20020517: UPC NEXRAD Level III composite products now available in IDD

• To: ldm-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, gembud@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
• Subject: 20020517: UPC NEXRAD Level III composite products now available in IDD
• From: Unidata Support <support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 15:40:53 -0600

>From: Unidata User Support <support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Organization: Unidata Program Center/UCAR
>Keywords: 200205172114.g4HLEWa12891 IDD FNEXRAD


Unidata LDM Users:

New Products Available:

  The Unidata IDD FNEXRAD feed (known as NMC3 in LDM release 5.1.2 and
  earlier) now contains five images created from composites of
  NEXRAD Level III products:
  
                         Decoded  Decoded File   Broadcast
        Product           Format  size [bytes]   Frequency   IDD Feed
     -------------------+--------+-------------+------------+--------
      1 km national N0R    GINI     14208533     6 - 10 min  FNEXRAD
      2 km national N1P    GINI      3552533     6 - 10 min  FNEXRAD
      4 km national NTP    GINI       888533     6 - 10 min  FNEXRAD
      6 km national N0R    AREA       401280     6 - 10 min  FNEXRAD
     10 km national RCM    AREA       166880       30   min  FNEXRAD
  
  The images sent in the IDD are in PNG-compressed formats; their
  transmission sizes are considerably smaller (typically one tenth) than
  the decoded sizes listed above.

  All the images were created by routines distributed in the Unidata
  GEMPAK 5.6F release.


Configuring the LDM to Request the Products:

  For information on adding a request for FNEXRAD products feed in your
  LDM's ldmd.conf file, please refer to:
  
  How to Get NOAAPORT NEXRAD Data via the LDM
  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/ldm/feedtypes/howto-nnexrad.html


Decoding the Products into GEMPAK/McIDAS usable Forms:

  A new LDM-McIDAS release, Version 7.8.0, contains a new decoder for
  the PNG-compressed GINI imagery (pngg2gini) and an updated decoder
  for the PNG-compressed AREA imagery (pnga2area) listed above.  It
  also contains a file of example pqact.conf entries that demonstrate
  the use of both of these decoders (you may need to adjust the example
  entries to suit your needs) to produce image products usable by both
  GEMPAK and Unidata McIDAS-X.

  NOTE: GEMPAK 5.6F can use the imagery in both compressed and
  uncompressed formats; Unidata McIDAS requires that the images be
  uncompressed before they can be served by ADDE.

  LDM-McIDAS binary distributions are available for a wide variety of
  operating systems.  A source release is available for sites needing
  to build on systems for which there is no binary.  Please refer to
  the LDM-McIDAS home page for further information:

  LDM-McIDAS
  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/mcidd


Example Displays of Products:

  Example displays of these (and Unidata-Wisconsin satellite and NNEXRAD
  Level III) images can be found on:
  
  Unidata IDD Data Streams Containing Imagery
  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/data/datastream.html


ADDE Access to the New Products:

  The set of cooperating community servers that already provides access
  to a variety of datasets to ADDE enabled applications (e.g., McIDAS
  and MetApps) is also configured to serve these data through the
  NEXRCOMP dataset:

  
  Community Server       Site
  ----------------------+----------------------------------------------
  pscwx.plymouth.edu     Plymouth State College
  cacimbo.ggy.uga.edu    University of Georgia
  papagayo.unl.edu       University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  stratus.al.noaa.gov    CU/CIRES
  atm.geo.nsf.gov        National Science Foundation
  adde.ucar.edu          UCAR/Unidata (motherlode)

  To configure your McIDAS session to access the NEXRCOMP dataset, run
  the following command from your McIDAS-X session:

  DATALOC ADD NEXRCOMP <server name>   <- specify 'server name' from the
                                          list of community servers above

  These images are best viewed in McIDAS-X 7.8 after updating your
  distribution with modifications in the latest addendum, Unidata
  McIDAS-X 7.806:

  Updates/Bug Fixes (aka Addenda)
  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/780/mcx/addenda.html
  
  In particular, a new enhancement, BREF24.ET, is designed to be used
  for the N0R composites, and updated enhancements for precipitation
  products, PRE1.ET and PRET.ET, are included in the addendum.  Also,
  an updated MCGUI image display definition file, ADDEIMAGE.CORE, 
  has been included to support display of the composite images.


                          **************
                          * Disclaimer *
                          **************

The composite radar images in the IDD FNEXRAD datastream are
experimental. They are generated and maintained within a research
environment at the Unidata Program Center and are not intended to be
considered operational. Timeliness, availability, and accuracy are
sought but not guaranteed.  We encourage all users to do their own
comparisons between the composites and individual NEXRAD Level III
products and make their own determination as to the representativeness
of the composite.

Please send any questions/comments to Unidata User Support.


Tom Yoksas
Steve Chiswell
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