News@UnidataUnidata newshttps://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/feed/entries/atom2024-03-06T11:18:50-07:00Apache Rollerhttps://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-exploring-satellite-imageryAWIPS Tips: Exploring Satellite Imagery using Python-AWIPSShay Carter2024-03-06T09:00:00-07:002024-03-06T09:00:00-07:00<div class="img_l" style="width: 100px;margin-top:0;">
<img width="100" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/logos/awips-tips.png" alt="AWIPS Tips" />
</div>
<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>This week we’re going to dive into a little bit of <a href="https://unidata.github.io/python-awips/index.html" target="_blank">python-awips</a> to learn more about what satellite data our EDEX has to offer. If this is your first time joining us, it may be helpful to take a quick glance over some of <a href="https://unidata.github.io/awips2/appendix/educational-resources/#python-awips" target="_blank">our previous AWIPS Tips blogs about python-awips</a>. To take a deeper look into satellite data, we’ll be highlighting some of the features and cells of the <a href="https://unidata.github.io/python-awips/examples/generated/Satellite_Imagery.html" target="_blank">Satellite Imagery example notebook</a>. </p>
<div class="img_l" style="width: 125px;">
<img width="125" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/logos/awips-tips.png" alt="AWIPS Tips" />
</div>
<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>This week we’re going to dive into a little bit of <a href="https://unidata.github.io/python-awips/index.html" target="_blank">python-awips</a> to learn more about what satellite data our EDEX has to offer. If this is your first time joining us, it may be helpful to take a quick glance over some of <a href="https://unidata.github.io/awips2/appendix/educational-resources/#python-awips" target="_blank">our previous AWIPS Tips blogs about python-awips</a>. To take a deeper look into satellite data, we’ll be highlighting some of the features and cells of the <a href="https://unidata.github.io/python-awips/examples/generated/Satellite_Imagery.html" target="_blank">Satellite Imagery example notebook</a>. All other example notebooks can be found on our website as well, and available when downloading the <a href="https://unidata.github.io/python-awips/index.html#source-code-with-examples-install" target="_blank">python-awips source code</a> and running Jupyter locally.</p>
<p>Similar to other python-awips notebooks, this example begins by creating an EDEX connection (using our public EDEX - edex.cloud.unidata.ucar.edu) and setting the <i>datatype</i>. To access satellite data, the <i>datatype</i> is set to <b>satellite</b>. If you knew exactly what data you wanted, you could proceed to refine the <a href="https://unidata.github.io/python-awips/api/IDataRequest.html" target="_blank">DataRequest</a> by setting additional filters like the time, location name, parameters, or other modifiers. For this notebook though, we want to investigate what modifiers are actually available first before requesting data.</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://unidata.github.io/python-awips/examples/generated/Grid_Levels_and_Parameters.html" target="_blank">Grid Levels and Parameters notebook</a> we go over how to investigate what is available for <i>locations</i>, <i>parameters</i>, <i>levels</i>, and <i>times</i> of the <b>grid</b> <i>datatype</i>. Here we’re going to look at a new modifier, called optional identifiers. Now, as the name suggests, these are optional, so many <i>datatypes</i> may not have any identifiers. For satellite data, we take a look at the identifiers in <a href="https://unidata.github.io/python-awips/examples/generated/Satellite_Imagery.html#investigate-available-data" target="_blank">section 4 of the notebook</a> and see this output:</p>
<p class="highlight_box" style="font-family: courier;padding-left:2em;padding-top:1em;padding-bottom:1em">Available Identifiers:<br>
- source<br>
- physicalElement<br>
- creatingEntity<br>
- sectorID</p>
<p>From here, we can then take a look at each individual identifier and see what values are available. For example, we can look at the <b>source</b> with the following:</p>
<p class="highlight_box" style="font-family: courier;padding-left:2em;padding-top:1em;padding-bottom:1em">identifier = "source"<br>
sources = DataAccessLayer.getIdentifierValues(request, identifier)<br>
print(identifier + ":")<br>
print(list(sources))</p>
<p>Which then produces the following output:</p>
<p class="highlight_box" style="font-family: courier;padding-left:2em;padding-top:1em;padding-bottom:1em">source:<br>
['GTD01', 'RAMMB', 'WCDAS', 'RBU', 'UCAR', 'NSOF', 'McIDAS']</p>
<p>The notebook continues on with the rest of the remaining identifiers and shows you their available values. Once we have an idea of what data is available, then we can make selections of the identifiers to help narrow the result to exactly what we’re looking for.</p>
<p>For this notebook, both GOES East mesoscale sections are chosen as the desired data for plotting. A simple for-loop is used to draw both mesoscale 1 and mesoscale 2 images. Channel 13 of the GOES imager was chosen for this example, and gives produces plots like these:</p>
<p><center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2024/20240306_meso1.png"/></center></p>
<p><center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2024/20240306_meso2.png"/></center></p>
<p>Thanks for joining us and check back in two weeks for the next blog post.</p>
<p><em>To view archived blogs, visit the <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/tags/awipstips" target="_blank">AWIPS Tips blog tag</a>, and get notified of the latest updates from the AWIPS team by signing up for the <a href ="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/support/index.html#mailinglists" target="_blank">AWIPS mailing list</a>. Questions or suggestions for the team on future topics? Let us know at <a href="mailto:support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu" target="_blank">support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu</a></em></p>
<p class="highlight_box" style="text-align:center;font-style:italic;font-size:10px;padding-left:2em;padding-top:1em;padding-bottom:1em">
This blog was posted in reference to v20.3.2-1 of NSF Unidata AWIPS</p>
https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-awips-20-3AWIPS Tips: AWIPS 20.3.2-2 Software ReleaseTiffany Meyer2024-02-21T09:00:00-07:002024-02-21T09:33:11-07:00<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips!</p>
