McIdas V and hurricane tracking map ?

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francoisborel
Posts: 75
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2016 6:21 pm

McIdas V and hurricane tracking map ?

Post by francoisborel »

Good morning everyone,

I would like to know if it is possible, with McIdas V 1.6, to make a map (with my viewpoint) with the track of a storm ?

Thank you for all...

Cheers
françois
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jayh
Posts: 424
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:34 pm

Re: McIdas V and hurricane tracking map ?

Post by jayh »

Hi Francois-

I believe you would need to display your hurricane track information to plot the track of a storm. Then you could reproject it in any way you'd like and save the viewpoint or domain. What type of hurricane track data do you have? You can import a text file and assign parameters with our text file import tool. Also this forum thread gives some idea on how Track Files work McIDAS-V.

I hope this information helps. Let us know if you have further questions.

Thanks, Jay
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francoisborel
Posts: 75
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2016 6:21 pm

Re: McIdas V and hurricane tracking map ?

Post by francoisborel »

Good morning Jay,

Thank you for your help. Okay i began to try to use. I saw too that it's possible to import kmz/kml files, but they did'nt give me the result that i wait for.

Is it possible for you to give an simple example of text file, which allow me to display three points on a McIdas map, for example :
14N 55W
15N 58W
16N 62W

Just an example of a text file with a correct structure, just for display this three points ?

With that, i will be able to begin to learn how to do that..

I thank you again.

Cheers
françois
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bobc
Posts: 988
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 5:57 pm

Re: McIdas V and hurricane tracking map ?

Post by bobc »

Hello -

These text files are actually fairly simple to write and work with in McIDAS-V. For example, you can create a text file (I called mine francois.txt) that has these lines:

Code: Select all

14,-55
15,-58
16,-62

Note that west longitudes are negative. Here are some steps for how to load this file:
  1. From the General>Files/Directories chooser, select the Text Point Data Files data type, your text file, and click Add Source.
  2. The Point Data window that appears is where you tell McIDAS-V what each of the columns are. At the top, select the Comma delimiter, which tells McV what character separates the columns of data.
  3. Closer to the bottom of the screen, next to the top value (14 in this case), and enter "Latitude" (without the quotes) in the Name column.
  4. Hit the Tab button on the keyboard to move to the cursor to the Unit/Date Format menu, which should automatically populate with "degrees"
  5. If you know that you are going to be loading several files with the same format as this one, you can save off everything you entered by clicking the Preferences button and selecting Save Current. In the Saved Meta Data window, enter a name (e.g. Lat/Lon Points) and click OK. The next time you load this francois.txt file, just select Preferences>Lat/Lon Points and the Point Data window will populate itself appropriately.
  6. Click OK in the Point Data window.
  7. In the Field Selector, select the Point Data field, the Point Data Plot display type, and click Create Display.

If you would prefer to avoid this Point Data window as a whole, you can add a header to the text file. McIDAS-V has the ability to create them. In step 5 above, when you click Preferences there's an option for Write Header. Select this, enter a name for the file (e.g. francois_header.txt), and click OK. This writes out only the header to a new text file, so you must go into the file and copy/paste your original columns of text into the header file to make much use of it. This makes the file look like:

Code: Select all

(index)->(Latitude,Longitude)
Latitude[unit="degrees"],Longitude[unit="degrees"]
14,-55
15,-58
16,-62

Now, you can go to the General>Files/Directories chooser, select the Text Point Data Files data type, choose your francois_header.txt file, click Add Source, and go about working with the data.

You can find more examples in the Text (ASCII) Point Data Format page of the User's Guide. This page is a good reference because it explains how to do more complex things than what you asked for.

Thanks -
Bob Carp
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bobc
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Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 5:57 pm

Re: McIdas V and hurricane tracking map ?

Post by bobc »

As a followup, you could also choose the "Text Point and Trajectory Data files" data type and select either the original text file or the one with the header (the process of loading the file is the same as my last post). A benefit of this data type is that there's an option for Track>default in the Fields panel of the Field Selector. With this field, there are a couple things you can do:

  1. With your file as-is with no date/time information, choose the Track Colored By Parameter display type and hit Create Display. This will create a display of a line connecting the three data points. If you had a 3rd column in your file for a physical parameter such as wind speed, the track could be colored by wind speed... but with the current state of the file it will just be a solid-colored line.
  2. If each point had a unique timestep associated with it, you could choose the GridTrajectory>Trajectory Colored By Parameter display type. This will allow you to create a display that will create a track that progresses through time. Something like this (a trajectory from Hurricane Joaquin in 2015):
    Animated GIF of hurricane track
    Animated GIF of hurricane track

- Bob
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francoisborel
Posts: 75
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2016 6:21 pm

Re: McIdas V and hurricane tracking map ?

