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Unidata McIDAS-X/-XCD - v2007 Release Notes

Before Installing McIDAS-X

Please take the time to read this entire document; its important to understand the whole procedure before you begin. If you connect to ADDE remote servers at other sites, contact the site coordinators at those sites. The site coordinators can tell you if any server problems that might affect your system were noted since this upgrade was distributed.

This upgrade procedure is divided into four sections.

• Section I. Supported Software Configurations contains the software versions to use with McIDAS-X 2007.
• Section II. Before Installing McIDAS-X describes the Required and Optional Actions to perform before installing McIDAS-X 2007.
• Section III. Installing McIDAS-X explains how to install McIDAS-X 2007.
• Section IV. McIDAS-X Significant Changes describes the Required and Optional Actions to perform after installing McIDAS-X 2007.

Section I. Supported Software Configurations

Unidata McIDAS-X 2007 is supported on systems running Apple MacOS-X, HP-UX (by virtue of SSEC's support of this platform only), FreeBSD, IBM AIX, Linux (most varieties), SGI IRIX, Sun Solaris, and Microsoft Windows XP with Services for Unix. The software configurations compatible with McIDAS-X 2001 are listed in Chapter 1 of the Unidata McIDAS-X User’s Guide

Section II. Before Installing McIDAS-X

Complete all Required Actions below.

Core Software Changes

Review the changes to core software before installing McIDAS-X 2007. Section IV lists some of the significant changes since the last upgrade. Two ASCII text files, MAY07PRG.TXT and MAY07INQ.TXT, list all software changes made to McIDAS-X since the previous upgrade. A third file, MAY07OPN.TXT, lists all software bugs known at the time this upgrade was distributed. All these three files are provided with the distribution.

Required Action:

See Section IV of this document to review the significant changes made to core software. You can also place the three text files in the ~mcidas directory before installing the upgrade. To do so, complete the instructions in Obtaining McIDAS-X 2007 in Chapter 1 of the Unidata McIDAS-X User’s Guide.

Operating System and Compiler Changes

Beginning with this upgrade, the following changes were made to operating system and compiler versions that McIDAS-X is supported on.

• Apple Mac OS X 10.4 Intel was added as a platform that McIDAS-X is supported on. Mac-OS X 10.3 is no longer supported.
• Fedora Core 6 on 32- and 64-bit systems was added as a newly supported operating system.
• The SGI IRIX version that McIDAS-X is supported on remains at 6.5.21. The supported vendor compilers’ (SGI Fortran 77 and ANSI C) version remain at 7.4.2/3; the g77/gcc compilers’ version remain at at current release levels.
• Sun Solaris 10, on both SPARC and x86, is now supported using Sun Studio 11/12 compilers.

Required Action:

See the table in Section I, Supported Software Configurations, for the complete list of operating system and compiler versions that McIDAS-X 2007 is supported on. We recommend that you update the operating systems and/or compiler versions on your McIDAS-X workstation(s) to those listed in the table.

Compatibility with -X Remote Servers and -XCD

McIDAS-X 2007 can run in a stand-alone mode. However, many commands can access data on other workstations (remote servers). Therefore, your McIDAS-X client workstations and the remote servers they access must be running compatible versions in order for all features to work as expected.

For example, the items below are dependent upon the McIDAS-X version that the client and/or server is running.

• The GRDCOPY, GRDDISP, GRDIMG, GRDINFO and GRDLIST commands in this 2007 upgrade contain a new ENSEMBLE= keyword that selects only grids matching the specified ensemble number(s). In order for the keyword to work, both the client and server must be running version 2007.
• Remote server workstations must have port 112 open to allow clients running McIDAS-X 200[4567] to access their data. Likewise, ports 500 and 503 must also be open to allow clients running McIDAS-X 2003 to access their data.

Required Action:

Coordinate upgrading your site’s McIDAS-X and -XCD systems according to your needs, considering the compatibility requirements listed above.

Disk Space

McIDAS-X disk space requirements increased, mainly due to the addition of new servers.

The overall disk space requirements for obtaining, building and installing McIDAS-X 2006 listed in the table below have not changed substantially from v2005. The compiler type (vendor or gcc/g77) used for each build are also listed.

Required Action:

Verify that you have sufficient disk space available to obtain, build, and install McIDAS-X 2007.

Section III. Installing McIDAS-X

If you need assistance with the upgrade please contact Unidata McIDAS Support <support-mcidas@unidata.ucar.edu>.

