1. An introduction to McIDAS – the Man-computer Interactive Data Access System
(as part of the 21st Annual CIMSS Summer Workshop on Atmospheric and Earth Sciences – 24 June 2013)
10:45 AM – 12:45 PM
- McIDAS/satellite overview (Gary); McIDAS-V training (Jay and Bob).
<lunch, weather briefing>
02:00 PM – 03:45 PM
- McIDAS hands-on development of mini-projects, concluding with student presentations of such (w/ mentors: Joleen (+Derrick), Kaba, Will, Bob, and Jay (+Kyle)).
1. Thanks to Becky Schaffer and McIDAS folks for McIDAS slides taken from the training ppts from the Jun 2011 Beijing trip.
2. File updated, with 2012 schedule, MUG users, and current GOES DPI example. File name: McIDAS-ovrvw-SmrWrkShp-v ppt.
Final (post CSW) file updated, with (updated) “sats-o-day-gsw ppt” slide to: McIDAS-ovrvw-SmrWrkShp-v ppt.
File updated, with 2013 schedule, “sats-o-day” slide, and current GOES Sounder examples (20pan and EUS DPI). File name: McIDAS-ovrvw-SmrWrkShp-v f.pptx.

2. Who We Are
SSEC (Space Science and Engineering Center) is part of the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW).
SSEC hosts CIMSS (Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies), including a NOAA/NESDIS (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration /National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service) research branch – ASPB (Advanced Satellite Products Branch).

3. What Is McIDAS-V? McIDAS – Man computer Interactive Data Access System
Storm cloud temperatures, showing overshooting tops in 2-D from above
Satellite composite image overlaid with
GFS relative humidity contour cross-section
Same overshooting tops, rotated to view from the side
McIDAS
– Man computer Interactive Data Access System
Powerful data analysis and 3-D visualization tool
McIDAS-V is the fifth generation of McIDAS
“V” stands for 5 (the Roman Numeral V)
The first generation of McIDAS began in 1972

4. McIDAS-X  VisAD + IDV + HYDRA = McIDAS-V
What Is McIDAS-V?
McIDAS-X  VisAD + IDV + HYDRA = McIDAS-V
Viewing data, developing algorithms, validating results
Integration of geophysical data
Ease of reprojection
Remote and local data access
Includes a “bridge” to McIDAS-X, allowing –X users to continue using legacy code, but to visualize in McIDAS-V

5. McIDAS Users Group (MUG) members June 2012
3TIER Group – Seattle, WA
Agencia Estatal de Meteorologia (AEMET) – Madrid, Spain
Antarctic Meteorological Research Center – Madison, WI
Australian Bureau of Meteorology – Melbourne, Australia
Aviation Weather Center - Kansas City, MO [NOAA]
The Boeing Company – Seattle, WA
Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE) – Buenos Aires, Argentina
Comprehensive Large Array-Data Stewardship System (CLASS) – Asheville, NC [NOAA]
Energia Logistics Ltd. – Long Beach, CA
Environment Canada – Downsview, Ontario
Environmental Satellite Processing Center – Suitland, MD [NOAA]
European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) – Darmstadt, Germany
Harris Corporation – Melbourne , FL
Honeywell Aerospace Electronic Systems – Redmond, WA
Hong Kong Observatory – Kowloon, Hong Kong
ImpactWeather, Inc. – Houston, TX
ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation – Tokyo, Japan
Johnson Space Center Spaceflight Meteorology Group – Houston, TX
Kwajalein Atoll - Atmospheric Technology Services Company – Kwajalein Atoll
Masdar Institute of Science and Technology – Abu Dhabi, UAE
Mexico National Water Commission – Mexico D.F., Mexico
NASA Langley Research Center – Hampton, VA
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center – Huntsville, AL
National Hurricane Center – Miami, FL [NOAA]
National Transportation Safety Board – Washington, DC
National Weather Service Pacific Region Headquarters – Honolulu, HI [NOAA]
National Weather Service Western Region Headquarters – Salt Lake City, UT [NOAA]
Northrop Grumman Information Systems – McLean, VA
Range Weather Operations, Cape Canaveral Air Station – Patrick Air Force Base, FL
Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere – Fort Collins, CO [NOAA]
Storm Prediction Center – Norman, OK [NOAA]
Telvent DTN – Burnsville, MN
Unidata Program Center – Boulder, CO
University of Wisconsin - Madison, Space Science & Engineering Center – Madison, WI
VisionTech, Inc. – Ibaraki, Japan
Weather Central, LP – Madison, WI
Weather Decision Technologies, Inc. – Norman, OK
Weathernews America, Inc. – Norman, OK
WTVT Fox 13 Weather – Tampa, FL

6. On 6 December 1966, the Applications Technology Satellite (ATS-1) was launched. We have had the benefit of the geostationary perspective for over 45 years!
ATS-1's spin scan camera (UW’s Suomi and Parent 1968) provided full disk visible images of the earth and its cloud cover every 20 minutes. The spin scan camera on ATS-1 occurred because of extraordinary efforts by Verner Suomi and Homer Newell, when the satellite was already well into its fabrication.