Post by francoisborel »

Good morning Bob,

Oh thank you a lot, you are very helpful. I understood most of what you explain. Very clear, thank you.
I attach a picture exemple_fb.jpg of what i was able to do ...

I need to go farther and i try something that not work. I put a third parameter in my file. The wind. And i did like this :

Text file example :
14.8,-55.1,70
14.6,-56.0,45
14.5,-56.8,50
14.3,-57.8,45
14.2,-58.8,50

I choose the good data type, and in the point data properties i did :
Latitude and Longitude in name column (with degrees for the format)
And give the name Wind to the third data which appear, with format : text
And i clicked on OK

When i arrive in the Filed Selector, in the Field select box, i have only the name "point data".
See attached file point_data.jpg

What i search to do is to make, like the attached example, a map with (according to the wind) :
- the tropical storm or hurricane layout model and the line junction (one color)
- OR : only points with the color scale on the line junction

And i would like to export in a jpg picture or an animated gif like you show me..

Is it possible to help me for that ?

I thank you a lot... Perhaps i'm closer to the solution but my very poor english doesn't help me ...

Have a nice day
françois
Attachments
point_data.jpg
exemple_fb.jpg
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bobc
Posts: 988
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 5:57 pm

Re: McIdas V and hurricane tracking map ?

Post by bobc »

Hello -

Can you please attach your fichier_track.txt file to a response?

Also, can you please send a screen shot of your Point Data window where you are specifying what the columns of data are?

Thanks -
Bob
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francoisborel
Posts: 75
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2016 6:21 pm

Re: McIdas V and hurricane tracking map ?

Post by francoisborel »

Hello again

I'm sorry. Here are the two files..

Note : I have some problem with my browser, so i put on your ftp a file named francois_1905.zip with these two files..

Thank you
françois
Attachments
fichier_track.txt
(448 Bytes) Downloaded 333 times
capture_point_data_window.jpg
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bobc
Posts: 988
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 5:57 pm

Re: McIdas V and hurricane tracking map ?

Post by bobc »

Hello -

You are close. In your Point Data window, can you change the way you are defining your wind speed field? For example:
PointDataWindow.jpg

Enter the parameter name of 'Speed' in the third row. To get valid units of wind speed, you can click the downwards facing blue arrow to the right of the Unit/Date Format text entry field for wind speed and mouse over the Speed menu. I chose mi/hr, but select whatever unit is actually being used in the file. It looks like you have the your layout model plotted correctly, as all of the points are plotting as a tropical storm.

Once you have your file loaded and are in the Field Selector, you can plot a line connecting the points by selecting Track>Speed and then the Track Colored By Parameter display type. Once you create the display, it will probably use the 'Windspeed' enhancement, which has multiple colors in it. You can change to a System>Solid Color enhancement to make the whole track colored by one solid color.

If you wanted to display the track as a loop through time, you will need to add another column to your text file for time, where each point has a unique date/timestep. For example, you can see Track2.txt:
Track2.txt
(1.45 KiB) Downloaded 355 times

As an example of how to load this data, in the Point Data window (with the Text Point and Trajectory Data files data type), enter the following:
PointDataWindow2.jpg

Note the lower-case and upper-case being used in for the Unit/Date Format of the Time. You can see more about how this is done here.

Once your display is created, you can capture a still image by going to View>Capture>Image in the Main Display. A movie (including an animated GIF) can be captured by going to View>Capture>Movie in the Main Display. See more on the Image and Movie Capture Controls page of the User's Guide.

If any of this is unclear, please let me know.

Thanks -
Bob
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francoisborel
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Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2016 6:21 pm

Re: McIdas V and hurricane tracking map ?

Post by francoisborel »

Hello Bob

No, you are very clear and now i'm able to do the color line and the animated gif...

I thank you for all !!

My issue is closed.

Cheers
françois
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