Required Action:

Obtain and install McIDAS-X 2007 using the instructions in Chapter 1, Installing and Configuring McIDAS-X, in the Unidata McIDAS-X User’s Guide.

Section IV. McIDAS-X Significant Changes

Complete all Required Actions below. Optional Actions are only for your consideration.

New Command

McIDAS-X SSEC GUI

• The Grid Display GUI was modified to work with GRIB datasets and to list only the derived parameters valid for the current dataset (rather than all of them).
• The Image Display GUI was modified to request a DAY= keyword value via popup window when the GUI is used with an image archive dataset.
• The Grid Select GUI was modified to sort its output by Day and Time, and then by FHour.

Optional Action:

Use the GUI by starting it with the GUI command, selecting the Start GUI upon McIDAS startup option in the mcidas -config GUI's Miscellaneous tab, or automatically start the GUI with each McIDAS-X session by adding a -c GUI command in the Run commands at startup section of your .mcidasrc file.

McIDAS-X for XP Remote Servers and PAE

Due to a change in the Windows XP service installation, the ADDE remote server installation script (e.g., mcinet2005.sh) no longer works on XP workstations with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later. Therefore, we are NOT including a remote server installation script for McIDAS-X for XP with this 2007 upgrade. (It was not included in the 2006 release either.)

If your McIDAS-X for XP workstation is already running the remote server (e.g., from version 2004 or 2005), you can continue to run it even after installing McIDAS-X for XP version 2007. Please note, however, that if you uninstall it (with a command similar to sh ./mcinet2005.sh uninstall mcadde) you will NOT be able to reinstall it because the failure occurs during the install portion of any version of the mcinet script. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you do NOT uninstall the remote server on your McIDAS-X for XP workstations at any time unless you're sure you will not need to run it again in the future.

Required Action:

If you are currently running an ADDE Remote Server on your McIDAS-X for XP workstation, do NOT uninstall it. If you do so, you will not be able to reinstall it. As noted above, we did not include a 2006 or 2007 version of the McIDAS-X for XP ADDE remote server because of this problem.

Other Modifications

The modifications below require no special action.

Data Files

The following changes were made to files in the ~mcidas/data directory.

Required Action:

Merge these modifications with all local copies of the data files. Users who intend to create UPPR-schema MD files must also register the schema with command SCHE DCUPPR.

Local Code

Compile and link all local code after installing the upgrade. Listed below are some of the software and structural changes most likely to affect your local code.

• The start time of image calculated in the modules lv1butil.c and lv1baput.cp was previously adjusted by the milliseconds variable. Rounding navigation parameters and the value of tnavcod[46] are now used to adjust the start time of the image.
• Modules lv1butil.c and lv1baget.cp were updated to be compatible with NOAA version 4.
• The return code -2 from SubSectLALONav (lv1butil.c) was added for cases when the aux block needs to be larger.
• The calibration alpha and beta values in module msgutil.for were updated for some IR bands to match EUMETSAT's values.
• MTSAT modules mtstaget2.for and mtsatadir2.for were updated to handle little-endian files on big-endian machines.
• The size of the calibration lookup table in kbxmods.dlm was increased.
• Corrected the update_cal function in fsdxaget2.for by adding FLIPBYTE common block. Also added FLIPBYTE common block to fsdxutil.for.
• The subpoint for MTSAT in nvxmtst.dlm was changed to 140.25oE.
• The module modsaget.cp was updated to change 1D address into 2D computation.
• The following modules are either new or were updated for GRIB data and in preparation of GRIB2 data:

  database.c	daytime.c	fghed.for
  gbtbpds001.2v3	gbtbpds002.2v3	gdirserv.fp
  ggetserv.fp	grdcopy.pgm	grddisp.pgm
  grdimg.pgm	grdinfo.pgm	grdlist.pgm
  gribfunc.c	gribgdir.cp	gribgget.cp
  m0count.for	m0grdens.for	m0gserv.c
  m0parstr.for	makefile	mcgdir.for
  mcgget.for	mcgrib.h	mcgrib2.h
  mcncdf.h	ncdffunc.c	readsort.for
  xcdgrib.c	grib2NavLookup.txt	grib2NCEPModels.txt
  grib2Parameters.txt

