Status Report: McIDAS
October 2020 - April 2021
Tom Yoksas
Areas for Committee Feedback
We are requesting your feedback on the following topics:
- Are there any features that users would like to be added to Unidata McIDAS-X and/or ldm-mcidas?
Activities Since the Last Status Report
Aside from routine updates/bugfixes to existing code and tables, the main area of activity recently has been the incorporation of Unidata-developed code into the next UW/SSEC McIDAS-X/XCD release, v2021..
Current Activities
- Support use of McIDAS-X/XCD in the community
- Ensure that the Unidata instances of McIDAS ADDE continue to function efficiently (ADDE serves on the order of 1.7 TB/day)
- McIDAS-X is used to convert GOES-16 ABI imagery that is in netCDF4 format to McIDAS AREA format that is usable by all supported display and analysis packages except Python/MetPy for the Unidata-Wisconsin (UNIWISC aka MCIDAS) IDD feed.
The v2020 release features the following:
- SSEC added support for McIDAS-X on RHEL 8 systems, ended support of McIDAS-X on RHEL 6 and Windows 7 systems, and added preliminary support of McIDAS-X on Windows 10 systems.
- Updated GOES-R Series ABI servers to list calculated resolutions in IMGLIST FORM=BAND and FORM=ALL output, and to support GOES-17 Fusion imagery because of modifications to allow more flexible file naming formats.
- Updated GEO command with improved logic when using Himawari imagery, and when merging imagery from multiple satellites and the domain contains the dateline.
- Improved performance of RGBDISP command, especially when it is run multiple times in a script.
- Updated VIIR servers and calibration module to correctly set the RAW value of Band 18 (M13) pixels to zero in bowtie deletion and bad or missing line regions.
Ongoing Activities
We plan to continue the following activities:
- SSEC McIDAS Advisory Committee (MAC)
The UPC (Yoksas, Ho) continues to participate as the Unidata representative to the McIDAS Advisory Committee (MAC) that is operated by SSEC.
The MAC was assembled by UW/SSEC to advise SSEC on McIDAS-X users needs/concerns/desires for development in the next generation McIDAS, McIDAS-V. The MAC was modeled after the Unidata IDV Steering Committee.
- Interest in McIDAS by non-core users
The UPC occasionally receives requests for McIDAS-X and help using McIDAS-X from international university users, U.S. government agencies and other non-traditional Unidata users (e.g., private businesses, etc.). Government agencies and non-traditional Unidata users are referred to UW/SSEC for access to McIDAS; international educational community user requests are granted on a case-by-case basis after they provide a clear statement of their acceptance of the terms of use provided by SSEC.
- Continued support of existing and new community members
New Activities
- Add support for new types of data when they become available, otherwise McIDAS-X support is in maintenance mode.
Relevant Metrics
- Data delivered by the Unidata McIDAS ADDE servers exceeds 1 TB/day. The great majority of the data being served is imagery from GOES-16 followed by imagery from GOES-17.
ldm-mcidas Decoders Activities
Development
ldm-mcidas releases are made when needed to support changes in software development and operating system environments. ldm-mcidas v2012 was released at the end of September, 2012.
Planned for the next major addition to this package will be the development of a “decoder” for GRB delivered Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) data. This development is aimed at greatly increasing the speed at which displays of the GLM data can be made in McIDAS-X, the IDV and McIDAS-V.
Geostationary Satellite Data Ingest and Data Serving
Unidata continues to ingest GOES-East and GOES-West imager data at the UCAR Foothills Lab and NCAR Mesa lab campuses in Boulder.
- Direct, programmatic access to real-time GOES-East (GOES-16) and GOES-West (GOES-17) data via McIDAS ADDE services on three publicly accessible servers (lead.unidata.ucar.edu, adde.ucar.edu (aka atm.ucar.edu) and adde.ssec.wisc.edu) has been averaging on the order of 48 TB/month for the past 6-9 months.
Planned Activities
Ongoing Activities
Continued ingest, distribution via the IDD and ADDE serving of GOES-East and GOES-West imagery from the GRB downlinks we installed in UCAR
Continued ingest and ADDE serving of GOES-15 and GOES-14 imagery when available. GOES-15 and GOES-14 were put into standby mode on March 2, 2020. GOES-14 remains in its standby location (104W) and will be turned on for periodic testing as needed. GOES-15 supplemental operations began on Sunday, August 9, 2020 at 0000 UTC and continues to provide surveillance during Pacific hurricane seasons.
These efforts require maintenance of the satellite ingest and data serving equipment.
New Activities
Establish a testbed for generating Level 2 products from GOES-16/17 imagery and select model output. The intention is to be able to test vetted algorithms submitted by community members for a long enough period for the algorithms to be fully tested.
Strategic Focus Areas
We support the following goals described in Unidata Strategic Plan:
- Managing Geoscience Data
Remote, programmatic access to data provided by the Abstract Data Distribution Environment (ADDE) environment of McIDAS has been a model for the development of remote access methodologies since 1994. Concepts articulated in ADDE inspired the development of THREDDS (to address the lack of rich metadata available in ADDE) and RAMADDA. ADDE remains one of the most used data services in the Unidata suite. ADDE servers operated by Unidata are currently serving in excess of 1.6 TB/day.
- Providing Useful Tools
McIDAS remains the application of choice for the satellite meteorology community. The Abstract Data Distribution Environment (ADDE) component of McIDAS was the first application offered by Unidata to provide remote, programmatic access to a wide variety of data that is important to the atmospheric science community.
The fifth generation of McIDAS, McIDAS--V, unlike its predecessors, is a fully open source application that is in wide scale and growing use in the worldwide satellite meteorological community
McIDAS ADDE continues to evolve and provide access to a rapidly increasing volume of imagery and non-image data.
- Supporting People
McIDAS is still in active use by those interested in satellite meteorology worldwide.
Prepared April, 2021