About McIDAS

McIDAS (Man computer Interactive Data Access System) is a suite of sophisticated software packages for use with geophysical data, such as satellite and radar imagery, in-situ observational reports, and gridded numerical forecasts. McIDAS has been in use and under continual development by the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1973, and we are committed to continue support at least through the current GOES-R Satellite Series, currently set to end operations in 2036. [McIDAS History]

The McIDAS packages perform a wide variety of functions with these data. Those functions include acquiring, displaying (static and time-lapse), analyzing, interpreting and managing the data. Designed to handle large amounts of data in a convenient manner, the McIDAS packages are a vast resource of image-processing and applications programs and subroutines. McIDAS hardware and software are used by a network of users around the world.

The four main packages, McIDAS-X, McIDAS-V, McIDAS-XCD and SDI, are described below.

McIDAS-X

McIDAS-X is SSEC’s sophisticated package used for visualization and manipulation of geophysical data in a wide variety of formats. Typical data types include geostationary and polar orbiting meteorological satellites, NEXRAD radar, surface and upper-air observations, gridded numerical forecasts, NOAAPORT text products, and data from special observing networks. The McIDAS-X package is designed to work in both real-time operational and in research environments.

Visit the links below for additional information about McIDAS-X.

See the McIDAS-X software page for the available versions. Only McIDAS Users’ Group (MUG) members subscribed to the McIDAS-X participation category can download the McIDAS-X software.

McIDAS-V

McIDAS-V is a free, open source, visualization and data analysis software package that is the next generation in SSEC’s 40 year history of sophisticated McIDAS software packages. McIDAS-V displays weather satellite and other geophysical data in 2- and 3-dimensions. McIDAS-V can also analyze and manipulate the data with its powerful mathematical functions. McIDAS-V is built on SSEC’s VisAD and Unidata’s IDV libraries, and the functionality of SSEC’s HYDRA software package is also being integrated into McIDAS-V for viewing and analyzing hyperspectral satellite data.

Visit the links below for additional information about McIDAS-V.

See the McIDAS-V software page for the available versions. User support is available through the McIDAS-V Support Forums.

McIDAS-XCD

McIDAS-XCD (McIDAS-X Conventional data Decoder) enables workstations running McIDAS-X to process and serve the NCEP/NWSTG channel of the National Weather Service NOAAPORT broadcast. McIDAS-XCD stores and serves its data in formats that are compatible with McIDAS-X. Users of the data normally run McIDAS-X to display, analyze and interpret the data.

Only McIDAS Users’ Group (MUG) members subscribed to the McIDAS-XCD participation category can download the McIDAS-XCD software.

Visit the links below for additional information about McIDAS-XCD.

SDI GRB Appliance - GOES-R Series Ingestor

The SDI GRB Appliance is a networked device, pre-configured with software to ingest and distribute GOES-R Series satellite data from the GRB (GOES Rebroadcast) data stream. This SDI (SSEC Data Ingestor) is the third generation of satellite ingestors produced by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center.

The SDI GRB Appliance has four primary functions – Ingest, Notify, Distribute and Monitor.

  • Ingest: Data ingest in the SDI is accomplished using the CSPP Geo GRB software to create mission-standard netCDF-4 files.
  • Notify: Open source RabbitMQ software is used by the SDI to notify data consumers when data becomes available at one of its standard network interfaces.
  • Distribute: The SDI supports SFTP and NFS as standard output interfaces. Optionally the SDI supports the McIDAS ADDE data interface.
  • Monitor: The SDI can be monitored using Check_MK for standard and custom properties.

See the SDI GRB Appliance page for more information.