• Removed 'long int' for 64 bit SU tables in mod8aget.cp and mod4aget.cp. Also added GEO dimension definition for fetching LON values in mod4aget.cp.
• The module makefile was updated to install libz.a. Search locations were also updated in mccomp.sh when the -mysql flag is used.
• A sleep function was added to mcar.sh so very fast workstations will compile without error.
• Calibration module kbxabis.dlm and navigation module nvxabis.dlm were added for simulated ABI data.
• Updates to mcinst.sh were added for McIDAS to compile on Mac OS X Intel workstations.
• The following modules are new or were updated to create an interface between McIDAS-X and McIDAS-V:

  argglo.c	constants.h	cursor.c
  frmflag.c	m0wrtgiffd.c	mcline.c
  mclisten.c	mclisten.h	md5.c
  md5.h	sendimage.c	sendimage.h
  urldecode.c	virtgeo.pgm

• The call to mcafree was removed in module imgremap.pgm to prevent losing LALO navigation.
• The allocation of local data buffer in gvaraget.cp was changed to maximum GVAR block size.
• The flash flood category FLS is now decoded by wwmisc.c. It was also updated to correctly decode thunderstorm and tornado boxes where the watch number was less than 10.
• The DAY= keyword information is now used by imgcopy.pgm for GOES archive servers.
• The number of grids sent from the server is now limited to 20000. Modules updated for this change include database.c, gribgdir.cp and gribgget.cp.
• Checks for BAND=ALL were added to kbxmodx.dlm to prevent accessing data arrays with a bad index.
• The GVAR servers were updated to return data if the navigation block is not perfect. The pid_t declaration was moved in GVAR.c to satisfy all compilers. The size of text lines was increased in GVAR.h to allow for long comment lines. Extensive changes were made to SDIUtil.c to check for good image data.
• The array index in kbxgvar.dlm was updated so correct gain and bias values are used for GVAR sounder band 19 (visible).
• The module ddeservf.for was updated to support ADDE dataset group names consisting of numbers.
• A line was added to mcinet.sh to force rebuilding of inetd.conf on Solaris 10.
• The size of the glob buffer was increased in mtstadir2.for and mtstaget2.for.
• The pointer type for day_equals was changed to char* in mcidas.h. The prototype for m0getimagenav was also updated.
• Added CFLAGS=-D_64BIT_ to makefile when configuring g2clib on 64bit Linux. Also removed long variable declarations from function calls in gribfunc.c.
• The Meteosat-8 visible coefficients were updated and coefficients for Meteosat-9 were added to kbxmsg.dlm.
• The optimization flag in mccomp.sh was set to -O0 to turn off optimization for all modules when building on Solaris using vendor compilers. Optimization was also turned off for imgremap.pgm on HP-UX.
• The following modules were added to support estimating tropical cyclone strength using the Advanced Dvorak Technique (ADT), along with storing and displaying history information:

  adt.c	argglo.c
  constants.h	cursor.c
  odtapi.h	odtatcfoutputfile.c
  odtauto.c	odtautomodel.c
  odtautomode2.c	odtbulletinoutput.c
  odtcoords.c	odtdata.c.or
  odtdiagnostics.c	odtextern.h
  odtexterror.c	odteyecloudtemp.c
  odtfft.c	odtfreememory.c
  odtfuncs.c	odtgetwinhprofile.c
  odtgrid.c	odtgrid.h
  odtgsdomain.c	odtgsforecastfile.c
  odtgshistory.c	odtgsIRimage.c
  odtgslocation.c	odtgsmiscopts.c
  odtgsscenetypes.c	odtgsstvalue.c
  odtgsstartstr.c	odtgstopovalue.c
  odtgsversion.c	odtghistory.c
  odthistorybullfmt.c	odthistorycomment.c
  odthistorydelelete.c	odtthistoryinsertrec.c
  odthistorylistfmt.c	odthistorynextrec.c
  odthistorywrite.c	odtinitialize.c
  odtintensity.c	odtintensityest.c
  odtlib.h	odtlibdefs.h
  odtlibdefs-x.h	odtlibfuncs.h
  odtloadIRimage.c	odtmcerror.c
  odtmcgrid.c	odtmcidas.c
  odtmcidas.h	odtmcinput.c
  odtmessages.c	odtoutput.c
  odtreadopofile.c	odtremap.h
  odtscene.c	odtscenemap.c
  odtscenetype.c	odtsetdatetime.c
  odtest.c	odtest.h
  odttopo.c	odtwarmeyetemp.c
  odtwinds.c	TOPOHRES
  TOPOLRES

  Other existing modules were updated to support ADT. Optimization was turned off for nvxgvar.dlm. All modules were added to makefile. New function M0defpathdir() was added to m0mcpath.c and its prototype was added to mcidasp.h, which returns the first writable directory in MCPATH (no file name required).

