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McIDAS-X Capabilities
McIDAS-X provides a robust suite of application tools for managing, processing, comparing and fusing data. Users access and integrate various data types by displaying images and graphics separately or simultaneously. Current, past and forecast data displays can be animated to monitor changes.
The sections below list capabilities of some of these tools:
[All examples on this page were created using McIDAS-X software. Some were created by members of McIDAS User Services and some were downloaded from sites listed on the SSEC Web page under "Research" or "Images and Data"]
- support for GOES, NOAA/POES, Meteosat, MSG, MODIS and other satellite data [see the SSEC Data Center for the current list]
- display and manipulate images in a variety of formats, including McIDAS AREA, Aqua AIRS and MODIS Level 1b HDF, MSG Level 1.5, SAA POES/NOAA KLM series AVHRR Level 1b
- image display options
- native projection and resolution
- convert images to other projections: Lambert Conformal, Mercator, Mollweide, polar stereographic, rectilinear, sinusoidal equal area, and tangent cone [United States in four different projections]
- magnify or blow down images from their original resolution [two views of Puerto Rico]
- multiple image composites [Antarctic composite, US composite, global composite using all polar and geostationary meteorological satellites , global Mollweide composite]
- animate sequences of images to make a movie [GOES-10 IR loop]
- apply grayscale and color enhancements [GOES-12 water vapor, Nashville NEXRAD]
- overlay images with maps and graphics from other data sources [full disk with map, United States with temperature contours, Midwest with station models]
- manipulate images
- mathematically combine or modify images
- filter the data with various algorithms - such as selecting data breakpoints, averaging or weighting surrounding pixels
- derive products from multi-spectral analysis - such as vegetation index, sea surface temperatures, cloud heights, rainfall, long wave flux [sea surface temperatures]
- convert raw values to radiometric or other units - such as radiance, albedo, brightness temperature
- contour radiometric values
- mappings between radiometric values and grayscale
- calculate and display cloud drift winds [GOES-12 Mid- and Upper-level winds]
- plot satellite navigation tracks [predicted Terra passes]
- save displayed images and graphics in GIF, JPEG and other formats
- contours and plots of meteorological data in McIDAS MD, netCDF or text format
- observed parameters - such as temperature, dew point, wind speed and direction, pressure, cloud information, height of pressure surface
- derived parameters - such as equivalent potential temperature, mixing ratio, stability indices, heat index, wind chill index, potential temperature, isentropic surfaces
- forecast parameters from Model Output Statistics - such as temperature, wind speed, probability of snow
- interpolation of observed, derived, or forecast parameters to derived fields on uniformly spaced grids [surface temperatures plotted and contoured, global wave heights]
- plots and listings of weather watches and warnings [watches over Florida NEXRAD composite , all watches and warnings in the United States]
- station model displays [surface observations in Kansas]
- fronts from NCEP frontal position products [fronts and radar over satellite IR composite image]
- cross sections: surface and full vertical isentropic [cross-section of theta and theta-e from Texas to Illinois]
- temporal and spatial meteorograms: historical trace of surface and upper air parameters [surface meteorogram]
- thermodynamic diagrams: [skew T/log-P, Stuve, linear, Emagram]
- hodographs: [vertical wind soundings]
- streamlines of vector fields [surface winds over Midwest]
- feature movement prediction [storm movement]
- search and display weather text data [NOAAPORT text output]
- interactive command entry [McIDAS text and command window]
- Graphical User Interface (GUI) [McIDAS GUI]
- F Key menu system
- time and date scheduled command entry (cron or McIDAS scheduler)
- batch processing and background processing with Unix scripts
- McBASI language support
- automated image and graphic updates in real time
- map extents and projections
- levels and surfaces: constant pressure, constant height, isentropic
- grid spacing and smoothing factors
- physical units in Metric and American:
- temperature in degrees Celsius, Fahrenheit or Kelvin
- linear measurements in degrees latitude, kilometers, meters, centimeters, millimeters, miles, nautical miles, yards, feet or inches
- pressure in millibars/hectopascals or inches of mercury
- wind speed in knots, meters per second, kilometers per hour, feet per second or miles per hour
- graphics color, line width and dashing
- interactive grayscale image enhancements
- weather symbols and character fonts
- interactive zooming of displayed images and graphics
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