<p>We are excited to announce our release of 20.3.2-2 that incorporates many updates and fixes from the 20.3.2-1 release. This release includes installers for CAVE (CentOS7, Windows, VMware Player, and MacOS), and for EDEX (CentOS7).</p>
<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>We are excited to announce our release of 20.3.2-2 that incorporates many updates and fixes from the 20.3.2-1 release. This release includes installers for CAVE (CentOS7, Windows, VMware Player, and MacOS), and for EDEX (CentOS7).</p>
<h2>EDEX Updates</h2>
<ul>
<li>Fix syntax error in pqact.conf.priority and pqact.grids</li>
<li>Fix regex for satellite data so we don't request duplicate data in pqact.conf.priority and pqact.goesr</li>
<li>Replace checkFileTime.pl with checkFileTime.sh which can run without root permissions via cron</li>
<li>Replace ufpy package with NSF Unidata’s python-awips package</li>
<li>Update awips_install.sh installer to disableexcludes from yum.conf</li>
<li>Update derived parameters to include GFS20 to fix Surface Precipitation</li>
<li>Updates to satellite menu:
<ul><li>Update CPSD description file</li>
<li>Add Fog derived products to GOES WCONUS menu</li>
<li>Added "Rocket" to plume menu items</li>
<li>Updated Meso and Full RGB menus to have all valid RGB's</li></ul></li>
<li>Small changes to modes to allow proper compressing of log files</li>
<li>Repair ACARS purging file</li>
</ul>
<h2>CAVE Updates</h2>
<ul>
<li>Remove GFE from Windows and Mac perspective menus (functionality not available on those Operating Systems currently)</li>
<li>Remove Edit Plot Attributes from METARs station plots (functionality also currently removed from NWS AWIPS because it’s not implemented correctly yet)</li>
</ul>
<p> <b>Windows CAVE Installers</b> <br></p>
<ul><li>Updated naming convention of the .exe file to avoid confusion </li></ul>
<p class="highlight_box"><span style="color:#06778F; font-weight: bold;">NOTE: </span>CAVE should be run using the CAVE.bat file to correctly use the packaged python</p>
<hr />
<h2>How to Install EDEX</h2>
<p>Visit our <a href="http://unidata.github.io/awips2/install/install-edex/" target="_blank">EDEX Installation Page</a> and follow the instructions for installing EDEX on a Linux machine.</p>
<h2>How to Install CAVE</h2>
<p>Visit our <a href="http://unidata.github.io/awips2/install/install-cave/" target="_blank">CAVE Installation Page</a> and see options for the Linux, Windows, MacOS or Virtual Machine installation methods.</p>
<hr />
<h2>EDEX Connection</h2>
<p>Select the server in the Connectivity Preferences dialog, or enter <strong>edex-cloud.unidata.ucar.edu</strong>.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2023/20231213_edex_connection.png"></p>
<hr />
<h2>Functionality/Reporting</h2>
<p>If you come across any deficiencies or have any enhancement requests, please <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6jyZtbh49g-GCBoAQYzTVwAIf_aKz0QOeAr7gDVFhPrjAmw/viewform?usp=sf_link">fill out our short reporting form</a>.</p>
<p><hr />
For notifications of the latest updates from the AWIPS team, sign up for the <a href ="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/support/index.html#mailinglists" target="_blank">AWIPS mailing list</a>. Questions or suggestions for the team, let us know at <a href="mailto:support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu" target="_blank">support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu</a></p>
<p>Check back in two weeks for the next blog post where we review how to access and plot satellite data in python-awips. </p>
<p><em>To view archived blogs, visit the <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/tags/awipstips" target="_blank">AWIPS Tips blog tag</a>, and get notified of the latest updates from the AWIPS team by signing up for the <a href ="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/support/index.html#mailinglists" target="_blank">AWIPS mailing list</a>. Questions or suggestions for the team on future topics? Let us know at <a href="mailto:support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu" target="_blank">support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu</a></em></p>
https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-new-raws-dataAWIPS Tips: New RAWS DataShay Carter2024-02-07T09:00:00-07:002024-02-07T09:45:20-07:00<div class="img_l" style="width: 100px;margin-top:0;">
<img width="100" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/logos/awips-tips.png" alt="AWIPS Tips" />
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<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>Today we’re going to touch on a relatively new dataset that was added from a request in our community.</p>
<div class="img_l" style="width: 125px;">
<img width="125" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/logos/awips-tips.png" alt="AWIPS Tips" />
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<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>Today we’re going to touch on a relatively new dataset that was added from a request in our community. The dataset is from <a href="https://raws.nifc.gov/" target="_blank">Remote Automatic Weather Stations (RAWS)</a> and was requested to aid in fire response in California.</p>
<p>Pete Curran is an active member of our AWIPS community and works for <a href="https://www.bigbearfire.org/" target="_blank">Big Bear Fire Department</a> and is an Incident Meteorologist (IMET) on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ciimt11" target="_blank">California Interagency Incident Management Team 11</a>. He came to us late last summer with a desire to see RAWS data in CAVE. He uses CAVE and our public EDEX actively at work to help combat fires in California. With his prompting, we decided to pursue a feed for the data, and figure out how to ingest it into AWIPS. Shown below is Pete in the field using our AWIPS:</p>
<p><center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2024/20240207_big_bear_fire.jpeg"/></center></p>
<p>Unfortunately, this data was not being distributed in the LDM network, and initially took some work to find a freely available access point. To achieve this, NSF Unidata contacted a third party, <a href="https://synopticdata.com/" target="_blank">Synoptic Data</a>, and were able to come to an agreement where we can pull RAWS data from them and redistribute it in AWIPS and our THREDDS servers. We want to thank Synoptic for the collaboration and efforts on their end to make this possible!</p>
