Status
Activities for Spring 2002

Tom Yoksas
May 13, 2002

McIDAS, ldm-mcidas, THREDDS, Collaborations, Support Status

• Unidata McIDAS

  • Since August 1 release of Unidata McIDAS Version 7.80, there have been 6 addenda that fixed bugs, added functionality, and allowed for use of freely available GNU Fortran (g77) compiler (g77 effort required modification of approx. 100 McIDAS routines)
  • as of May 9, 2002 73 sites have downloaded Unidata McIDAS 7.8. For comparison, 70 sites downloaded 7.7x when it was the current Unidata McIDAS release.
  • update to ADDE GINI server to support GEMPAK-produced 1 km base reflectivity, 2 km 1-hour precipitation, and 4 km storm total precipitation NEXRAD composites (released in FNEXRAD IDD feed)
  • continuing support/bug fixes for Unidata and SSEC McIDAS-X, -XCD (supported version: 7.8x)
  • results of work on sounding serving failure under Linux systems (post 2.0.36 kernels): investigation showed that the most expedient way around the problem was to totally rewrite the code (to eliminate chained server calls). SSEC conducted their own investigation, but became discouraged by numerous reports of similar sounding errors by users of a wide range of Linux services.
  • bugfixes and enhancements to allow XCD decoding of CONDUIT grib messages (all except ensemble grids). Release of standalone grib decoder that includes updates.
  • Unidata Graphical User Interface to McIDAS, MCGUI, development (ongoing)
  • ADDE grib server as imagery (proof of concept done for serving NEXRAD composite grib messages produced by GEMPAK included in FNEXRAD LDM datastream)
  • ADDE server for grid data in GEMPAK format(s) (preliminary work for this is now in design). This work along with an ADDE server for point data in GEMPAK format will allow COMET case studies to be usable by ADDE users (McIDAS and MetApps).
  • second attempts at porting McIDAS-X to MacOS-X were mildly successful. Further work will be needed to fully support McIDAS-X under MacOS-X.
  • extension of access to generically named point and grid files planning (stalled)

• ldm-mcidas and Unidata-Wisconsin datastream

  • current release remains at 7.8.0; new release made available at end of April. Added as an uncompression routine for national radar composite imagery in GINI format
  • upgraded both Zlib and libPNG components to match current releases (important given security hole found in Zlib release in older distribution)
  • announcement of NEXRAD radar composites in FNEXRAD IDD feed (1 km and 6 km national Base Reflectivity; 2 km 1-hour precipitation totals; 4 km storm-total precipitation; and 10 km Radar Coded Message)
  • contemplating move of 10-minute 6 km and 15-minute 1 km national NEXRAD Level III radar composite imagery to Unidata-Wisconsin datastream. Our proposal is to replace the MDR radar products in the stream with the 6 km composites. We need to evaluate the impact this will have on sites using the MDR product for topographic image composites.
  • had to scramble to get a backup machine at SSEC producing Unidata-Wisconsin datastream when existing machine experienced catastrophic failure.

• THREDDS

  • list of collaborating servers for ADDE access to McIDAS-XCD products, Unidata-Wisconsin and FNEXRAD imagery, NOAAPORT GINI imagery, NEXRAD Level III imagery, Antarctic point source and image data, and METEOSAT imagery continues to grow. Servers are being used as realtime data source and near realtime backup. They are accessible to ADDE enabled applications (e.g., McIDAS, MetApps).

    Examples of all imagery available by IDD to Unidata sites can be seen in: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/data/datastream.html.

    Site	Contact	Datasets Served
    AMRC	Lazzara	Antarctic image and point source datasets; will be expanded to include decoded SPAWAR datasets as they become available in fall
    CU/CIRES	Hsie Yoksas	everything except Antarctic and METEOSAT datasets
    University of Georgia	Mote Yoksas	everything except Antarctic and METEOSAT datasets
    University of Nebraska-Lincoln	Rowe Yoksas	everything except Antarctic and METEOSAT datasets
    Plymouth State College	Koermer Yoksas	Unidata-Wisconsin imagery, NOAAPORT GINI and NEXRAD Level III imagery. Eventually will serve McIDAS POINT and weather text data and possibly METEOSAT imagery.
    UCAR: Unidata/SCD	Yoksas	everything except Antarctic and METEOSAT datasets
    NSF: Unidata	Yoksas	everything except Antarctic and METEOSAT datasets
    Universite du Quebec a Montreal	Page	Unidata-Wisconsin imagery, NOAAPORT GINI and NEXRAD Level III imagery.
    Northern Illinois University	Sebenste Yoksas	Unidata-Wisconsin imagery, XCD-produced point source data, NOAAPORT NEXRAD Level III imagery
    SSEC: Unidata/SSEC	Yoksas	everything except Antarctic and METEOSAT datasets AND service for full resolution GOES East/West imagery (upcoming)

  • after lengthy discussions with the head of EUMETSAT legal services (that eventually involved NOAA), a clear picture of what METEOSAT data that could be served by ADDE was gained (all 6-hourly unencrypted imagery, and half hourly imagery that is older than 3 days). Unidata now has ADDE access to METEOSAT, INDOSAT (METEOSAT-5), GMS, GOES, and polar orbiter imagery through NOAA/SATEPS. This data will be made available to the Unidata community on the the new Sun E450 that is being installed in the SSEC Data Center and potentially on one or more of the cooperating community servers.

  • incorporation of THREDDS XML catalog services use in Unidata McIDAS GUI, MCGUI slated for future McIDAS-X release (next release will be in July). Requires upgrade of Tcl/Tk version in McIDAS distribution to latest release; upgrade of Tcl/Tk requires rework of some McIDAS services that were added to McIDAS Tcl/Tk windowing shell, mcwish.