McIDAS-XCD v2007

The McIDAS-XCD upgrade procedure is divided into four sections.

• Section I. Before Installing McIDAS-XCD describes the actions to be performed before installing McIDAS-XCD 2007.
• Section II. Installing McIDAS-XCD describes the installation procedure for McIDAS-XCD 2007.
• Section III. McIDAS-XCD Post-Upgrade Procedures describes the actions to be performed immediately after upgrading to McIDAS-XCD 2007 from a previous version.
• Section IV. McIDAS-XCD Changes lists the McIDAS-XCD software changes that have been made since the last upgrade.

Section I. Before Installing McIDAS-XCD

Complete all Required Actions below.

Compatibility with McIDAS-X

The McIDAS-XCD 2007 software package was tested and supported by SSEC on Enterprise Linux 4.0. As with McIDAS-X 2007, SSEC recommends that you run your Enterprise Linux workstation in 32-bit mode. Unidata tests McIDAS-XCD on Sun Solaris SPARC 5.9 and Fedora Core 64-bit Linux.

Required Action:

Section II. Installing McIDAS-XCD

If you need assistance with the installation, please contact Unidata McIDAS Support <support-mcidas@unidata.ucar.edu>.

The GRIB Server is available in -X 2007 and -XCD 2007 with the use of a MySQL database (which requires the -mysql flag during -X and -XCD builds). GRIB1 and GRIB2 files from the NOAAPORT data stream have been tested and are fully supported.

Required Action:

1. Obtain and install McIDAS-X 2007. Upgrade with additional modifications for the installation of McIDAS with the MySQL database.

   If you are planning on using the new GRIB server with -XCD, you must install MySQL on the -XCD machine, and then build and install McIDAS-X v2007 with the -mysql flag.

Section III. Configuring McIDAS-XCD

This section lists the actions to be performed immediately after upgrading to McIDAS-XCD 2007 from a previous version. If you are installing McIDAS-XCD for the first time on a workstation, then everything in this section will have been done during the installation procedure.

Grid Parameter Definition Changes

One parameter name was changed in McIDAS-XCD 2007. In the Current Icing Potential grids from AWC (RTGRIDS/ICN-ALL), the ICNG parameter was changed to TIPD, Total Icing Potential Diagnostic.

Required Actions:

1. Notify users of the parameter name change
2. Update scripts and commands where the affected parameters are used

Local Copies of GRIB Table Files

In version 2005, the gbtbpds001.* GRIB table files were moved from McIDAS-XCD to McIDAS-X for use with the GRIB decoder. These files now reside in ~mcidas/data and several files have updates in 2007.

If your -XCD workstations have any local copies in ~oper/mcidas/data, they should be removed so that the updated files in McIDAS-X 2007 (located in ~mcidas/data) are used.

Required Actions:

1. Search for local copies of the gbtbpds001.* files and remove them
2. If any files were removed, you will need to stop and restart -XCD for the changes to take effect.

GRIB Server Set-up

The GRIB server is available in McIDAS-X 2007 and -XCD 2007 for both GRIB1 and GRIB2 data files. You may continue to serve McIDAS GRID files as you always have, but may want to switch to the GRIB server for faster data transfers, less disk space usage, and access to the additional GRIB2 files from the NOAAPORT data stream. The real-time GRIB server utilizes a MySQL database. Only GRIB files from the NOAAPORT data stream have been tested and are fully supported. See the McIDAS-XCD Administrator's Guide for all of the information about configuring -XCD for the GRIB server.

Optional Actions:

1. Install McIDAS-X version 2007 and -XCD version 2007 using the -mysql flag.
2. See Configuring the GRIB Decoders for information on creating the MySQL mcrtgrib database with the gribadmin command, and activating the DMBIN GRIB Decoder.
3. See Configuring Data Removal for information on using the Unix cron command to schedule the removal of GRIB1, GRIB2, and BUFR files, the cleaning of the database, and the creation of the -XCD log files.
4. See Configuring the Default ADDE Datasets for information on creating the new default GRIB1 and GRIB2 datasets. All users of GRIB1 or GRIB2 data must run the commands in step 6 to update the keywords in the GRIB1 and GRIB2 datasets on their -XCD machine.
5. See Configuring Additional GRIB2 ADDE Datasets for information on creating additional GRIB2 datasets.
6. See Starting and Stopping McIDAS-XCD for information on using xcdadmin to start and stop -XCD in the background, without a McIDAS-X session running in the foreground.
7. See Checking the Filing Status of McIDAS-XCD Data for information on using statdisp and gribadmin to check the filing status of all of the data on your -XCD machine.

