McIDAS-V User's Guide Version 1.2 Table of Contents What is McIDAS-V? Overview Release Notes System Requirements Downloading and Running McIDAS-V Data Formats and Sources Documentation and Support License and Copyright Getting Started Displaying Satellite Imagery Displaying Hyperspectral Satellite Imagery Using HYDRA Displaying Level II Radar Imagery Displaying Level III Radar Imagery Displaying Surface and Upper Air Point Data Displaying RAOB Sounding Data Displaying Profiler Data Displaying Gridded Data Displaying Fronts Displaying Local Files Displaying Files from a URL Using the McIDAS-X Bridge Using the Globe Display Data Explorer Data Sources Choosing Satellite Imagery Choosing Hyperspectral Data Choosing NEXRAD Level II Radar Data Choosing NEXRAD Level III Radar Data Choosing Point Data Choosing Upper Air Sounding Data Choosing NOAA National Profiler Network Data Choosing Gridded Data Choosing Front Positions Choosing Data on Disk Choosing Cataloged Data Choosing a URL Choosing Flat File Data Creating a McIDAS-X Bridge Session Field Selector Data Sources Fields Displays Data Subset Layer Controls Gridded Data Displays Plan View Controls Flow Display Controls Value Plot Controls Vertical Cross Section Controls 3D Surface Controls Volume Rendering Controls Point Volume Controls Sounding Controls Hovmoller Controls Satellite and Radar Displays Image Controls HYDRA Layer Controls MultiSpectral Display Controls Linear Combination Controls 4 Channel Combination Controls WSR-88D Level III Controls Level 2 Radar Layer Controls Radar Sweep View Controls Radar RHI Display Controls Radar Cross Section Controls Radar CAPPI Display Controls Radar Volume Scan Controls Radar Isosurface Controls Profiler Controls Profiler Time/Height Controls Profiler Station Plot Controls Profiler 3D Multi-Station Controls Probes Data Probe/Time Series Time/Height Controls Vertical Profile Controls Data Transect Controls Mapping Controls Map Controls Topography Controls Shapefile Controls Observation and Location Controls Point Data Plot Controls Observation List Controls Gridded Point Data Sounding Display Controls Front Controls Location Controls WorldWind Controls Track Controls Miscellaneous Controls Scatter Analysis Controls McIDAS-X Bridge Controls Grid Table Controls Omni Controls Jython Controls Contour Properties Editor Properties Dialog Color Scale Charts Ensemble Grid Controls Main Display Window Menu Bar Main Toolbar Drag and Drop Tabs Display Menus Properties Dialog Visibility Animation Time Animation Legend Modify the Color Bar Interactively Status Bar Zooming, Panning and Rotating Transect Views Display Controls Range Ring Controls Range and Bearing Controls Transect Drawing Controls Drawing Controls Location Indicator Controls Web Map Server(WMS)/Background Image Controls Image and Movie Capture Controls Timeline Controls Tools User Preferences General Preferences Display Window Preferences Toolbar Options Preferences Data Sources Preferences ADDE Servers Preferences Available Displays Preferences Navigation Controls Preferences Formats and Data Preferences Advanced Preferences Remote ADDE Data Manager Local ADDE Data Manager Weather Text Product Controls Storm Track Controls Color Table Editor Station Model Editor Parameter Alias Editor Parameter Defaults Editor Parameter Groups Editor Projection Manager Data Analysis Formulas Derived Data Native Formulas Description of Formulas - Maps Description of Formulas - Grids Description of Formulas - Miscellaneous Description of Formulas - Image Filters (Beta) Description of Formulas - Export Description of Formulas - Imagery Jython Methods Jython Shell Jython Library Display Settings Plugin Creator Plugin Manager Miscellaneous Bundles Scripting Sharing Site Configuration Plugin Jar Files Configuring Image Defaults Adding in New GRIB Tables McIDAS-V Special Data Formats Text (ASCII) Point Data Format Location XML Files Image XML Files Image Movie Files XGRF Symbols Actions Command Line Arguments Data Source Types Performance Tuning Building McIDAS-V from Source Message Console Support Request Form Appendices Examples of Display Types Plan Views 3D Surface Cross Sections Probes Hovmoller Display Imagery Radar - Level II WSR-88D Data Displays Soundings Profiler Winds Flow Displays Observations Miscellaneous Display Types FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions General FAQ Using McIDAS-V FAQ Data FAQ Video Cards FAQ Common Installation Errors FAQ Common Run-Time Errors FAQ Reporting Problems FAQ McIDAS-X Commands in McIDAS-V What is McIDAS-V? McIDAS-V is a free, open source, visualization and data analysis software package that is the next generation in SSEC's 35-year history of sophisticated McIDAS software packages. McIDAS-V displays weather satellite (including hyperspectral) and other geophysical data in 2- and 3- dimensions. McIDAS-V can also analyze and manipulate the data with its powerful mathematical functions. McIDAS-V is built on SSEC's VisAD and Unidata's IDV libraries, and contains "Bridge" software that enables McIDAS-X users to run their commands and tasks in the McIDAS-V environment, and an integrated version of SSEC's HYDRA software package. Image 1: The McIDAS-V Main Display Window This McIDAS-V User's Guide is currently under construction. Once completed, it will describe using the features available in the McIDAS-V application. For a brief description about getting started using McIDAS-V and making displays of common data available, refer to the Getting Started section. This Guide was originally developed at the Unidata Program Center by the developers of the Integrated Data Viewer (IDV). The first version of the McIDAS-V User's Guide was created from the IDV User's Guide (September 2007) and has since been updated to reflect the changes that have been made to McIDAS-V, IDV, and VisAD (see the Release Notes for details on recent changes). Development of McIDAS-V is ongoing at the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The development is driven by the needs of the community of users. Suggestions, comments, and collaboration are welcomed and encouraged. See Documentation and Support for more information. The goal is to provide new and innovative ways of displaying and analyzing Earth science data, as well as provide common displays that many of its users have come to expect. How can I get McIDAS-V? See Downloading and Running McIDAS-V for information on how to download McIDAS-V, install McIDAS-V, and run McIDAS-V. For additional information, refer to the latest McIDAS-V training materials. Overview Release Notes System Requirements Dowloading and Running McIDAS-V Data Formats and Sources Documentation and Support License and Copyright Release Notes The items below list the changes in McIDAS-V for the most recent released versions. For a current list of known bugs and requested enhancements, please see the Open Inquiries Report from the McIDAS-V Inquiry System. To view the items currently under development, see the list of Critical Bugs and Critical Development Items. McIDAS-V Version 1.2 The items below reflect the changes since the 1.01 release. Documentation Changes McIDAS-V User's Guide Display Changes Layer Visibility Animations Hovmoller Display Add Logos Wind Barbs Data Changes Multispectral GEOCAT Data Level 2 Calipso/CloudSat Data Other Changes Scripting Compute Statistics Option for HYDRA Scatter Analysis Displays Rotation Option Image Handling SEVIRI RGB Satellite Formulas New Java Version Under Development Suomi NPP Chooser Documentation Changes McIDAS-V User's Guide Updated the McIDAS-V User's Guide to contain new features and more detailed content. Display Changes Layer Visibility Animations Added a Layer Visibility Animations tool to loop through layers of data that do not have times associated with them. Without times associated with the layers, the standard Time Animation Widget will not work. The Layer Visibility Animations feature can be accessed in two ways. First, you can access this tool in the Main Display window by using the View->Displays->Visibility Animations menu items. From here, you can turn the animation on/off, and make the animation go faster/slower. You can also add a button for Layer Visibility Animations to your main toolbar by using the Toolbar Options tab of the User Preferences window. Hovmoller Display Added the Hovmoller Display to the Displays panel of the Field Selector. Your display can be Time-Longitude or Time-Latitude, with either a color shaded or contour display. The display will be plotted in the Layer Controls tab of the Data Explorer, where you can change the color table, the time label format, and the order with respect to time of the display. This display can be used with both 2D and 3D model data, but not with 2D derived fields. Add Logos Added the ability to add logos to displays. This option can be found in the View->Properties menu item of the Main Display window. In the Main tab of the Properties dialog, there is a Logo panel. Here, you can select which image to add as the logo, select its location, and its size. You must also select the 'Show Logo' checkbox at the top of the tab for the logo to be visible. This will add a logo to the Main Display window. Certain types of displays are displayed in the Layer Controls tab of the Data Explorer. For these displays, an option to add a logo can be found in the item's Properties window, accessed through the Edit->Properties menu item in the Layer Controls tab. Wind Barbs Changed the way that wind barbs are plotted when the wind is