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[McIDAS #YXU-859602]: Can I recreate this radar map in McIDAS with a large GIF or JPEG file size?



Hi Gilbert,

re:
> OK, first...I'm trying to download the mcupdate.tar.gz file dated March
> 14, 2011...and the link is dead.

The link from what page?  I just tried downloading mcupdate.tar.gz from
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/mcidas/current/addenda.html
and it worked fine.  As soon as I know where the dead link is, I will
fix it.

re:
> Secondly, on the addendum page:
> http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/mcidas/addendum_20110314.html
> The year should be 2011, not 2010.

OK, this is now fixed.

re:
> But, I went to an older update page,
> found the correct links (or made them correct), and I just updated all
> my systems. Yay! I'm on McIDAS 2009g. Now that I have wrecked your day,
> let us proceed. The first command was cd / ;rm -r -f, right? ;-)

Right.  It is the only way to do a clean install ;-)

re: <in McIDAS>
DATALOC ADD NEXRCOMP ADDE.CISE-NSF.GOV
DSINFO IMAGE NEXRCOMP
IMGLIST NEXRCOMP/1KN0Q-NAT

> Done!  I see one image in there.

The IMGLIST invocation above will always list the most current image in
the  dataset.  If you want to see all of the images that are available,
you would run:

IMGLIST NEXRCOMP/1KN0Q-NAT.ALL

re: But instead of 256 colors, it needs to be reduced down to 8 levels

I am not sure why you would want to reduce the 256 N0Q levels down to 8;
this seems to defeat the entire purpose of having higher resolution images.

re:
> OK, so I need to make my own here. What I want is this
> (instead of 256 colors, I want just 8 to be seen):
> 
> dbz    R    G    B    Level   Color
> 
> 05    34  255   53     1      Bright Green
> 10    34  255   53     1      Bright Green
> 15    34  255   53     1      Bright Green
> 20    17  167   48     2      Light Green
> 25    17  167   48     2      Light Green
> 30    26  111   34     3      Darker Green
> 35    21   67   10     4      Darkest Green
> 40   193  179   57     5      Yellow
> 45   193   92   15     6      Orange
> 50   193   92   15     6      Orange
> 55   167   42   18     7      Red
> 60   123   47   18     8      Dark Red
> 65   123   47   18     8      Dark Red
> 70   123   47   18     8      Dark Red
> 75   123   47   18     8      Dark Red
> 
> Can you remind me of the commands again to make this happen?

An enhancement maps image brightnesses to display levels (colors).
The first thing you need is a mapping of reflectivity (dBz) to
brightness.

You need to be more specific about the dBz ranges you are interested in.
For instance, the first part of the list has:

05 34 255 53 1 Bright Green
10 34 255 53 1 Bright Green
15 34 255 53 1 Bright Green

The next part has:

20 17 167 48 2 Light Green
25 17 167 48 2 Light Green
etc

Questions:

- What color should dBz levels of -32 -  4 be?  I assume black
- What color should dBz levels of  16 - 19 be?
- What color should dBz levels of  26 - 29 be?
- What color should dBz levels of  31 - 34 be?
- What color should dBz levels of  36 - 39 be?
- What color should dBz levels of  41 - 44 be?
- What color should dBz levels of  51 - 54 be?
- What color should dBz levels of  56 - 59 be?
- What color should dBz levels of  76 - 95 be?

re: You should expect a number of "zings" in the composite images

> Oh, you mean the lines that pop up at sunrise/sunset? Been there, done
> that. Plus random junk from various radars doing weird things.

The exact cause of these lines is not clear (to me, at least).  There
was a discussion on the address@hidden email list some time
ago, and various folks offered various explanations, but there was
no consensus.

re:
<login as the user that runs McIDAS>
cd $MCDATA
mcenv -f 1@2600x6000
dataloc.k ADD NEXRCOMP adde.cise-nsf.gov
imgdisp.k NEXRCOMP/1KN0Q-NAT LINELE=1500 2368 PLACE=C MAG=1 EU=BREF
map.k FILE=OUTVHRES MCOL=2
exit

Does this work? Is it close to what you are looking for?

> No, nothing pops up on my screen, but it says the data transfers fine.
> I do want a blank map (ie, none!), and I don't think this will do it from
> that last command.

Actually, nothing should popup on your screen.  I seem to have left out an
important step in the above.  Try the following:

<login as the user that runs McIDAS>
cd $MCDATA
mcenv -f 1@2600x6000
dataloc.k ADD NEXRCOMP adde.cise-nsf.gov
imgdisp.k NEXRCOMP/1KN0Q-NAT LINELE=1500 2368 PLACE=C MAG=1 EU=BREF
map.k FILE=OUTVHRES MCOL=2
frmsave.k 1 nexrcomp_1kn0q-nat.gif
exit

The GIF file should be created in your $MCDATA directory (unless
you have a file REDIRECTion in scope for files that end in .gif).

re:
> Hmmm. So am I out of luck, then?

Nope, not at all.

re:
> I have 6 GB of RAM and 512 MB of video card RAM on my system...

McIDAS doesn't use the video card at all.  Plus, it doesn't even
use/require that one run XWindows.  All McIDAS "plotting" (e.g.,
image display, overlays, etc.) is done in shared memory.  This
is one of the features that makes McIDAS so nice for generating
content for web pages/etc -- it can be done on a headless/graphic
cardless system.

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: YXU-859602
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed