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20051101: using McIDAS Software (cont.)

>From: Edgardo Barreto <address@hidden>
>Organization: Puerto Rico Fire Department
>Keywords: 200510281925.j9SJPt7s001906 McIDAS PDA Animated Weather

Hi Edgardo,

>I have talked  to russ and he is willing to help, his website is
>incredible and should help us a lot.

Excellent.  Russ is an old friend of mine, so I can assure you
that he does great things and is always looking to help people.

>On the other hand, I would like to
>work with you for the displays on the big screen (Desktops and
>Laptops).

OK.

The first thing I need to know is what kind of machine you want to run
McIDAS on?  If it is Linux/Unix, read the rest of this message.  If it
is Windows, you may be better off using our Integrated Data Viewer
(IDV) package.  The main reason I say this is that the Windows version
of McIDAS that I distribute is the one I get from SSEC with no
alterations.  The Linux/Unix version, on the other hand, has alot of
additions some of which I will be illustrating below.

If you are running on Linux/Unix...

As I recall, the thing you want to do in McIDAS is combine the display
of satellite imagery, radar, and forecast hurricane tracks.

I assume you have already familiarized yourself with the use of IMGDISP
for displaying imagery, so I won't go into that much here.

Overlaying of radar imagery on top of satellite imagery is really not
possible in McIDAS since an image serves as a sort of background for
other displays.  What you can do, however, is use the routine FRMOLAY
to display discrete image levels from one image in the graphics plane
of the display.  This has the same effect as overlaying the radar echos
on top of the satellite image.

To see how "overlaying" radar echos on top of satellite imagery, try
the following:

DATALOC ADD RTIMAGES adde.ucar.edu

SF 1
ERASE
IMGDISP RTIMAGES/GEW-IR LINELE= 296 602 PLACE=C EU=IMAGE
MAP FILE=OUTLUSAM MCOL=1 WID=1 GRA=(GRA)
BAR (GRA) SU=IRTEMP X COL=7 ORIENT=VER

Now, use FRMOLAY to display radar echos from the US national N0R composite
on top of the image:

DATALOC ADD NEXRCOMP adde.ucar.edu
FRMOLAY NEXRCOMP/1KN0R-NAT UNIT=BRIT RAN='3:85,86:96,97:107,108:119,120:130, 
131:141,142:153,154:164,165:175,176:187,188:198,199:209,210:221,222:232,233:243,244:255'
 INT=0 GU=RADAR16_32

This may take some time if your link is slow.

In order for this to display correctly, your McIDAS sessionw would have
had to been started with 32 graphic levels.  To test this out while
your session is running, use the GU command:

GU TABLE

If your listing has 32 entries like:

 LEVEL   COLOR         BLUE  GREEN  RED
 -----  ----------     ----  -----  ---
    0   BLACK             0      0    0   (Graphic background)
    1   MAGENTA         255      0  255
    2   CYAN            255    255    0
    3   YELLOW            0    255  255
    4   GREEN             0    255    0
    5   RED               0      0  255
    6   BLUE            255      0    0
    7   WHITE           255    255  255
    8   GRAY            127    127  127
    9   GOLD              0    187  255
   10   PINK            127    127  255
   11   AQUAMARINE      147    219  112
   12   ORCHID          219    112  219
   13   NAVY            115      0    0
   14   SKY             255    163    0
   15   BEIGE           127    171  255
   16                   224    128  255
   17   WHITE           255    255  255
   18                   160     64  202
   19                   128     32  176
   20                     0      0  144
   21                    32     16  240
   22                    32    128  240
   23                    16    192  240
   24                    16     64   16
   25                    32    104   44
   26                    48    144   72
   27                    64    184  100
   28                    80    224  128
   29                   144    144    0
   30                   240    240    0
   31                    65      0    0
   32   BEIGE           127    171  255
GU: Done

your session is configure with 32 graphic levels.  If your listing
shows only 16 levels, you should exit and start a new session with 32
levels.  Configuring a session is most easily done from the graphical
startup menu:

mcidas -config

The next step was to plot forecast hurricane tracks on top of the
combined satellite and radar display.  There is no direct facility in
McIDAS to plot forecast hurridane tracks, but you can plot the track if
you know the series of Lat,Lon points that are forecast.  To do this,
you would use the PATH command to create a path and then plot it.  Here
is a quick and simple of the use of PATH:

PATH MAKE TEST
PATH ADD TEST 1 20 75
PATH ADD TEST 2 25 77
PATH ADD TEST 3 30 80
PATH ADD TEST 4 35 83
PATH ADD TEST 5 40 78
PATH PLOT TEST

Before we continue, please let me know what kind of machine/operating
system you are trying to use McIDAS on.

Cheers,

Tom
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