<p>We were able to reformat the RAWS data into a format that could be recognized by an existing EDEX decoder - the ldadmesonet plugin. Because we didn’t have to write a decoder from scratch, we were able to get the data to our user in a timely manner.</p>
<p>We modified the <b>Surface menu</b> to support new loading options for RAWS data:
<center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2024/20240207_raws_menu.png"/></center></p>
<p>The current display is shown below, demonstrating the progressive disclosure feature (more data as you zoom in), and stepping through a few of the most recent frames of data:
<center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2024/20240207_raws.gif"/></center></p>
<p>We encourage suggestions and recommendations from our users to make AWIPS more applicable to their daily work. While this example isn’t from academia, the same sentiment applies. If you have desired datasets or functionality that does not currently exist in our public AWIPS, please feel free to submit any suggestions through our <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6jyZtbh49g-GCBoAQYzTVwAIf_aKz0QOeAr7gDVFhPrjAmw/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank">AWIPS reporting form</a>.</p>
<p>Thanks for joining us and check back in two weeks for the next blog post.</p>
<p><em>To view archived blogs, visit the <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/tags/awipstips" target="_blank">AWIPS Tips blog tag</a>, and get notified of the latest updates from the AWIPS team by signing up for the <a href ="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/support/index.html#mailinglists" target="_blank">AWIPS mailing list</a>. Questions or suggestions for the team on future topics? Let us know at <a href="mailto:support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu" target="_blank">support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu</a></em></p>
<p class="highlight_box" style="text-align:center;font-style:italic;font-size:10px;padding-left:2em;padding-top:1em;padding-bottom:1em">
This blog was posted in reference to v20.3.2-1 of NSF Unidata AWIPS</p>
https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-ams-2024-highlightAWIPS Tips: AMS 2024 HighlightShay Carter2024-01-24T09:00:00-07:002024-01-25T16:01:15-07:00<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>This week we’d like to highlight our upcoming presence at the 2024 American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting.</p>
<div class="img_l" style="width: 125px;">
<img width="125" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/logos/awips-tips.png" alt="AWIPS Tips" />
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<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>This week we’d like to highlight our upcoming presence at the <a href="https://annual.ametsoc.org/index.cfm/2024/" target="_blank">2024 American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting</a>.</p>
<h2>Student Workshop</h2>
<p><center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2024/20240124_ams_workshop.jpg"/></center></p>
<p>The AWIPS team at NSF Unidata is proud to announce our first workshop at the <a href="https://annual.ametsoc.org/index.cfm/2024/program-events/conferences-and-symposia/23rd-annual-student-conference/" target="_blank">2024 AMS Student Conference</a>. Our <a href="https://ams.confex.com/ams/104ANNUAL/meetingapp.cgi/Session/67536" target="_blank">in-person AWIPS workshop</a> will take place on Sunday, January 28th, at 2:00 PM - 3:45 PM EST in room 342 at The Baltimore Convention Center. Please join us then to get an overview of the components of AWIPS (CAVE, EDEX, and python-awips), as well as some interactive activities, and presentation on the values of learning AWIPS in the classroom. Learn more about how AWIPS can prepare you for the job force, and hear first hand experience from a student at one of our core AWIPS member universities at Texas A&M.</p>
<h2>Student Career and Resource Fair</h2>
<p><center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2024/20240124_ams_career_fair.jpg"/></center></p>
<p>In addition to our new participation in the Student Conference Workshop, members of our AWIPS team will also be available at our NSF Unidata booth during the <a href="https://ams.confex.com/ams/104ANNUAL/meetingapp.cgi/Session/67482" target="_blank">Student Career Fair</a> on Saturday, January 27th. Stop by to chat with staff and previous student interns to learn more about what AWIPS has to offer. Speaking of, our <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/community/internship/" target="_blank">2024 internship program</a> is currently accepting applications for this summer’s cohort. Please feel free to apply and introduce yourself in person at AMS.</p>
<h2>Annual AWIPS Update</h2>
<p>Finally, we are giving our <a href="https://ams.confex.com/ams/104ANNUAL/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/436151" target="_blank">annual talk about our NSF Unidata AWIPS update</a>. The talk will take place on Wednesday, January 31, 2024 at 2:30 PM - 2:45 PM EST, in room 336 at The Baltimore Convention Center. Come meet our team to learn more about how AWIPS can be used in your classroom and in your meteorology department.</p>
<hr />
<p>We look forward to seeing you there! Check back in two weeks for the next blog post about a new supported dataset in AWIPS. </p>
<p><em>To view archived blogs, visit the <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/tags/awipstips" target="_blank">AWIPS Tips blog tag</a>, and get notified of the latest updates from the AWIPS team by signing up for the <a href ="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/support/index.html#mailinglists" target="_blank">AWIPS mailing list</a>. Questions or suggestions for the team on future topics? Let us know at <a href="mailto:support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu" target="_blank">support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu</a></em></p>
https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-changes-related-toAWIPS Tips: Changes Related to v20.3.2 AWIPS ReleaseShay Carter2024-01-10T09:00:00-07:002024-01-25T16:01:35-07:00<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>We hope everyone is enjoying 2024 so far! At the end of last year, we announced a new major release of AWIPS (version 20.3.2-1). This blog is a bit of a follow-up to that, with some important notes about impacts related to our EDEX URLs, python-awips, and our eLearning courses.</p>