  • NCAR/SCD- Unidata-SCD data server project. (Yoksas, Chiswell, Schmidt, Davis, Caron, Worley)
    • act as top-level IDD node (operational)
    • archive IDD raw data to MSS (operational, DDPLUS and HRS are stored on MSS for 1 year (SCD); possibility of saving CONDUIT data has been raised with SCD (Worley): comments are that CONDUIT contains "a significant amount of data and would require substantial personnel time and MSS resources, so we must consider the various impacts carefully")
    • act as ADDE server for McIDAS-XCD, NOAAPORT GINI, NEXRAD Level III product, and NEXRAD composite base reflectivity imagery (operational)
    • act as DODS server for NWSTG data in netCDF form (operational and expanding)
    • Web and FTP service to raw and decoded (GEMPAK, McIDAS, and netCDF) IDD data (announced to select users with statement of intention to not use this as a replacement for a real time feed of data (already broken by NWS training center representative)
    • LAS access to NCEP Reanalysis II (SCD, active but not advertised)
    • access to NCAR Mass Store data archives (future?, SCD? there are no Unidata resources and apparently no SCD resources to dedicate to this effort)
    • web page access to IDD data being ingested provided (Chiswell)

  • SSEC
    • Sun Enterprise E450 (4x450 Mhz, 4x1 GB RAM, 1 TB disk) has been physically installed in SSEC Data Center. This machine will take over Unidata-Wisconsin datastream preparation activities as soon as SSEC McIDAS-X 7.90 is released. This machine will also be used to provide the Unidata community with access to high resolution GOES (East/West), METEOSAT (after non-6-hour imagery is 3 days old), GMS, and possibly some TERRA (MODIS) or other polar orbiter data.

Collaborations

• NOAA/FSL
  Unidata has been tracking the AWIPS software development at FSL for several years. In partial response to the User Committee community survey, and in fulfillment of our long stated intention of keeping abreast of software capabilities of FSL offerings, the UPC installed FX-Linux data server and display workstations in house.

  Results of FX-Linux testing can be found in: FX-Linux Overview

• AMRC, AMRC/SPAWAR/NCAR/NSF
  • ADDE list, get, and put servers for Level 1B formats (in preparation for release by SSEC)
  • AMRC ADDE server for Antarctic point and imagery data (imagery data operational; point source data will be added to mix as SPAWAR/AMRC data exchange evolves)
  • collaboration with NCAR, NSF, AMRC, and SPAWAR to include SPAWAR Antarctic data on AMRC hosted ADDE server (in progress) and inject that data into IDD (upcoming) and AMPS 30 km model output into the IDD (awaiting go ahead from Bill Kuo)

• COMET - MeteoForum
  • working with MeteoForum WMO RMTC representatives to assess potential for LDM feed of conventional and select model data)
  • investigating data delivery by satellite broadcast as the networking picture for several of the RMTCs is not bright

  The following brief overview of MeteoForum objectives was exerpted from

  MeteoForum - An International Network of Meteorological Training Centers for the 21^st Century

  "The MeteoForum pilot project will include a small group of educational institutions (some universities and some WMO RMTCs) that are motivated to enhance the contributions of modern meteorology in their regions. Participants will be expected to have relatively fast Internet access, appropriate computers, and suitable personnel. Some of these personnel will be trained to run MeteoForum software on their computers so as to to access real-time data, training materials, and other resources. Where practical, participants in the MeteoForum pilot also will contribute real-time data and educational resources to the effort. By integrating these elements, the pilot project will serve as a model on which to build a full-scale international MeteoForum. Initially, the MeteoForum pilot project will build upon capabilities now offered in the U.S. by the government-sponsored COMET and Unidata programs"

• Litton/TASC
  • continue to provide Unidata McIDAS-X port for Digital Unix (Note: Digital Unix/Tru64 support is slated to be phased out by HP-Compaq)
  • provide package support beyond issues related to OS support

• NASA/JSFC
  • Adapted ADDE NEXRAD Level III product server to work on files FTPed from NWS servers
  • McIDAS ADDE server, display, analysis and user interface issues (ongoing)

• NOAA/NESDIS/DESA
  • continue to provided Unidata/Plymouth FreeBSD port of McIDAS

• NOAA/SATEPS
  • continued to maintain communications for NOAAPORT-related issues.
  • provide support for FreeBSD implementation of McIDAS

• SSEC
  • ADDE server dynamic dataset design (Unidata)
  • McIDAS-X support for little-endian platforms (Digital Unix, Linux, FreeBSD; Linux "support" adopted by SSEC)
  • 7.8 bug fixes and enhancements (Yoksas, various)
  • provide programatic enhancements and bugfixes to core McIDAS (Yoksas)
  • issues related to serving sounding data from Linux platforms. Problem may require complete rewrite of sounding server (large task)

• UCAR/JOSS
  • TerraScan (tm) to AREA imagery converter (effort in progress and showing advances: conversion is not from TDF files directly, but, rather from HDF files created by TeraScan and GOES navigation information provided by SSEC) (Gallant, Yoksas)

User Support

• continuing support of over 130 sites
• growing participation by foreign universities (McIDAS-X, LDM) (Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, France, Portugal, United Kingdom, Jamaica, Mexico, Spain, Thailand)

This page was prepared by Tom Yoksas.
Send questions/comments to <support@unidata.ucar.edu>.

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/tom/policy_20020513.html was updated on Monday, 13-May-2002 16:47:12 MDT.

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