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9 Real-time Data Access

So far, this Learning Guide has introduced you to McIDAS and given you the basic tools and concepts needed to use the McIDAS system. The lessons have all used data from the "Storm of the Century." However, McIDAS can also access real-time meteorological data.

Through the real-time servers at SSEC, weather text products from the National Weather Service are available, as well as conventional grid data, and surface and upper-air point data. SSEC also receives satellite imagery from both polar orbiting and geostationary satellites. This chapter will show you how to access real-time data.

The examples listed in this chapter assume that you are using the same dataset names as those used at SSEC. If your dataset names are different, you may have to change the dataset names in some of the commands.

This lesson describes how to:

The following commands are used in this lesson:

Command Function

DATALOC manages and lists the client routing table
DSINFO lists ADDE datasets on local and remote servers
FRMLIST lists frame directory information
FRNTDISP displays fronts from NCEP frontal positions products
GEO finds and displays a geostationary satellite image over a point or region
GRDDISP generates contours, streamlines or plots from grid data
GRDINFO lists, modifies, or statistically analyzes grid point values
GRDLIST lists grids in a dataset
HODO plots a hodograph of upper-air data
IMGDISP displays image data
IMGLIST lists images in a dataset
IMGPROBE lists or plots image data for a region of the displayed image
IMGREMAP remaps images into different projections
LEO finds and displays a polar orbiting satellite image over a point or region
MAP displays a map and latitude/longitude lines on a graphics frame
MOSRPT lists MOS forecasts for the ETA, GFS and NGM models
PTLIST lists point data in a dataset
RAOBCON contours upper-air data from IRAB-schema point files
RAOBPLOT plots upper-air data from IRAB-schema point files
RAOBRPT lists upper air (RAOB) observations
READ lists the contents of an ADDE text dataset
SFCCON contours surface hourly data from ISFC-schema point files
SFCLIST lists surface hourly data from point files
SFCMG displays a surface meteorogram
SFCPLOT plots surface hourly data from ISFC-schema point files
SFCRPT lists surface hourly observations
STNLIST lists weather stations
UACROSS plots a vertical cross section of upper-air data
UALIST lists upper-air data
UAPLOT plots a sounding on a thermodynamic diagram
WWDISP displays active weather warnings, watches and advisories
WWLIST lists active weather warnings, watches and advisories
WXTLIST lists weather text products


Table of contents Previous: Grids and Grid Files - Displaying Gridded Data Next: Real-time Data Access - Getting Started