mdrdec

Sections

NAME
SYNOPSIS
PARAMETERS
DESCRIPTION
EXAMPLES
FILES
SEE ALSO

NAME

mdrdec - MDR radar data conversion program

PARAMETERS

Command Line	Resource	Default	Description
-h	help	No	Lists basic help information.
-df=filename	default	wxp.cfg	Sets the name of the resource file.
-na=name	name	mdrdec	Specifies the name used in resource file parsing.
-me=level	message	out2	Specifies level of messages to be displayed file information - mess decoded output -out3a MDR information and status - out3c not in database - out3c primary MDR information - out4a echo data - out4c
-fp=path	file_path	the current directory	Specifies location of database files.
-dp=path	data_path	the current directory	Specifies the location of the input raw data files.
-cp=path	con_path	the current directory	Specifies location of decoded/converted data files
-nc=name_conv	name_conv	name.cnv or name_conv file	This sets which name convention file to use.
-in=input	input	program specific	Specifies the type of the input data.
-if=in_file	in_file	mdr_dat	Specifies the input file name tag.
-of=out_file	out_file	mdr_cvt	Specifies the output file name tag.
-ou=output	output	wxp	Specifies what type of output file is to be created: wxp - WXP ASCII converted file. cdf - NetCDF binary converted file.
-cf=filename	city_file	rad.cty	Specifies the name of the city database file
-cu=[hour]	current	none	This specifies to use current data files.
-ho=hour	hour	none	Specifies the exact hour that a data file is valid for.
-pa=param[,param...]	parameter	none	Specifies addition parameters to program.
filename (positional)	filename	none	Specify input filename

DESCRIPTION

The intent of the radar data conversion process is to decode MDR (Manually Digitized Radar) data for future plotting and to create a national radar summary based on radar site echo information.

The program decodes the MDR data for the following information:

Radar site identifier,
Report time,
Report type, (area,line,no echoes,not available,etc.)
Area coverage in percent,
Type of precipitation, (rain,snow,thunderstorms,etc.)
Intensity,
Trend, (increasing or decreasing intensity)
Location of precipitation,
MDR echoes taken from local grid.

Then using the rad.cty file to determine the location of the radar site, a radar summary of the continental United States is constructed from the MDR echo data. This summary lies on a 120 (east-west) by 90 (north-south) grid that is then saved into the output converted file in a format compatible with the radar summary display program. The additional decoded data is saved to the output file for annotating the radar summary.

The radcvt program will first prompt the user for the input raw data file. This file should contain the MDR (SDUS) reports for a given time. It is recommended that these files be split up on hourly boundaries since this type of data is reported once an hour. The user may specify the input file either via the command line of through the resrc:current resource. The input naming convention is specified by the mdr_dat tag but this can be changed with the resrc:in_file resource.

Once the input file is determined, the program determines the decode time from the filename specified or that of the current resource. Once the input file is set, the output converted file is opened for output. The name convention is determined from the mdr_cvt file convention tag. If the converted file exists, the user will be prompted whether to overwrite, append or use the existing file. The append option leaves the current data in the converted file and adds the new station data onto the end of the file. If the use option is specified, the converted file is not modified and the surface data conversion program exits.

There are two types of output data file types available. The ASCII wxp Flat file data type saves all available information in a columnar format which may be edited with a standard text editor. The netCDF data format is a binary format which may be produced by specifying cdf for the output file type.

EXAMPLES

mdrdec -cu=la -me=print
This converts the latest MDR data file and overwrites any existing file.

FILES

rad.cty - the radar site location database file