Problem reading in geotiff with version 1.6

[Bernie Connell]

First - Thanks for updating the feature of reading the date/time from the file for the geotiff files!
I'm working with geotiff images that tend to be huge, so to be able to read more than one, we grab a subsection using the software GDAL.
Because we're dealing with imagery from South America, sometimes we want to stitch images together and then take a smaller sector. With the 1.5 version of McIDAS-V, we could read in all three sample images. With the new version 1.6, I can't read in the "..central.." file
You can find sample images here: ftp://ftp.cira.colostate.edu/ftp/connell/test_files/
The GoesEast*.tif file is the "original" file
The *Barbados.tif file is subsected
and the *Central.tif " file is mosaiced and subsected.

Here is the error information:
Creating display: Image Display
invalid date string: *

visad.VisADException: invalid date string: *
at visad.DateTime.createDateTime(DateTime.java:510)
at visad.DateTime.createDateTime(DateTime.java:486)
at ucar.unidata.data.gis.GeotiffAdapter.extractDateTime(GeotiffAdapter.java:258)
at ucar.unidata.data.gis.GeotiffAdapter.createData(GeotiffAdapter.java:235)
at ucar.unidata.data.gis.GeotiffAdapter.getDataAsGrid(GeotiffAdapter.java:172)
at ucar.unidata.data.gis.GeotiffDataSource.getDataInner(GeotiffDataSource.java:259)
at ucar.unidata.data.DataSourceImpl.getData(DataSourceImpl.java:2399)
at ucar.unidata.data.DirectDataChoice.getData(DirectDataChoice.java:333)
at ucar.unidata.data.DerivedDataChoice.setData(DerivedDataChoice.java:650)
at ucar.unidata.data.DerivedDataChoice.collectOperands(DerivedDataChoice.java:601)
at ucar.unidata.data.DerivedDataChoice.getData(DerivedDataChoice.java:753)
at ucar.unidata.data.DataChoice.getData(DataChoice.java:628)
at ucar.unidata.data.DataInstance.getData(DataInstance.java:243)
at ucar.unidata.data.DataInstance.getData(DataInstance.java:207)
at ucar.unidata.data.grid.GridDataInstance.init(GridDataInstance.java:206)
at ucar.unidata.data.grid.GridDataInstance.<init>(GridDataInstance.java:163)
at ucar.unidata.data.grid.GridDataInstance.<init>(GridDataInstance.java:144)
at ucar.unidata.idv.control.GridDisplayControl.doMakeDataInstance(GridDisplayControl.java:313)
at ucar.unidata.idv.control.DisplayControlImpl.initializeDataInstance(DisplayControlImpl.java:3320)
at ucar.unidata.idv.control.DisplayControlImpl.setData(DisplayControlImpl.java:3276)
at ucar.unidata.idv.control.PlanViewControl.setData(PlanViewControl.java:664)
at ucar.unidata.idv.control.ImagePlanViewControl.setData(ImagePlanViewControl.java:154)
at edu.wisc.ssec.mcidasv.control.ImagePlanViewControl.setData(ImagePlanViewControl.java:343)
at ucar.unidata.idv.control.PlanViewControl.init(PlanViewControl.java:489)
at edu.wisc.ssec.mcidasv.control.ImagePlanViewControl.init(ImagePlanViewControl.java:185)
at ucar.unidata.idv.control.DisplayControlImpl.init(DisplayControlImpl.java:1442)
at ucar.unidata.idv.control.DisplayControlImpl.init(DisplayControlImpl.java:1116)
at ucar.unidata.idv.ControlDescriptor.initControl(ControlDescriptor.java:986)
at ucar.unidata.idv.ControlDescriptor$1.run(ControlDescriptor.java:911)
at ucar.unidata.util.Misc$3.run(Misc.java:1243)

Is there an easy fix on the McV end for the file that is not reading in "*Central.tif"?

[barryr]

Hi Bernie,
Thanks for this report. It appears that this problem is related to the value of the geotiff metadata's dateTime string and was introduced in McV 1.6 when the code changes were made for inquiry 2112.

I wrote up a new inquiry (2410) to have this problem fixed. Unfortunately we don't know of a workaround in McV other than waiting for the fix to appear in an upcoming nightly release.

Thanks again,
Barry

[bobc]

Hi Bernie -

I just wanted to follow up and let you know that a fix for your GeoTIFF problem is in today's 1.7beta1 nightly build. You can pick up a 1.7beta1 installer on the following webpage:

http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mcidas/software/v/unstable/

The login and password are both: mcv

Your *Central.tif file can now be read in and displayed, but no timestamp information (in the Time Animation Widget or the layer label) is available since the DateTime in the GeoTIFF is set as "*" instead of containing any valid date/time information. Note that this 1.7beta1 build is built every morning with the previous day's programming commits and therefore it isn't tested and there may be some bugs. If you give the 1.7beta1 build a try and run into any problems with your GeoTIFF files (or anything else) please let us know.

Thanks -
Bob Carp
McIDAS Help Desk