[idvusers] ISL script examples please? (and dreams)

• To: "idvusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <idvusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Subject: [idvusers] ISL script examples please? (and dreams)
• From: Brian Mapes <bmapes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 22:49:00 +0000

Hello IDV users. 

I want to start using ISL, and I wonder if anyone could share wisdom 
or example scripts? 

------------------- easy
1. Making current-weather bundles into .mov animations for campus kiosk screens.

I know I can save a bundle as .isl, and then make an hourly crontab with the 
line: 
runIDV Mybundle.isl

But now I want to run this on a headless server that doesn't have a video card 
or X windows running. 
Any advice? I should run Xvfb I hear? Does it run all the time like a daemon, 
or should the crontab or script start an X server for each job? 
Any experience welcomed. 



----------------- wish
2. Converting a .xidv bundle to a .zidv bundle.

I enjoy many .xidv bundles that call on remote data sources. 
They take a while to load, and then saving off a .zidv requires reading all 
that data again,
since the data in memory are not what is saved in the .zidv. 

Is there a way to do it in the background as a script? 
If not, how hard would it be to add this hugely useful functionality? 



------------------- dream 
3. I dearly wish I could do 2. above, with time-driver controls 
(start and end times and intervals) on the command line or in the .isl script. 

There are  many great huge time aggregated datasets online now, like 3h 10km IR 
globally since 1980 (!) as below. 

How I wish I could slice off case studies to .zidv files 
without having to manually manipulate the time driverand 
reload and then reread the data yet again for the .zidv writeout, 
as in point 2. above. 


My favorite data URL these days: 

netcdf 
dods://data.ncdc.noaa.gov/thredds/dodsC/cdr/gridsat/gridsat-aggregation-physical.ncml
 {
...
    float irwin(time=87628, lat=2000, lon=5143);
      :_CoordinateAxes = "time lat lon ";
      :long_name = "Brightness Temperature (~11um)";
      :units = "Kelvin";

 

Thanks for any advice! 
Brian Mapes

*********************************************
Brian Mapes, Professor
Meteorology and Physical Oceanography
RSMAS, University of Miami
4600 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, FL 33149-1098

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: [idvusers] ISL script examples please? (and dreams)
    • From: Brendon Hoch

• References:
  • Re: [idvusers] Adding two different 4d grids
    • From: Paul Graham