<div class="img_l" style="width: 125px;">
<img width="125" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/logos/awips-tips.png" alt="AWIPS Tips" />
</div>
<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>We hope everyone is enjoying 2024 so far! At the end of last year, we announced a <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-unidata-awips-203" target="_blank>new major release of AWIPS (version 20.3.2-1)</a>. This blog is a bit of a follow-up to that, with some important notes about other things that have also changed as a result.</p>
<h2>Public EDEX</h2>
<p>Here at NSF Unidata we have hosted publicly accessible EDEX servers. Our main EDEX url, edex-cloud.unidata.ucar.edu, now points to our new production v20.3.2-1 EDEX. If you are still running any previous version of CAVE, it will no longer be compatible with that same EDEX url. <a href="https://unidata.github.io/awips2/install/install-cave/" target="_blank">Please update to our latest version of CAVE</a> and then everything will work again.</p>
<p>If you had been running our beta version of CAVE at any point in the last 6 months, you may have noticed it pointed to a public EDEX with the url of edex-beta.unidata.ucar.edu. This url is no longer active. You can point your installed version 20 to the main edex-cloud.unidata.ucar.edu url, but we also recommend you still <a href="https://unidata.github.io/awips2/install/install-cave/" target="_blank">update to the latest version of CAVE</a> to get all the most recent bug fixes and improvements.</p>
<h2>python-awips</h2>
<p>If you have been using python-awips any time before the newest AWIPS release last month, you may now notice that previously working scripts/notebooks/etc may no longer work. This is because the EDEX url of edex-cloud.unidata.ucar.edu has been updated to a version 20.3.2-1 EDEX, and your package of python-awips is still a version 18 installation. To remedy this problem, please simply upgrade python-awips. You can do so either with pip or conda:</p>
<p><center>
<code>pip install --upgrade python-awips</code></p>
<p>or </p>
<p><code>conda update python-awips</code>
</center></p>
<p>We also changed our default branch in the python-awips github repository. So, if you have the github repo cloned locally, you may want to check out the new default branch:</p>
<p><center>
<code>git checkout -b v20 origin/v20</code>
</center></p>
<h2>Learn AWIPS CAVE</h2>
<p>Our eLearning courses for AWIPS are also now fully updated with the latest content to match v20.3.2-1. The Learn Python-AWIPS course did not require any changes, and still requires you to download the current default repository (“v20”) and complete the <a href="https://unidata.github.io/python-awips/#source-code-with-examples-install" target="_blank">Source Code Examples Install instructions</a>. This will guarantee your version of python-awips is fully capable of completing all the tutorials in the learning course. If you have already cloned the git repository, please refer to the previous section for checking out the new v20 branch.</p>
<p>Our other eLearning course, Learn AWIPS CAVE, now requires you to install v20.3.2 of CAVE to follow along with the tutorials and learning objectives. All content in the eLearning course should now accurately reflect the menus, windows, dialogs and general appearance of CAVE v20.3.2. The content of the course is still the same, so if you or your students have completed it previously, there is no need to complete it again (except of course as a refresher, which we encourage at any time).</p>
<h2>Issue Reporting</h2>
<p>During our beta release and testing cycle we created a short Google Form to submit issues and bugs. We have decided to continue with the use of the form since it assists in tracking and progressing with the reported issues. Please feel free to continue using our <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6jyZtbh49g-GCBoAQYzTVwAIf_aKz0QOeAr7gDVFhPrjAmw/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_target">issue reporting form</a> if you come across any problems or suggestions and we will respond to you through our eSupport email messaging system.</p>
<p>You can also always contact us at <a href="mailto:support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu" target="_blank">support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu</a></p>
<hr />
<p>Thanks for joining this week and hope you are enjoying our new release of CAVE. Check back in two weeks for the next blog post, highlighting our upcoming student workshop at AMS 2024.</p>
<p><em>To view archived blogs, visit the <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/tags/awipstips" target="_blank">AWIPS Tips blog tag</a>, and get notified of the latest updates from the AWIPS team by signing up for the <a href ="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/support/index.html#mailinglists" target="_blank">AWIPS mailing list</a>. Questions or suggestions for the team on future topics? Let us know at <a href="mailto:support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu" target="_blank">support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu</a></em></p>
https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/happy-holidays-2023-from-awipsHappy Holidays 2023 from AWIPS Tips!Shay Carter2023-12-27T09:00:00-07:002023-12-27T09:00:00-07:00<p><div class="img_l" style="width: 125px;">
<img width="125" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2021/20211215awips-tips-snow-cropped.gif" alt="AWIPS Tips"/>
</div><p>In this week's AWIPS Tips, we're reflecting on a great year of sharing tips, resources, and announcements with you, the Unidata AWIPS community. All of our posts from 2022 are catalogued below. We're excited to share even more with you in 2023!</p></p>
<div class="img_l" style="width: 125px;">
<img width="125" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2021/20211215awips-tips-snow-cropped.gif" alt="AWIPS Tips"/>
</div>
<p><br></p>
<p>In this week's AWIPS Tips, we're reflecting on a great year of sharing tips, resources, and announcements with you, our AWIPS community. All of our posts from 2023 are cataloged below. We're excited to share even more with you in 2024!<br><br><br></p>
<h3>General</h3>
