2013 McIDAS Users' Group Meeting 9-12 September 2013

All MUG Meeting activities will take place at Union South and the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. [Google map] All times below are subject to change.

Monday 9 September:
Day 1 of the meeting, and the first of two days of presentations and discussions. All events this day will take place at Union South. Registration will take place from noon until 1:00 p.m. The meeting will run from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., followed by the working reception from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday 10 September:
Day 2 of the meeting consists of presentations and discussions. Continental breakfast will take place at Union South from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. The presentations and discussions will run from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Union South.

The following items are among those planned for the meeting (subject to change).

• SSEC McIDAS Presentations:
  • MUG Status and Future Plans
  • McIDAS-X 2013 Demonstration
  • McIDAS-XCD Status
  • SDI-104 Status
  • McIDAS-V Demonstration
• Invited Speakers' Presentations:
  • Current Status of Operational Satellites
  • Future GOES Satellites
  • User talks on how McIDAS is used at their site(s)

McIDAS Training Sessions

Wednesday 11 September:
Day 3 of the meeting is optional and requires an additional training fee to have been paid at registration. This day is devoted to a full day of McIDAS training. Continental breakfast will take place from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m at SSEC, and the McIDAS training will run from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at DoIT (which is across the street from SSEC).

Thursday 12 September:
Day 4 of the meeting is optional and requires an additional training fee to have been paid at registration. This day is devoted to a full day of McIDAS training. Continental breakfast will take place from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. at SSEC, and the McIDAS training will run from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at DoIT (which is across the street from SSEC).

The three training sessions that will be offered - McIDAS-V Beginner, McIDAS-V Advanced, and ADDE Programming - are each one day long, so you can attend one or two of them during the two days that training is offered. The Beginner session is offered only on September 11th, and the Programming session is offered only on September 12th. The Advanced session is offered on both September 11th and 12th, and is the same on both days. This arrangement allows beginning McIDAS-V users to take the beginning plus either the advanced or programming session over the course of two days, while programmers or advanced McIDAS-V users can skip the beginner material and complete the programming or advanced material in just one day (or can do both of those sessions in two days). See the descriptions below for more information about their content. Training sessions are limited to 40 per session. SSEC reserves the right to modify or cancel the meeting and training sessions due to low attendance.

The McIDAS-V Beginner session format will be similar to the training offered at the 2012 MUG Meeting. We will again use the McIDAS-V tutorials to provide step-by-step instructions on how to utilize the features of McIDAS-V. We will review examples and problem sets in the tutorials and also provide additional time for student questions and exploration. The basic topics include how to use Satellite Imagery, Hyperspectral Data, Radar, Point Observations, and Gridded Data within McIDAS-V. This session will be geared to users who have little to no McIDAS-V experience. If you're already a somewhat proficient McIDAS-V user or have had similar beginner training in the past, we recommend that you take the Advanced session.

The McIDAS-V Advanced session picks up where the beginner training left off. This session begins by discussing formulas and then concentrates on background processing, which includes running bundles and writing Jython scripts to create products. An overview of commonly used functions will be presented along with a demonstration of their usage within sample scripts. Students will then be given the opportunity to complete exercises designed to reinforce the presented material. There will be time at the end of the session for questions regarding scripting needs at your site.

The ADDE Programming session focuses on methods of writing ADDE servers in C or Fortran so you can display and analyze your geophysical data in McIDAS-V and McIDAS-X, as well as make it available to other McIDAS users. Topics covered include "Overview of the ADDE", "Creating an ADDE server", and "Configuring a machine to provide data to your users".

For more information about the 2013 MUG Meeting, send e-mail to Nancy Troxel-Hoehn or call her at (608) 263-6721.

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