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[McIDAS #TSV-261063]: Using McIDAS-V to access SSEC's Open Archive

Hi Jane,

re:
> So the presentations are done and I think all went well. I had a couple of
> questions but referring to my plots.

I am glad that your presentation went well, and, quite frankly, it is always
worse to get no questions :-)

re:
> So I looked at some of the satellite
> imageries you posted and I think that would work fine for all the other
> cases.

I posted animations for all of your cases yesterday, but all are in
the globe view.  Like I said in one of my previous emails, the best
way to look at the displays is to load the data into your own IDV/McIDAS-V
from the bundles I created and posted.  If you are interested, here is
how to try this in McIDAS-V:

Select the Data Explorer -> Data Sources -> General -> Catalogs action,
and type the following into the Catalog: entry at the top of the right
portion of the window:

http://atm.ucar.edu/repository?output=thredds.catalog

NB: make sure to hit the Enter key in the same entry after typing
in this URL.

The lower part of the right side of the display should change to
show a view of the RAMADDA contents on atm.ucar.edu.

Open Projects -> Tropical Cyclones of the South Pacific -> Hettie
and you will see two entries: one is the animated GIF, and the
other is the IDV bundle that I created.  Select the IDV bundle
and then click on the Add Source button at the bottom of the
window.

From the Open Bundle window that will pop-up uncheck 'Save as default
preference' and make sure that the selection is for 'Open new window(s)'
and then click on the OK button.  This will load the bundle into
your McIDAS-V session.

NB:

- loading this bundle will only work if the network your computer
  is on allows outbound requests to port 112 on atm.ucar.edu.  This
  should be the case for the hardwired lab machine that you tested
  previously, but it may not be the case for a lab laptop if the
  laptop is connected to the SJSU wireless network.  I seem to recall
  that the lab laptops can also be connected to the wired network.
  I also seem to recall that there is more usable memory on
  the laptops than on the wired machines in the lab, so they would
  better to use to display the bundles I created.

- how long the bundle takes to load will be a function of the speed
  of the network your machine is connected to 

- after the bundle has loaded, you should play around with interacting
  with the display:

  - holding down the right mouse button while dragging the mouse
    in the display portion of the view window will drag the
    globe

  - the roller button of the mouse (if you have a roller button) will
    zoom in and out

  - holding the Shift key down while holding down the left mouse button
    and dragging the mouse will highlight a rubber band box that
    defines the area of the display you are interested in zooming in
    on

  - the cubes at the top left hand portion of the view window are used
    to go to preset views of the display

    Click on each one in turn, and you will see how they change (rotate)
    the view.  The forth cube from the top will set the view so that
    the International Dateline is in the center facing you.

  - the globe can be spun by either holding down the right mouse button
    and quickly dragging the mouse, or by clicking on the circular green
    arrow that is below the orientation cubes in the view window.

You need to play around with the display to get the feel for how things
work.  Reading through the built-in User's Guide (accessible through
the Help dropdown menu) is a MUST as there are a lot of bells and
whistles to the application.

re:
> Now that I'm looking at it, I think of how I can still work on this
> project even after I graduate as it is rare considering the region I'm
> covering.

It would be interesting to examine the humidity structure (via something
like precipitable water displays) for the days leading up to the development
of the TCs.  The IDV/McIDAS-V is very good for combining displays
of different kinds of data.

re:
> Thank you so much for all the help you've given. I appreciate it
> and hope to one day return a favor.

No worries. If I ever get to San Jose again, you can buy me a beer
at the Original Gravity Pub House :-)

re:
> Maybe this time around I'll look into
> learning how to actually stitch imageries together and whatnot.

The first thing is to get familiar with the tools that you will use
(e.g., McIDAS-V/IDV, etc.).  The next thing is to become familiar with
the ton of great sources of data that you can (and should) take advantage
of.  After that, your imagination is your only limit!

By the way, I played around with remapping the composite IR and WV images
for a few minutes yesterday evening, and it is pretty straightforward
to create images centered on your region of interest (120E-120W; 0S-60S).
Those images could have much higher resolution that the ones I
created from the SSEC archive (I reduced the resolution by a factor
of 4 to keep down the memory use in McIDAS-V/IDV when loading 48 frames
in an animation).  Remapped images with coverage of just your region
of interest could have approx. 5 km resolution instead of the approx.
20 km resolution of the images I used to create the animations housed
in the SPACTC dataset on atm.ucar.edu.  The only drawback with restricting
the coverage of the images is that you might miss seeing something in
a generation zone that is outside of your region of interest.

re:
> Thank you again and have a great rest of the week!

No worries.

re:
> ps. Did you know that "Manuia" also means blessed in my language?

Interesting, I guess that it's meaning depends on the situation in
which it is used?  This would seem to fit with word usages in
other Polynesian languages...

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: TSV-261063
Department: Support McIDAS
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed