We're looking at ways to display aircraft flight track data in McIDAS-V. We'd like to show not only the current aircraft position but also where it has been throughout the duration of its flight. Here's an example generated with complex scripts within Mc-X showing only the recent 30 mins of flight track, but one could imagine showing the entire flight track behind the aircraft. Is this type of display at all possible in Mc-V?
http://cloudsgate2.larc.nasa.gov/uprod/ ... KM.VIS.gif
current and past flight track display
Re: current and past flight track display
Hi Kris -
It is possible to create these types of displays in McIDAS-V. To do so, you would use the Trajectory Colored By Parameter display type. Here's a quick example:
This file here is a CSV-like file that uses a space as the delimiter instead of a comma. It has four columns: time, latitude, longitude, and pressure. I added a header to the file so it can easily be loaded into McIDAS-V. You can load this file through the General>Files/Directories chooser with the 'Text Point and Trajectory Data files' Data type. Once you get to the Field Selector, expand the Track tree and select the Pressure field. In the Displays panel, select the GridTrajectory > Trajectory Colored By Parameter display type and click Create Display.
At this point, in the Main Display window, play through the loop and you will see the path of the trajectory draw out through time, colored by pressure.
There are various items in the Layer Controls that you can use to control the width of the track line as well as the length of the track by time (allowing you to only show the most recent 30 minutes of the track only as was used in your example). If you want an airplane added to the track, you can create a separate Point Data Plot display and create a layout model using the '2-D Airplane' shape. One thing to note about this is that the airplane doesn't face in the direction of the track, it just faces north at each timestep.
If you have any further questions about this, please let me know.
Thanks -
Bob Carp
It is possible to create these types of displays in McIDAS-V. To do so, you would use the Trajectory Colored By Parameter display type. Here's a quick example:
sandy.txt- (1.63 KiB) Downloaded 314 times
This file here is a CSV-like file that uses a space as the delimiter instead of a comma. It has four columns: time, latitude, longitude, and pressure. I added a header to the file so it can easily be loaded into McIDAS-V. You can load this file through the General>Files/Directories chooser with the 'Text Point and Trajectory Data files' Data type. Once you get to the Field Selector, expand the Track tree and select the Pressure field. In the Displays panel, select the GridTrajectory > Trajectory Colored By Parameter display type and click Create Display.
At this point, in the Main Display window, play through the loop and you will see the path of the trajectory draw out through time, colored by pressure.
There are various items in the Layer Controls that you can use to control the width of the track line as well as the length of the track by time (allowing you to only show the most recent 30 minutes of the track only as was used in your example). If you want an airplane added to the track, you can create a separate Point Data Plot display and create a layout model using the '2-D Airplane' shape. One thing to note about this is that the airplane doesn't face in the direction of the track, it just faces north at each timestep.
If you have any further questions about this, please let me know.
Thanks -
Bob Carp