7. Verner E. Suomi and Robert J. Parent

8. ATS Nov :03Z

9. Professor Suomi and McIDAS
(Man computer Interactive Data Access System) an
1972 – “McIDAS”
2013 – “McIDAS-V”
Including VIS-AD and HYDRA

10. Water vapor tracked “winds” from Meteosat during FGGE (the First Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP) Global Experiment)
(15 Nov 1979)

11. History of McIDAS 1972 First Generation of McIDAS
Runs on Harris /5 with 96 KB of programmable memory and 2-5 MB hard drives
1991
McIDAS runs on UNIX workstations
1997
McIDAS Users’ Group sunsets support for mainframe McIDAS
1983
People’s Republic of China funds port of McIDAS software to IBM mainframe
1970
1980
1990
2000
1968
WINDCO generates wind vectors from ATS images
1976
GOES ingest system added to McIDAS
1994
Satellite and conventional data is served from UNIX workstations, beginning the use of ADDE (Abstract Data Distribution Environment)
1985
McIDAS runs on PCs under DOS operating system
1979
Wichita Falls, TX tornado disaster: Congress directs operational McIDAS system to be installed at the NOAA National Severe Storms Forecast Center
1987
McIDAS runs on PCs under OS/2 operating system
and McIDAS Users’ Group is formed 11

12. History of McIDAS-V
Investigations of a “new approach” to data analysis and visualization
2007 – Collaboration with Unidata to advance VisAD and IDV as the basis of McIDAS-V
2008 – McIDAS-V becomes an “alpha”
2009 – January – beta 1
2010 – January – beta 5
2010 – September – V1.0
2012 – May – V1.2 (scripting capability demonstrated and promoted)
2013 – June – latest version is V1.3

13. MODIS data - define a transect to display radiance measurements
Can drag transect across image to view the data interactively. This would be a good tool to use with a product. Validation tool.
Convection case study: 19 June 2007

14. CIMSS Cloud Top Pressure
Here a window channel image is displayed with a derived cloud top pressure on top. The data probe is used to compare the product with the source data. 14

15. Brunner et al.: http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/snaap/enhanced-v
Thunderstorm features: over-shooting top and enhanced-V (thermal couplet)
Trying to reproduce a product that is traditional done using a photoshop merge. The sandwich product was developed by Martin Setvakhttp:// to highlight regions of convection.
Here is the sandwich product as produced in McV. This is an enhanced-V pattern… Jason Brunner, KirsBedka (
Setvak:
Brunner et al.: 15

16. Advanced Display Capability
AIRS Level 1B window channel image (grey-scale) and moveable 2-D slice of ECMWF-AIRS Single FOV water-vapor retrieval (color-scale). Slice values are re-sampled on the fly from the 3-D difference field and auto-updated as the slice is dragged in space - demonstrating interactive direct manipulation, data integration, and python driven data computation. 16

17. High spectral data from AIRS (onboard the Aqua satellite) is used to generate the UW Cloud Amount Vertical Profile (CAVP), shown as a “3-D” cloud in McIDAS-V .
A 3-D “cloud product” – the UW CAVP (Cloud Amount Vertical Profile) - orbit overlayed on topography. CAVP is derived from AIRS data. See work by E. Garms et al. 17

18. Bringing observations of clouds together: MODIS (passive) and CALIPSO (active)18

19. Under development: interrogation of vertical structure of surrounding reference winds model analysis and/or in-situ obs at location of flagged AMV derived wind.
Steve Wanzong (Atmospheric Motion Vector). Everything not magenta is a satellite derived wind.
AMV derived wind color scaled by wind speed ; GFS gridded wind field in magenta 19

