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Download McIDAS-X v. 2023.1

McIDAS software releases are distributed as a total replacement of the core system.  Since May 2009 SSEC has been distributing McIDAS-X updates as fully supported Fastrack releases. 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 system configurations. Full system testing occurs at least once on each platform during each calendar year. Prior upgrade versions were distributed once a year, normally in late-May.

The SSEC McIDAS Help Desk provides full assistance for McIDAS software questions pertaining to the current or previous version. The Help Desk will still assist those sites that are two issues behind the current version at a reduced capability. A complete description of your MUG support is detailed in the SSEC McIDAS Users’ Group Policy Document.  If you are upgrading from an older version, please see the past versions page for links to download files and other materials from past versions.

A login name and password is required to download any software. Once you’ve entered your valid login name and password, you can obtain any other McIDAS software your site is licensed to receive (e.g., McIDAS-X and McIDAS-XCD).

McIDAS-X 2023.1 – released 29 Dec 2023

McIDAS-X Software

2023.1 Installation Instructions

  • Unix or macOS
  • Windows

Download Software

Download (e.g., right-click and select Save) the following files to the ~mcidas directory on your McIDAS-X workstation.
  • Install/uninstall script (30 KB)
    • mcidas2023.1.sh
  • Source/data files (296 MB)
    • mcidas2023.1.tar.Z
  • ADDE remote server configuration script (22 KB)
    • mcinet2023.1.sh

McIDAS-XRD

See -XRD Information Page for more information on McIDAS-XRD.

Past Versions

See the past versions page for links to download files and other materials from past versions.

System Requirements

2023.1 Operating Systems

Apple – supported on macOS 12.x
  1. Tested on macOS 12.3 (Apple processor):
    1. gcc & gfortran 12.2
    2. XQuartz X server
  1. Tested on macOS 12.2 (Intel processor):
    1. gcc & gfortran 11.2
    2. XQuartz X server
Red Hat – supported on RHEL 8.x and 9.x
  1. Tested on:
    1. Enterprise Linux 8.5 Intel w/ gcc & gfortran 8.5
    2. Enterprise Linux 9.2 Intel w/ gcc & gfortran 11.4.1
Microsoft Windows – supported on Windows®10 with WSL
  1. Tested on Windows®10:
    1. Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)
    2. Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS
    3. gcc & gfortran 9.30

Complete System Requirements

Future OS Support Plans

OS User Survey Results

Note: The installation will fail if the names of the downloaded files do not exactly match those listed. If your web browser changes the names of the files during download (e.g., mcidas2023.1.tar.Z becomes mcidas2023_1_tar.Z), you must rename the files before installing.

What's New in McIDAS-X 2023.1

  1. Added support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9. See the 2023.1 Supported System Configurations for the complete list of system configurations where McIDAS-X 2023.1 is supported.
  2. Updated the calibration and navigation modules for the new MTG (Meteosat Third Generation) ADDE servers.  The MTG FCI servers are being released as a preliminary release separate from McIDAS-X.  These will be the first operational servers written in Python and will be officially released when they are fully tested with data from the satellite.
  3. Updated the GOES-R Series ABI servers to support NOAAPort American Samoa sectors.
  4. Updated the VIIRS  servers to accurately report the scan line times.
  5. The grib servers and GRD* commands were updated to use scaling factors from the source grid which gives output AREA files the expected values for gridded fields with exponential values. Updates were also made to read ETSS, PETS, SPC, GLW, GLSW, and RRFS grids.
  6. The netCDF servers that write image files with IMGCOPY were updated to better handle pixels that are in space. This improves performance when displaying the netCDF files in McIDAS-V.
  7. Updated USCOUNTY.MAP, USSTATE.MAP and USZONE.MAP files with the most recent National Weather Service GIS-AWIPS Shapefile database updates. The US*.MAP files are used by the WWDISP command and the MAP command’s COUNTY=, MARINE=, STATE= and ZONE= keywords.
  8. Updated the McIDAS-XRD Package included in the McIDAS-X installation files to include:
    • one new command (IMGEU, which reads in an AREA file and McIDAS-X enhancement table to create a multi-banded RGB AREA file).
    • 6 new data files (SUVI-*.ET, which are the standard enhancements used for AREA files with generated SUVI data).
    See the McIDAS-XRD Instructions and Software page for the complete list of software included in McIDAS-XRD 2023.1.


See 2023.1 – All Software Changes to see a list of all of the code changes included in the release.

If upgrading from an older version, see the past versions page for links to download files and documentation from past versions.

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