McIDAS-X Fastrack Version 2009.2
Now Available

04 December 2009 McIDAS Help Desk email notification to McIDAS Site Coordinators and the mcidas-users list:

McIDAS-X Fastrack version 2009.2 was recently added to the McIDAS Website.

The significant changes for McIDAS-X version 2009.2 include the following:

• updated the IMGCOPY command to (a) include the new keyword CF=YES to create CF-compliant netCDF image files, (b) allow writing of negative values into netCDF image files, (c) prohibit multi-band copies to netCDF image files; the last change means that if you need to create netCDF image files from a multi-band source image you will need to IMGCOPY each of the bands separately (using the BAND= keyword) into the netCDF-format dataset
• updated the Level 1b servers to properly file navigation for NOAA-19 data
• updated the ABI (Advanced Baseline Imagery for GOES-R) calibration and navigation routines; the changes include navigation corrections and defining of bands 1-6 as visible and all others as IR
• updated the GVAR and POES servers to accommodate GOES-14 and NOAA-19, respectively; these changes only affect users who have the raw data on their local McIDAS-X workstation
• updated the PTCOPY command to work with the SSEC Data Center's archive point datasets
• updated the McIDAS-XRD package (which is included in the McIDAS-X installation files) to include three new commands (IMGCOMBO, IMGPARM and MDSCAT) and two new servers (amseadir and amseaget); also made significant changes to the output generated by the GVARINFO command; if you use GVARINFO and have scripts that parse its output you will need to modify the scripts to accommodate the new output

Also, as noted in the McIDAS-X Version 2008 Upgrade Procedure document, McIDAS User Services is now issuing its McIDAS-X software updates via fully-supported Fastrack releases (including online documentation updates) rather than via formal upgrades each May. This means that the software is fully supported by SSEC, and that each change to the software has been tested on all of the supported workstation configurations. Full system testing will occur at least once on each platform during each calendar year.  This step is being taken so that the McIDAS programming, testing and documentation staff can focus more of its future efforts on the McIDAS-V project.

If you have questions about this release, call the McIDAS Help Desk at (608) 262-2455, or send email to the Help Desk.