20. (Some) Meteorological Satellites and Instruments (2013)
Eastern Hemisphere:
Meteosat-8,7
INSAT-3E,C
Kalpana
Electro-L
FY-2D,E
COMS-1
MTSAT-1R
GOES-15
- Imager
- Sounder
135 W
GOES-13
- Imager
- Sounder
75 W
Meteosat-10 MSG-2
- SEVIRI
0 E
GOES-14
- Imager
- Sounder
105 W
GOES-12
- Imager
- Sounder
60 W
MTSAT-2
Imager
145 E
~ 36,000 km hrs
GEO
LEO
NOAA-19
- AVHRR/3
- HIRS/4
- AMSU
- MHS
13:30
NOAA-18
- AVHRR/3
- HIRS/4
- AMSU
- MHS
15:00
DMSP
F-17
- SSM/IS
05:30
F-18
08:00
Suomi NPP
- VIIRS
CrIS
ATMS
13:30 AM
Metop-B
- AVHRR/3
HIRS/4
IASI
- AMSU
- MHS
09:30
Metop-A
- AVHRR/3
HIRS/4
IASI
- AMSU
- MHS
09:30
(1) File name/update is: sats-o-day-gsw ppt.
(2) Launch dates:
Terra
Meteosat7
GOES-12
Aqua
NOAA-17
NOAA-18
Meteosat-9
GOES-13
MTSAT-2
Metop-A
DMSP F-17
NOAA-19
DMSP F-18
GOES-15
Suomi NPP
~ 850 km min
Terra
- MODIS
10:30
Aqua
- MODIS
AIRS
13:30 PM (
[ sats-o-day-gsw ppt ]

21. Infrared electromagnetic spectrum of the atmosphere
Spectral response functions for the 18 infrared GOES Sounder bands, separated into long, mid, and shortwave sections.
Incoming solar radiation peaks in the visible, near 0.5 um (corresponding to a radiative temperature of 5780K for the Sun’s surface); outgoing terrestrial radiation peaks in the infrared, near 11 um (corresponding to an average earth radiative temperature of 255K). [ from Wein’s Law] Various gaseous constituents effect the amount of absorption at the different wavelengths.

22. All spectral bands of the GOES Sounder
( GOES-13 (East) at 15:46 UTC on 23 June 2013 )

23. Looking at real-time GOES Sounder data…
cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/rt/exp-work.php
Look at all spectral bands
Look at a Sounder product
[This workshop PowerPoint is available at --

24. Atmospheric soundings from geostationary orbit
Below is total precipitable water (TPW) derived from the Sounder on GOES-13 at 12 UTC on 23Jun 2013.
As a cold front drops across the N Hi Plains bringing drier air, the E and rest of the central US stay under very moist air (previously advected from the Gulf of Mexico region) as a warm front moves up across the Great Lakes. Smooth GOES retrievals (profiles) are similar to near-by radiosonde profiles.
[ ]

25. “Sift and Winnow” – a Wisconsin idea

26. Extra slides

27. Who We Are – SSEC
Scientists - examining the Earth from satellites to gain insight into weather and climate
Modelers - developing diagnostic and forecast models to explain the weather and climate
Engineers - developing new observing tools for spacecraft, aircraft, and ground-based platforms
Data Center – real-time satellite imagery from 16 satellites and managing online archive of 1 Petabyte (back to 1978)
Software developers - creating tools to visualize and manipulate data for use by researchers and operational meteorologists

28. What Is McIDAS-V?
Uses an extensible framework - Built a framework on top for adapting new sources of data (format and type; local or remote), for updating user interface components, and for creating novel displays and analysis techniques
Developed in the Java programming language – object oriented; write once - run anywhere (very portable)
Persistence mechanism (bundles) for saving and sharing interesting displays/analysis with other McIDAS-V users
Python based user defined computation for scripting
Java-based, open-source, and freely available

29. History of McIDAS Mainframe Communication
IBM
Mainframe

30. History of McIDAS ADDE Client-Server Communication (Abstract Data Distribution Environment)
NOAAPORT
Signal
Clients
Servers

31. Fundamental CIMSS research: striving to make quality real-time GOES Sounder radiance observations into practical useful information for weather forecasting
Atmospheric continuity and evolution are clearly evident in multi-spectral animation.
Where will clouds be? Comparison between observed imagery (bottom) and forecast imagery (top) builds confidence in how well the CRAS model is assimilating retrieved GOES Sounder cloud and moisture information.
Where will forecast (GFS) moisture need to be modified, monitoring trends, to provide a better forecast for convection (as across Texas)? Differences between retrieved GOES Sounder TPW and the GFS forecast values are plotted over the GOES TPW Derived Product Imagery (DPI).
[1800 UT 2 Apr 2004]

32. Atmospheric soundings from geostationary orbit
Below is total precipitable water (TPW) derived from the Sounder on GOES-13 at 12 UTC on 21 Jun 2012.
As a cold front moves across GrtLks and Cen Plns, dry air fills in across N Plns as moist air (previously advected from the Gulf of Mexico region) remains over most of rest of E US.
Smooth GOES retrievals (profiles) are similar to near-by radiosonde profiles.
[ ]

33. The setting for 23 June 2013
500Z/300 win
sfc TD/850 win

34. Davenport (IA) radiosonde from 12 UT 23-Jun-2013 (with sfc parcel of 86F (69F TD) at 17 UT)