<p><ul>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-use-case-example" target="_blank">Use Case Example: Texas A&M CAVE in the Classroom</a>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-unidata-awips-20" target="_blank">AWIPS 20.3.2-0.1 Beta Release</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-unidata-awips-201" target="_blank">AWIPS 20.3.2-0.2 Beta Release</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-unidata-awips-202" target="_blank">AWIPS 20.3.2-0.3 Beta Release</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/unidata-awips-20-3-2" target="_blank">AWIPS 20.3.2-0.4 Beta Release</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-unidata-awips-203" target="_blank">AWIPS 20.3.2-1 Production Release</a></li>
</ul></p>
<h3>CAVE</h3>
<p><ul>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-frames-in-cave" target="_blank">Frames in CAVE</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-panes-in-cave" target="_blank">Panes in CAVE</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-image-combination" target="_blank">Image Combination</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-colorized-goes-cira" target="_blank">Colorized GOES CIRA Products</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-changing-localizations-in" target="_blank">Changing CAVE Localizations</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-all-about-sampling" target="_blank">All About Sampling</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-maps-database-constraints" target="_blank">Maps Database Constraints</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-measuring-up-distance" target="_blank">Measuring Up - Distance Tools in CAVE</a></li>
</ul></p>
<h3>Python-AWIPS</h3>
<p><ul>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/open-jupyter-notebooks-with-our" target="_blank">Open Jupyter Notebooks using VM</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-visualizing-upper-air" target="_blank">Visualizing Upper Air Soundings</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-compare-model-sounding" target="_blank">Compare Model Sounding Data in Python</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-beta-python-awips" target="_blank">Beta Python-AWIPS Release</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-creating-new-products" target="_blank">Creating New Products with Python-AWIPS</a></li>
</ul></p>
<h3>EDEX</h3>
<p><ul>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-creating-new-scales" target="_blank">Creating New Scales for EDEX</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-adding-shapefiles-to" target="_blank">Adding Shapefiles to the Maps Menu with EDEX</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-removing-model-data" target="_blank">Removing Model Data from EDEX</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-ldm-usage-in" target="_blank">LDM Usage in AWIPS</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-all-about-edex" target="_blank">All About EDEX Modes</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-distributed-edex-architecture" target="_blank">Distributed EDEX Architecture</a></li>
</ul></p>
<p><br></p>
<p>Thanks again for a great year, and happy holidays from the AWIPS Tips team,</p>
<p>   Tiffany and Shay</p>
<p><br><br>
<em>To view archived blogs, visit the <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/tags/awipstips">AWIPS Tips blog tag</a>, and get notified of the latest updates from the AWIPS team by signing up for the <a href ="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/support/index.html#mailinglists">AWIPS mailing list</a>. Questions or suggestions for the team on future topics? Let us know at <a href="mailto:support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu">support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu</a></em></p>
https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-unidata-awips-203AWIPS Tips: Unidata AWIPS 20.3.2-1 Production CAVE Software ReleaseShay Carter2023-12-13T09:00:00-07:002024-01-02T15:49:24-07:00<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>We are excited to announce our production release of AWIPS 20.3.2-1. This release includes installers for CAVE (CentOS7, Windows, VMware Player, and MacOS), and for EDEX (CentOS7). This release uses RHEL7 (CentOS7), Java11 and Python3.</p>
<div class="img_l" style="width: 125px;">
<img width="125" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/logos/awips-tips.png" alt="AWIPS Tips" />
</div>
<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>We are excited to announce our <strong>production release of AWIPS 20.3.2-1</strong>. This release includes installers for CAVE (CentOS7, Windows, VMware Player, and MacOS), and for EDEX (CentOS7).
This release uses RHEL7 (CentOS7), Java11 and Python3.</p>
<p class="warning_box"><span style="color:#cc3300; font-weight: bold;">Warning: </span>Our main <b>edex-cloud.unidata.ucar.edu</b> EDEX is now version 20 and will not be compatible with previous versions of CAVE (ex. version 18.2.1)</p>
<p class="highlight_box"><span style="color:#06778F; font-weight: bold;">NOTE: </span>Our version 18 EDEX will be available for a limited amount of time, so if you need to use that during your transition to version 20 please contact us at:<br>awips-support@unidata.ucar.edu</p>
<p><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2023/20231213_global_polar_sat_swath.gif" width="90%"></p>
<h2>EDEX Updates</h2>
<ul>
<li>Added ingest and decoding capabilities for RAWS data (using the ldadmesonet plugin)</li>
<li>Added FNEXRAD/NEXRCOMP Satellite gini radar ingest</li>
<li>Added new Polar Satellite Products:
<ul><li>NUCAPS Sounding</li>
<li>Gridded NUCAPS products</li>
<li>Blended Polar Hydro Products</li></ul></li>
<li>Added new GOES Products:
<ul><li>Cloud Cover Layers</li>
<li>Fractional Snow Cover</li>
<li>Ice Concentration and Extent</li>
<li>Ice Thickness and Age</li></ul></li>
<li>Updated LDM configs</li>
<li>Updated default purging mechanisms for Ancillary EDEX installations</li>
<li>Fix to allow different EDEX modes to be used (for ancillary servers)</li>
</ul>
<h2>CAVE Updates</h2>
<ul>
<li>Added functionality to save Displays locally</li>
<li>Added display of new RAWS data</li>
<li>Added additional phenomena signifiers (FR.W and RF.W) for Fire WWA resource</li>
<li>Added Matplotlib colormaps (which were available in our AWIPS v18)</li>
<li>Re-implemented functionality to delete displays</li>
<li>Reorganized Tools menu</li>
<li>Enabled GFE to work properly on linux only (can only be localized to OAX)</li>
<li>Updated all hotkey shortcuts for more intuitive and easy use</li>
