Proposed Unidata-Wisconsin Datastream Changes

The UPC is proposing a change in the satellite images being sent in the Unidata-Wisconsin (UNIWISC aka MCIDAS) datastream.

The change would be a combination of:

Proposed changes compared to current broadcast

Current GOES-East Sectors
Band Resolution Broadcast Frequency Areal Coverage Uncompressed Size on Disk
0.65 um Visible hourly Northern Hemisphere 2.4 MB
6.5 um Water Vapor hourly Northern Hemisphere 607 KB
10.7 um Thermal IR hourly Northern Hemisphere 2.4 MB
Proposed GOES-East Sectors
Band Resolution Broadcast Frequency Areal Coverage Uncompressed Size on Disk
0.65 um Visible half hourly Northern/Southern Hemisphere Composite 4.4 MB
3.9 um near IR half hourly Northern/Southern Hemisphere Composite 4.4 MB
6.5 um Water Vapor half hourly Northern/Southern Hemisphere Composite 4.4 MB
10.7 um Thermal IR half hourly Northern/Southern Hemisphere Composite 4.4 MB
13.3 um CO2 half hourly Northern/Southern Hemisphere Composite 4.4 MB

 

Current GOES-West Sectors
Band Resolution Broadcast Frequency Areal Coverage Uncompressed Size on Disk
0.65 um Visible hourly Northern Hemisphere 2.4 MB
6.8 um Water Vapor hourly Northern Hemisphere 613 KB
10.7 um Thermal IR hourly Northren Hemisphere 2.4 MB
Proposed GOES-West Sectors
Band Resolution Broadcast Frequency Areal Coverage Uncompressed Size on Disk
0.65 um Visible half hourly Northern Hemisphere 2.4 MB
3.9 um near IR half hourly Northern Hemisphere 2.4 MB
6.8 um Water Vapor half hourly Northern Hemisphere 613 KB
10.7 um Thermal IR half hourly Northern Hemisphere 2.4 MB
12.0 um far IR half hourly Northern Hemisphere 2.4 MB

Proposed CIMSS Wildfire ABBA Products
Product Resolution Broadcast Frequency Areal Coverage Uncompressed Size on Disk
WFABBA - NH three hourly Northern Hemisphere 2.7 MB
WFABBA - SH three hourly Southern Hemisphere 3.8 MB

Notes:

  1. the proposed GOES-East sectors are quite a bit larger than the ones currently in the Unidata-Wisconsin datastream. This is especially true for the uncompressed images stored on disk (approx. 2.4 MB versus 4.4 MB). Because of this size difference, the minimum increase in disk space needed (by one appropriately configuring their ~ldm/ldmd.conf file UNIWISC request) would be 4.6 MB per hour of data kept online.

  2. the increase in disk space needed to store all images in uncompressed, McIDAS AREA file format is approximately 56 MB per hour of data kept online.

  3. the size of the GOES-East compressed products in the UNIWISC stream will vary more than the current images since the southern hemisphere scans are not available for each observation period. Click on goeseast_composite to see the difference in coverage when the southern scan is not available.

  4. the product IDD headers will allow sites to select only those images that they want to receive. In particular, users can:

    • keep the temporal frequency at one image per hour
    • choose which bands to get
    • choose which products to get
    • easily get all of the data

  5. ldm-mcidas v2002b+ decoders should be installed prior to the proposed data changes. ldm-mcidas v2003 will be released at the end of July, 2003.

  6. barring user objections, the broadcast of the proposed images will start at the beginning of September, 2003.

We Want Your Input

Please send all questions, comments, and concerns regarding the proposed changes to support@unidata.ucar.edu.

Tom Yoksas
Unidata User Support
support@unidata.ucar.edu