Section IV. McIDAS-X and -XCD Changes

This section lists the changes made to McIDAS-X and -XCD source, data, script, and batch files since the last upgrade (version 2006).

Source Modules Changes in -XCD

The table below lists changes to McIDAS-XCD source modules since the previous upgrade (version 2006).

File	Description of Modifications
dmbin.pgm	Updated for GRIB2.
dmgrid.pgm	Updated to bypass GRIB2 data, which can not be used to create McIDAS grid files.
gribdb.c	New file - command to write archived GRIB1 metadata to a MySQL database.
grib2nav.c	New file - command to list the navigation parameters necessary for entering new GRIB2 datasets.
m0pirdec.for	The PIREP decoder was updated to recognize MOD and MDT as indicators of both moderate turbulence and moderate icing.
Mcgrb2dec.c	New file - code for the GRIB2 decoder, writing metadata to the MySQL database, and filing the GRIB2 files.
Mcgrbbfrdec.c	Fixed memory leaks in the code.

Source Module Changes in -X

The table below lists changes to McIDAS-X source modules since the previous upgrade (version 2006) that are used by -XCD.

File	Description of Modifications
grib2func.c	New file - GRIB2 data extractions functions and algorithms.
gribfunc.c	Added functionality to extract GRIB2 ensembles and accumulations. Added nav function to properly calculate McIDAS navigation for GRIB2 data. Updated ensemble values to be character strings, and no longer map to integers.
mcgrib.h	Changed g2clib headers needed for GRIB2.
mcgrib2.h	New file - GRIB2 prototypes, declarations, and definitions for navigation table, parameter table, and model table structures.
ncdffunc.c	Minor changes for GRIB2.
xcdgrib.c	Modification to Mcgtpstrg function to capture blank entries in the gbtbpds* files. Made strings for ensemble grids left justified. Added readers of new files grib2NavLookup.txt, grib2NCEPModels.txt and grib2Parameters.txt, and added matchup functions to properly identify GRIB2 data using these files.

Data File Changes in -XCD

The table below lists changes to McIDAS-XCD data files since the previous upgrade (version 2006).

File	Description of Modifications
RTMODELS.CFG	Added North American Mesoscale US Polar Stereographic grids, NAM-USPS. Added Rapid Update Cycle 20 km grids, RUC-USLC3.
XCDDEC.VER	Updated -XCD version number to 2007.

Data File Changes in -X

The table below lists changes to McIDAS-X data files since the previous upgrade (version 2006) that are used by -XCD.

File	Description of Modifications
gbtbpds001.2v2 gbtbpds001.2v3	The apostrophe was removed from Blackadar's mixing length scale due to incompatibilities with MySQL syntax.
gbtbpds001.2v2	Updated ICNG parameter name to TIPD.
gbtbpds001.bv1	Added grid number 253 to fix North Pacific Hurricane Wave Model (NPH) grids.
grib2NavLookup.txt	New file - allows for a matchup between the McIDAS navigation parameters calculated from GRIB2 files and a unique identifier for that dataset.
grib2Parameters.txt	New file - allows for a matchup of the GRIB2 data with their respective parameter names (based on GRIB2 documentation Template 4.0).
grib2NCEPModels.txt	New file - identifies the NCEP model type for GRIB2 data.
STNDB.CORE	Updates to the core station database file.

Script and Batch File Changes in -XCD

The table below lists changes to McIDAS-XCD scripts and batch files since the previous upgrade (version 2006).

File	Description of Modifications
makefile	Added new files and made changes for installing g2clib and jasper. Added -D_64BIT_ if on a Linux 64-bit workstation, so that g2clib will compile correctly.
gribtodb	Wrapper script that calls gribdb.k.
gribadmin	Added entry for the new field "field_number". Reordered the GRANT and REVOKE commands for the MySQL database.
xcd_init	Updated version number.
xcdscour	Added entry for deleting GRIB2 files. Improved deletion algorithm when a large grouping of files can not be deleted due to operating system limitations.
XCDADDE.BAT	Added XCDGRB2.BAT.
XCDGRB2.BAT	New file - batch file to run DSSERVE commands for McIDAS GRIB2 datasets.
XCDGRIB.BAT XCDGRID.BAT	Added NAM-USPS and RUC-USLC3.

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