<li>Updated Model Comparison bundles to include correct models</li>
<li>Update and reorganize Maps Menu</li>
<li>Updated radar menu (and associated bundle) for FNEXRAD displays</li>
<li>Updated behavior for opening multipane sources - opens in a new editor (tab)</li>
<li>Updated generic and NWS icons with Unidata branding</li>
<li>Update splash screen to use “NSF Unidata” branding</li>
<li>Cleaned up the list of available perspectives</li>
<li>Fixed radar 4 panel to load correctly</li>
<li>Fixed Warngen to use correct headers</li>
<li>Fixed ability to load text products in the text workstation</li>
<li>Fixed Vorticity (AV) unit issues</li>
<li>Fixed the functionality for locating the cursor using a hotkey</li>
<li>Fixed NUCAPS display in CAVE</li>
</ul>
<p> <b>MacOS Installers</b> <br></p>
<ul>
<li>Updated installer to include proper gridslice package for isentropic data rendering</li>
</ul>
<p> <b>Windows CAVE Installers</b> <br></p>
<ul>
<li>Updated packaged python to 3.7</li>
<li>Updated installer to include proper gridslice package for isentropic data rendering</li>
</ul>
<h2>Python-AWIPS Updates</h2>
<p>If you are using python-awips with our production server, <code>edex-cloud.unidata.ucar.edu</code>, you will need to update the version of python-awips (v20.1). You can do this with pip or conda:</p>
<p><code>pip install --upgrade python-awips</code></p>
<p>or </p>
<p><code>conda update python-awips</code></p>
<hr />
<h2>How to Install EDEX</h2>
<p>Visit our <a href="http://unidata.github.io/awips2/install/install-edex/" target="_blank">EDEX Installation Page</a> and follow the instructions for installing EDEX on a Linux machine.</p>
<h2>How to Install CAVE</h2>
<p>Visit our <a href="http://unidata.github.io/awips2/install/install-cave/" target="_blank">CAVE Installation Page</a> and see options for the Linux, Windows, MacOS or Virtual Machine installation methods.</p>
<hr />
<h2>EDEX Connection</h2>
<p>Select the server in the Connectivity Preferences dialog, or enter <strong>edex-cloud.unidata.ucar.edu</strong>.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2023/20231213_edex_connection.png"></p>
<hr />
<h2>Functionality/Reporting</h2>
<p>If you come across any deficiencies or have any enhancement requests, please <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6jyZtbh49g-GCBoAQYzTVwAIf_aKz0QOeAr7gDVFhPrjAmw/viewform?usp=sf_link">fill out our short reporting form</a>.</p>
<p><hr />
For notifications of the latest updates from the AWIPS team, sign up for the <a href ="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/support/index.html#mailinglists" target="_blank">AWIPS mailing list</a>. Questions or suggestions for the team, let us know at <a href="mailto:support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu" target="_blank">support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu</a></p>
https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-distributed-edex-architectureAWIPS Tips: Distributed EDEX ArchitectureShay Carter2023-11-29T09:00:00-07:002024-01-10T15:59:32-07:00<div class="img_l" style="width: 125px;">
<img width="125" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/logos/awips-tips.png" alt="AWIPS Tips" />
</div>
<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips!</p>
<p>Today we’re here to talk about the distributed architecture of Unidata’s EDEX. Initially, the goal of Unidata’s AWIPS team was to simplify the EDEX installation and design so that it could be run on one machine. However, because of the increase in data volumes and feeds, the need for distributing the workflow across more than one machine became apparent.</p>
<div class="img_l" style="width: 125px;">
<img width="125" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/logos/awips-tips.png" alt="AWIPS Tips" />
</div>
<p><br>
Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>Today we’re here to talk about the distributed architecture of Unidata’s EDEX. Initially, the goal of Unidata’s AWIPS team was to simplify the EDEX installation and design so that it could be run on one machine. This has been accomplished and is possible – with limitations. Due to the massive volume of data that is broadcast over our <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/idd/overview/idd.html" target="_blank">Internet Data Distribution (IDD) service</a>, using a single machine to run EDEX and process all this data may not be possible (or at least, affordable). Because of these large datasets, at Unidata, we have moved to a <a href="https://unidata.github.io/awips2/edex/distributed-computing/" target="_blank">Distributed EDEX architecture</a> which allows the use of a few (in our case, three) EDEX machines that work together to ingest, decode, and serve as much data as we can to the public.</p>
<p>Our Distributed EDEX architecture takes advantage of two “types” of EDEX machines: <a href="#main-edex">Main EDEX</a> and <a href="#ancillary-edex">Ancillary EDEX</a>.</p>
<h2 id="main-edex">Main EDEX</h2>
<p><br>
In short, this EDEX is capable of, with regards to any data:</p>
<ul>
<li>Requesting</li>
<li>Ingesting</li>
<li>Decoding</li>
<li>Storing</li>
<li>Serving</li>
<li>Purging</li>
</ul>
<p><br>
A main EDEX installation has all the same capabilities of a standalone EDEX, like we talked about earlier. This machine has its own <a href="https://docs.unidata.ucar.edu/ldm/current/" target="_blank">instance of the Local Data Manager (<b>LDM</b>)</a> running which receives all the data defined from its ldmd.conf, and <b>qpidd</b> notifies EDEX the data are ready for ingest and decoding as defined by the entries in the pqact.conf. For more information about these configuration files, <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-ldm-usage-in" target="_blank">please refer to this previous blog</a>. The main EDEX (<b>edex_camel</b>) then stores all the processed data as HDF5 files via <b>httpd-pypies</b> and <b>postgres database</b> entries. The processed data storage is managed by <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-edex-data-retention" target="_blank">the purge rules</a>, which define how long each file will stay on the machine before being deleted. Finally, this EDEX machine has a public facing URL or IP address (in our case: edex-cloud.unidata.ucar.edu) where it handles all data requests from both CAVE and python-awips connections.</p>
<p class="highlight_box"><span style="color:#06778F; font-weight: bold;">NOTE: </span>Be sure to edit the pqact.conf and remove any datasets you will be ingesting and decoding on the ancillary EDEX.</p>
