Unidata McIDAS-X v2008
August 10, 2008
Unidata McIDAS-X Version 2008 is now available for download.
Unidata McIDAS-X v2008 is a combination of SSEC McIDAS-X v2008 and
XCD v2008 including additional bugfixes developed by the UPC, and
various applications and enhancements from the UPC, the Australian
Bureau of Meteorology, CSU/CIRA, and others.
McIDAS-X/-XCD News of Note
- In 2009 and beyond, official McIDAS-X software updates will be made via
software addenda (including online documentation updates) rather than
via formal annual upgrades each summer. This step is being taken so
that the McIDAS programming, testing and documentation efforts can
focus on the next generation McIDAS, McIDAS-V.
McIDAS-X v2008 Notes
- Many corrections to ADT and associated software so it works
much better on more platforms than the beta version in
McIDAS-X 2007; also now sets the value for the environment
variable LDR_CNTRL based on the amount of memory available
when running McIDAS-X on an AIX system.
- Modified IMGCOPY BAND keyword to allow copying of selected
bands (no just one band or ALL bands) if the source image is MTSAT
raw data on an SDI server; copying of selected bands is also
available with GVAR raw data on an SDI server, MODIS Level 1b
data in HDF format, or real-time segmented MSG Level 1.5 files
transmitted by EUMETSAT.
- Support of GNU gfortran was improved for 32- and 64-bit Linux
workstations. NOTE: gfortran use has only been tested
at the UPC on Linux workstations.
- GRIB ADDE serving was updated for datasets containing GRIB2 files
from NOAAPORT and to display/manipulate the data using the GRD*
commands.
- MCLISTEN - new undocumented command that is used to send McIDAS-X
information to McIDAS-V through use of the McIDAS-V bridge.
- MOSRPT - fixed bugs in MOS decoders and in station database so MOSRPT
now correctly finds and lists Alaskan MOS forecasts.
- NAVCALC - updated to work correctly with MTSAT HRIT imagery.
- BUFR Server - several new modules were added and existing ones were
modified in preparation for an upcoming McIDAS-X BUFR server
and McIDAS-XCD BUFR filer; the server and filer are *not*
complete in version 2008; a separate, alpha version, McIDAS
BUFR package that requires Java is planned for later in 2008.
- GeoTIFF Servers - updated GeoTIFF servers so that GeoTIFF files
created with IMGCOPY, IMGFILT, IMGOPER or IMGREMAP are compatible
with the ArcGIS software package.
- GOES-14/-15 - updated calibration module and server so applications
will correctly handle increased resolution (from 8km to 4km) of
band 6 GOES-O/14 and GOES-P/15 data.
- GVAR Servers - updated GVAR servers to output correct radiance values
when using IMGCOPY with UNIT=RAD to write to a netCDF dataset.
- Level 1b Servers - updated Level 1b servers to work with MetOp-A
AVHRR FRAC data; see the DSSERVE command's online help or its
documentation in the Unidata v2008 McIDAS User's Guide for
information about creating the datasets.
- Meteosat-8/-9 - updated Meteosat Second Generation servers and
calibration module to accommodate the 05 May 2008 change from
spectral to effective radiance, and the inclusion of a flag in
the signal to indicate the radiance type; the calibration block
for MSG data was increased in size to 400 bytes; the calibration
module (kbxmsg.dlm) is backward compatible to correctly read both
old and new data.
- Meteosat Servers - updated Meteosat PDUS servers to work with archive
directory structures that have a different directory for each day; also
added new Meteosat OMTP servers to work with Open MTP format data.
- New MODIS Product - added MODIS product server in McIDAS-X to allow
creation of Server datasets of MODIS Corrected Reflectance data in
HDF format on local and remote servers, and display or manipulation
of the data using the IMG* commands; see the DSSERVE command's
online help or its documentation in the McIDAS User's Guide
(revised 5/08) for information about creating the datasets.
- MTSAT HRIT Server - changed latitude and longitude of MTSAT's
subsatellite point from a hardcoded value to one that finds the
value from the satellite signal.
- Even though operation of McIDAS-X has improved in recent Linux KDE
environments, it has been observed that there is a memory leak that
will render the workstation unresponsive if McIDAS is left running
for several days. For this reason, we do not recommend the use of
the KDE environment.
McIDAS-XRD v2008 Notes
- 40 routines from the McIDAS-XRD (X Research and Development) package
have been included in the v2008 distribution. These routines
include a variety of display applications and ADDE servers for
different kinds of data.
NOTE: The XRD routines are not built with -X or -XCD. Instead
the user must explicitly build and install the routines in a separate
step after McIDAS-X has been built:
<as mcidas>
cd ~mcidas/mcidas2008/src
make xrd
make install.xrd
McIDAS-XCD v2008 Notes
- SSEC recommends that McIDAS-XCD be run on 32-bit versions
of Linux. Code changes made after the SSEC v2008 release which
have been incorporated into Unidata McIDAS v2008 seem to enable
XCD to be run on 64-bit systems with no problems, but testing
is ongoing.
- Users are strongly advised to switch to the use of the GRIB
server for faster data access and less disk space usage. The
real-time GRIB server requires the installation of the
MySQL server, user and development environments.
- The list of ADDE GRID/BRIB datasets has been updated to match those
recommended by SSEC for v2008. This change will force the end user to
modify scripts that access GRID/GRIB datasets either from local
or remote ADDE servers.
Useful McIDAS-X v2008 Materials
Please send all questions/comments to
Unidata McIDAS Support
<support-mcidas@unidata.ucar.edu>.
Tom Yoksas
Unidata User Support
