McIDAS Programmer's Manual
Version 2015

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Scientific utilities

The McIDAS-X library provides a set of scientific utilities for computing meteorological parameters such as potential temperature, equivalent potential temperature, and mixing ratio.

The table below provides an alphabetical listing of the scientific utilities provided in McIDAS-X.

C function Fortran function Description

not available

lab

computes potential and equivalent potential temperature and mixing ratio, given the temperature, dew point, pressure, and station elevation

McAdvectParm

mcadvectparm

advects a gridded parameter

McBeta

mcbeta

computes beta parameter

McCape

mccape

computes Convective Available Potential Energy

McCoriolis

mccorfor

computes the coriolis parameter (f=2ΩsinΦ)

McDewpt

mcdewpt

computes dewpoint

McDirec

mcdirec

computes meteorological direction of wind for u- and v-components

McDiver

mcdiver

computes divergence

McDivergeParm

mcdivergeparm

compute divergence of gridded parameter

McHeatIndex

mcheatindex

computes the heat index, given the temperature and dewpoint

McHelic

mchelic

computes helicity

McHypsoP

mchypsop

integrates hypsometric equation to compute a pressure at a given height

McHypsoZ

mchypsoz

integrates hypsometric equation to compute a new height at a given pressure

McLatentHeat

mclatvap

latent heat of vaporization

McLiftCLevel

mclcl

parcel temperature and pressure at LCL

McMixing

mcrmix

mixing ratio

McPFromTheta

mcpfromtheta

returns pressure when given theta and temperature

McRelativeHumidity

mcrelativehumidity

computes the relative humidity, given the temperature and dewpoint

McSatVapor

mcsatvap

saturation vapor pressure over water

McSatVaporIce

mcsatvapi

saturation vapor pressure over ice

McSheard

mcsheard

computes shear deformation

McSndAnl

mcsndanl

computes various stability parameters, given a sounding

McSpeed

mcspeed

computes wind speed from u- and v-components

McStationPres

mcstnpres

station pressure, given altimeter and station elevation

McStretd

mcstretd

computes the stretching deformation

McTDFromMixing

mctamr

computes dew point from mixing ratio

McTempAtThetae

mctasa

temperature along saturated adiabats

McTFromTheta

mctfromtheta

returns temperature when given theta and pressure

McTheta

mctheta

potential temperature

McThetae

mcthetae

equivalent potential temperature

McThetaw

mcthetaw

wet bulb potential temperature

McUandV

mcuandv

computes wind u- and v-components

McVirtTemp

mcvirttemp

virtual temperature

McVort

mcvort

computes vorticity

McWetBulb

mcwetbulb

wet bulb temperature

McWindChill

mcwindchill

computes the wind chill, given the temperature and wind speed (old formula)

McWindChill2001

mcwindchill2001

computes the wind chill, given the temperature and wind speed (uses the 2001 algorithm)

not available

rmix

determines the mixing ratio, given the temperature and pressure


 

For more information about these scientific functions, see the online man pages provided with the McIDAS-X software.

Computing isentropic surfaces

Given the temperature, dew point and pressure, the lab function computes the following:

To compute these meteorological parameters using the pressure at the station instead of the reported pressure, which has been corrected to sea level, the lab function will automatically adjust for the pressure differences due to elevation.

The following example computes potential and equivalent potential temperatures, and mixing ratio with adjustments made to the pressure based on the height.

     double precision derived(3)   ! derived parameters
     double precision dewpt        ! dewpt in K
     double precision elev         ! elevation in meters
     double precision miss         ! missing data code
     double precision press        ! pressure in mb
     double precision temp         ! temperature in K

     temp = 292.d0
     dewpt= 289.d0
     press=1018.29
     miss=1.e35
     elev=214

C  the adjustment based on elevation is done

   call lab(temp,dewpt,press,elev,1,miss,derived,3)

C  this will return theta-e in derived(1), theta in derived(1)
C  and mixing ratio in derived(3)

C  the values returned will be:
C    derived(1) = 323.115
C    derived(2) = 292.612
C    derived(3) = 11.521

C  the adjustment based on elevation is not done

   call lab(temp,dewpt,press,elev,0,miss,derived,3)

C  the values returned will be:
C    derived(1) = 319.961
C    derived(2) = 290.491
C    derived(3) = 11.226

