System Requirements

The Unidata McIDAS-XCD software package runs on the same platforms that Unidata McIDAS-X runs on except MacOS-X and Windows XP, which are not supported. Please see Supported Platforms for more information.

Unidata McIDAS-X must be installed in the account of the user mcidas according to the specifications in Installing McIDAS-X on Unix or MacOS Workstations.

The following must be adhered to:

The account running the McIDAS-XCD software (mcidas) must be in the same group name as the user running the Unidata LDM (ldm).
The umask for the mcidas and ldm accounts should be set to 002. This will insure that both of these users create files that readable and writable by the other.
The workstation gets all of its data products via the Unidata IDD. McIDAS-XCD ingesters read data from stdin through actions defined in the Unidata LDM's pqact.conf file.
McIDAS-XCD is designed to process data from the NOAAPORT data stream that is broadcast by the National Weather Service. The standard method for receiving this data stream is through the use of the Unidata LDM.

In addition, the workstation must have enough disk space to run the McIDAS-XCD software package and store its data files. The table below lists the approximate disk space requirements per day for each data type decoded with the -XCD package. The space requirements were derived from the NOAAPORT broadcast in May 2005.

Data type	Daily space requirements
* ASCII text stream	670 MB
* Surface hourly MD file (ISFC)	60 MB
* RAOB MD file (IRAB/IRSG)	9 MB
* Synoptic MD file (SYN)	9 MB
* Ship/Buoy MD file (ISHP)	5 MB
* NGM MOS MD file (NGM)	2 MB
* NAM MOS MD file (NAM)	7 MB
* GFS MOS MD file (GFS)	7 MB
* PIREP/AIREP/ACARS (PIRP)	8 MB
All GRIDs from the GRIB data	10,000 MB
All NEXRAD products and stations	6,200 MB
* These data are generated by default for first-time installations. The GRIB and NEXRAD decoders are inactive by default.
NOAAPORT approximate total	16,977 MB

In addition, there is a static requirement of 1,152 MB for other -XCD files.

For example, assume your site receives the NOAAPORT broadcast and decodes all the text and MD data above. To store six days of this data online, your minimum space requirement will be 6(777) + 1,152 = 5,814 MB. If you also receive and store two days of GRID data, your minimum space requirements will be 5,814 + 2(10,000) = 25,814 MB. Adding two days of NEXRAD data increases the total to 25,814 + 2(6,200) = 38,214 MB.

Contact Us • Site Map • Search • Terms and Conditions • Privacy Policy • Participation Policy

Unidata is a member of the UCAR Office of Programs, is managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, and is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

P.O. Box 3000 • Boulder, CO 80307-3000 USA • Tel: 303-497-8643 • Fax: 303-497-8690