<h2 id="ancillary-edex">Ancillary EDEX</h2>
<p><br>
In short, this EDEX is capable of, with regards to a defined set of data:</p>
<ul>
<li>Requesting</li>
<li>Ingesting</li>
<li>Decoding</li>
<li>Sending to a Main EDEX for storage</li>
</ul>
<p><br>
An ancillary EDEX installation has capabilities associated with receiving and decoding raw data. This machine will also have its own instance of LDM running, and should be requesting some related subset of data (satellite, model, radar, etc). It will then have a <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-all-about-edex" target="_blank">specific ingest mode</a> running to decode that data. These decoded data are then sent to the main EDEX for storage (both as HDF5 files and as postgres database entries) and are then available to the public. All connections to this machine are on the internal network with the main EDEX machine, and it is not visible to the public.</p>
<h2>Unidata's Current Architecture</h2>
<p><center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2023/20231129_distributed_edex.png"/></center></p>
<p>Here at Unidata we have a main EDEX machine and two ancillary machines used to process radar and satellite data separately. The main EDEX machine ingests the largest amount of data at roughly 1TB per day, while the satellite EDEX machine ingests around 26GB per day, and the radar EDEX machine ingests about 9GB a day.</p>
<p>It is important to note, that while overall data volumes are a contributing factor to implementing a distributed EDEX system, the number of files is also important. For comparison, our main EDEX machine receives around 250,000 products per hour, our satellite EDEX receives approximately 7650 products per hour, and our radar EDEX receives just over 90,000 products per hour. Because of this discrepancy of size and throughput of the data feeds, the three EDEX machines vary in size.</p>
<p><center><img style='border:4px solid #a0a4a4' src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2023/20231129_edex_sizes.png" width=80%/></center></p>
<p>This is important, because even though the radar EDEX has the smallest total volume of data per day, it was the first ancillary machine we needed to implement because of the large number of total radar products. Because of limitations in the original design of EDEX, a large number of products can drastically slow down an EDEX and potentially “fall behind” the data flow its receiving. By branching a significant number of these products off onto an ancillary machine, the main EDEX can still manage to keep up with its own data ingestion and still handle all of the data requests in a timely manner.</p>
<hr />
<p>We hope this breakdown of the Distributed EDEX Architecture was useful to you. If you are running your own EDEX server(s), please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or assistance you may need. Check back in two weeks for the next blog post. </p>
<p><em>To view archived blogs, visit the <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/tags/awipstips" target="_blank">AWIPS Tips blog tag</a>, and get notified of the latest updates from the AWIPS team by signing up for the <a href ="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/support/index.html#mailinglists" target="_blank">AWIPS mailing list</a>. Questions or suggestions for the team on future topics? Let us know at <a href="mailto:support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu" target="_blank">support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu</a></em></p>
<p class="highlight_box" style="text-align:center;font-style:italic;font-size:10px;padding-left:2em;padding-top:1em;padding-bottom:1em">
This blog was posted in reference to v20.3.2-1 of NSF Unidata AWIPS</p>
https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-creating-new-productsAWIPS Tips: Creating New Products with Python-AWIPSShay Carter2023-11-15T09:00:00-07:002023-11-15T09:00:00-07:00<div class="img_l" style="width: 125px;">
<img width="125" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/logos/awips-tips.png" alt="AWIPS Tips" />
</div>
<p><br></p>
<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips!</p>
<p>Today we’re going to look at another python-awips example notebook. If you aren’t familiar with python-awips, please take a look through our previous AWIPS Tips about the package. The notebook we’re looking at today is about calculating accumulated precipitation and displaying a region of interest.</p>
<div class="img_l" style="width: 125px;">
<img width="125" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/logos/awips-tips.png" alt="AWIPS Tips" />
</div>
<p><br>
Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>Today we’re going to look at another python-awips <a href="https://unidata.github.io/python-awips/examples/index.html" target="_blank">example notebook</a>. If you aren’t familiar with python-awips, please take a look through our <a href="https://unidata.github.io/awips2/appendix/educational-resources/#python-awips" target="_blank">previous AWIPS Tips about the package</a>. The notebook we’re looking at today is about calculating <a href="https://unidata.github.io/python-awips/examples/generated/Precip_Accumulation_Region_of_Interest.html" target="_blank">accumulated precipitation and displaying a region of interest</a>.</p>
<p>Two unique parts about this notebook include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Using an existing product (model precipitation) to create a derived product – accumulated precipitation.</li>
<li>Plotting a CONUS view of the data and identifying the region of highest precipitation to then create a specific region of interest plot.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Creating Accumulated Precipitation Product</h2>
<p>Similar to many of our other python-awips example notebooks, this one begins by defining and creating a data request for the particular EDEX server of interest. Where this notebook differs is, instead of simply plotting or manipulating the returned data directly, here we actually create a derived product by looping through all the results and aggregating the precipitation data. Since we use this process more than once, it’s defined in a function called <a href="https://unidata.github.io/python-awips/examples/generated/Precip_Accumulation_Region_of_Interest.html#function-calculate-accumulated-precip" target="_blank">calculate_accumulate_precip</a>.