Computing Heat Index

Given the temperature and dew point, the functions McHeatIndex and mcheatindex will compute the heat index. The value returned will be given in the same units as the input temperature. Below is an example of the function mcheatindex.

 integer ok
    double precision temperature
    double precision dewpoint
    double precision heatindex

    temperature = 30.d0
    dewpoint    = 20.d0

    ok = mcheatindex (temperature, dewpoint, 'C', heatindex)

    if (ok .lt. 0)then
       call sdest('error calculating the heat index',0)
       return
    endif
c--- upon successful completion the value of heatindex will
c---    be 32.5 degrees Celsius 

Computing Relative Humidity

Given the temperature and dew point, the functions McRelativeHumidity and mcrelativehumidity will compute the relative humidity. The value returned will be given in the dimensionless units of percentage. Below is an example of the function mcrelativehumidity.

integer ok
    double precision temperature
    double precision dewpoint
    double precision rh
 temperature = 30.d0
    dewpoint    = 20.d0
 ok = mcrelativehumidity (temperature, dewpoint, 'C', rh)

    if (ok .lt. 0)then
       call sdest('error calculating the relative humidity',0)
       return
    endif
c--- upon successful completion the value of rh will be 55.1

Computing Wind Chill

Given the temperature and wind speed, the functions McWindChill and mcwindchill will compute the wind chill. The value returned will be given in the same units as the input temperature. Below is an example of the mcwindchill function.

 integer ok
    double precision temperature
    double precision windspeed
    double precision windchill
 temperature = 20.d0
    windspeed   = 10.d0
 ok = mcwindchill (temperature, windspeed, 'F', 'MPS',
        &                   windchill)
 if (ok .lt. 0)then
        call sdest('error calculating the wind chill',0)
        return
    endif
c---upon successful completion the value of windchill will
c---be -15 degrees Fahrenheit

Computing mixing ratio

Given a temperature, in Kelvin, and the pressure, in mb, the rmix function will return the mixing ratio. The returned value, ws, is defined as the mass of water vapor per mass of dry air. It is dimensionless, with units of g/kg. The sample code below computes the saturation mixing ratio at 0° Celsius for all pressures 100, 150, 200, 250, ... 950, 1000 mb, resulting in 40.44, 26.39, 19.59, 15.57, ... 4.02, 3.82 g/kg.

     integer i
     real temperature
     real pressure
     real mix
     temperature=273.15

     do 100 i=1000,100,-50
       pressure=float(i)
       mix=rmix(temperature,pressure)

100    continue

Computing stability parameters

Given vertical profiles of pressure, temperature, dew point, wind speed and direction, the sndanl function computes these stability indices:

Below is an example of the sndanl function.

    parameter (NLEV = 9)
    real press(NLEV)
    real temp(NLEV)
    real dewpt(NLEV)
    real dir(NLEV)
    real spd(NLEV)
    real stabil(12)

c---    get sounding data

    :

c---    assume the arrays; press, temp, dewpt, dir and spd
c---    have been initialized with the following values

c---    press(mb)  temp(K)  dewpt(K)  dir(DEG)  spd(MPS)
c---    988.0      300.0    299.8     250   1.5
c---    925.0      303.0    280.0     270   3.8
c---    850.0      297.7    269.0     285   5.6
c---    700.0      277.5    276.1     290   12.3
c---    500.0      262.1    252.1     265   13.3
c---    400.0      253.6    240.5     280   29.8
c---    300.0      237.6    226.0     280   33.4
c---    250.0      229.7    215.7     285   41.6
c---    200.0      216.3    206.3     285   45.7

c---    perform the sounding analysis for 00Z

       call sndanl (0, NLEV, press, temp, dewpt, dir, spd, stabil)

c---    upon return, the values stored in stabil will be as follows:

c---    stabil(1)   282.4   parcel dewpoint (k)
c---    stabil(2)   301.1   potential temperature (k)
c---    stabil(3)   324.1   equivalent potential temperature (k)
c---    stabil(4)     8.3   mixing ratio (g/kg)
c---    stabil(5)    23.7   precipitable water (mm)
c---    stabil(6)    32.7   convective temperature (c)
c---    stabil(7)    26.9   forecast maximum temperature (c)
c---    stabil(8)     2.7   lifted index (k)
c---    stabil(9)    33.4   total totals
c---    stabil(10)  445.5   equivalent pressure (mb)
c---    stabil(11)   20.6   k index
c---    stabil(12)   47.6   sweat index

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