<center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2023/20231115_calculate_accumulated_precip.png"/></center></p>
<p>This function not only returns the aggregated data array, but also computes the array location of the highest amount of rainfall. This x,y value can then be used in the latitude and longitude arrays to convert to coordinates which define the center of our region of interest.</p>
<p>This function allows us to generate our CONUS-wide accumulated precipitation plot like below:
<center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2023/20231115_conus_accum_precip.png"/></center></p>
<h2>Creating the Region of Interest Plot</h2>
<p>During the aggregation of data in the <em>calculate_accumulated_precip</em> function, we found the maximum point in the data array. This gives us the index location in the data array. Those values are then used to find the geographic coordinates in the latitude and longitude arrays. From there, we add a buffer to create a bounding box that defines our region of interest. This allows us to quickly draw a new region of interest plot with the existing data, like the image below.</p>
<p><center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2023/20231115_roi_accum_precip.png"/></center></p>
<p>This then enables an additional data request to be made to EDEX for a higher resolution dataset in the same regional area. So, an additional, corresponding plot can be created quickly:</p>
<p><center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2023/20231115_hi_res_roi_accum_precip.png"/></center></p>
<h2>Overview</h2>
<p>Thanks for joining us today. Please let us know if you create any “derived products” of your own, like the accumulated precipitation product shown in this example. Hopefully the additional topics and skills presented in this blog allow you to work with python-awips. Let us know if you have any additional questions or example notebooks of your own you would like to share with us! Check back in two weeks for the next blog post, diving more in depth with distributed EDEX systems.</p>
<hr />
<p><em>To view archived blogs, visit the <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/tags/awipstips" target="_blank">AWIPS Tips blog tag</a>, and get notified of the latest updates from the AWIPS team by signing up for the <a href ="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/support/index.html#mailinglists" target="_blank">AWIPS mailing list</a>. Questions or suggestions for the team on future topics? Let us know at <a href="mailto:support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu" target="_blank">support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu</a></em></p>
https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/awips-tips-measuring-up-distanceAWIPS Tips: Measuring Up - Distance Tools in CAVEShay Carter2023-11-01T09:00:00-06:002024-01-10T15:57:56-07:00<div class="img_l" style="width: 125px;">
<img width="125" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/logos/awips-tips.png" alt="AWIPS Tips" />
</div>
<p><br></p>
<p>Welcome back to AWIPS Tips!</p>
<p>Today we’re going to focus on a few specific tools found in the Tools menu in CAVE. All three tools are related to Distance. We’ll take a look at the <b>Distance Bearing</b>, <b>Distance Scale</b>, and <b>Distance Speed</b> tools.</p>
<div class="img_l" style="width: 125px;">
<img width="125" src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/logos/awips-tips.png" alt="AWIPS Tips" />
</div>
<p><br>
Welcome back to AWIPS Tips! </p>
<p>Today we’re going to focus on a few specific tools found in the Tools menu in CAVE. All three tools are related to Distance. We’ll take a look at the <a href="#distance-bearing">Distance Bearing</a>, <a href="#distance-scale">Distance Scale</a>, and <a href="#distance-speed">Distance Speed</a> tools.</p>
<h2 id="distance-bearing">Distance Bearing</h2>
<p>This tool initially loads 6 editable lines to the main editor. You can change the length and orientation of the lines and it will read out the azimuth (degrees) and range (miles) relative to the unlabeled end of the line. This resource can be made non editable (meaning you can’t alter the position or direction of the tracks) either by accessing the resource menu from right-click-holding on the resource name, and unchecking “Editable”, or by clicking on the resource name with the middle mouse button. You’ll notice the resource name changes when it is uneditable. You can also change the color, line style, and line thickness as shown in the brief example below. Setting the color can be accessed either from the resource menu or from right-clicking the resource name. This information is also available in our <a href="https://unidata.github.io/awips2/cave/d2d-tools/#distance-bearing" target="_blank">documentation about the Distance Bearing tool</a>.
<center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2023/20231101_distance_bearing.gif"/></center></p>
<h2 id="distance-scale">Distance Scale</h2>
<p>The Distance Scale tool is also commonly known as a scale bar in some other applications. This tool can be modified by accessing the resource menu (with a right-click-hold), where the scale units can be changed between miles, nautical miles, and kilometers. The resource color can also quickly be set by right-clicking the resource menu and choosing from the color prompter that pops up. These features are shown in the example below. Information about the <a href="https://unidata.github.io/awips2/cave/d2d-tools/#distance-scale" target="_blank">Distance Scale can be found in our online documentation</a>.
<center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2023/20231101_distance_scale.gif"/></center></p>
<h2 id="distance-speed">Distance Speed</h2>
<p>This tool can be useful for measuring the linear movement of meteorologic features and events. Loading this tool initially prompts the user with a window to specify options for the mode: Point or Line, and Legend: Time or Speed. The time option can come in handy when trying to assess at what time a feature (like a severe storm) will arrive at a specific location based on its tracked motion. Once those settings are chosen, you can close that window and begin using the tool; in the example below, we use the default options of point and speed. Next, drag the marker to your point of interest, and then scroll forward in time a few frames, and drag the marker again to the point of interest. This is very similar to how the Warngen storm motion tool works. Now, when you scroll through the frames you’ll see the tool read the speed and direction the feature is moving through the frames. In the example below we use GOES Channel 10 imagery data to measure a feature with the Distance Speed tool. This tool can also be made “uneditable” or have its color changed, similar to other tools discussed in this blog. <a href="https://unidata.github.io/awips2/cave/d2d-tools/#distance-speed" target="_blank">Information about this tool can be found in our documentation</a>.
<center><img src="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blog_content/images/2023/20231101_distance_speed.gif"/></center>
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<p class="highlight_box"><span style="color:#06778F; font-weight: bold;">NOTE: </span>Many of the tools mentioned here can be made editable, however in CAVE only one resource can be editable at a time..</p>
<p>The tools reviewed today can be useful for tracking and measuring distances, speeds, and orientations of various meteorological features. We hope you learned something useful today. Please check back in two weeks for the next blog post, where we use python-awips to create a plot of a region of interest. </p>
<p><em>To view archived blogs, visit the <a href="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/tags/awipstips" target="_blank">AWIPS Tips blog tag</a>, and get notified of the latest updates from the AWIPS team by signing up for the <a href ="https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/support/index.html#mailinglists" target="_blank">AWIPS mailing list</a>. Questions or suggestions for the team on future topics? Let us know at <a href="mailto:support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu" target="_blank">support-awips@unidata.ucar.edu</a></em></p>
<p class="highlight_box" style="text-align:center;font-style:italic;font-size:10px;padding-left:2em;padding-top:1em;padding-bottom:1em">
This blog was posted in reference to v20.3.2-0.4 of NSF Unidata AWIPS</p>