No winds above 150 hpa level

[Cloudy]

In McIDAS-V version 1.8 with grb2 file from NOMADS (GFS quarter degree) I plot wind in plan view in any of its modes (streamline, isotachs, wind barbs) and it does it correctly up to 150 hpa level. Above this level it stops plotting the wind, although I can read the intensity with the mouse. This happens not only with the wind but with all the other variables. I am doing something wrong? many thanks

[bobc]

Hello,

I tried some GFS global 0.25 degree data in core 1.8 and I was able to plot trajectories and other plan view displays above 150 hPa.

One thing I noticed is that, by default, the wireframe box goes up to 16km vertically. This is generally somewhere between 150 and 100 hPa, so any level above 150 hPa may plot above the box. While these displays should still be visible by default, there's a preference in McIDAS-V to "Clip View at Box" which would not show any vectors/displays outside of the box.

In the Main Display Window, can you go to View > Show and see if you have "Clip View At Box" enabled? If it is, try disabling it and see if the vectors and other displays become visible.

If this doesn't help, could you please post a link to the data you're working with or post a file to our ftp server? Here are instructions for posting to our ftp server from a command prompt/terminal window:

ftp ftp.ssec.wisc.edu
user: anonymous
password: email
bin
prom
cd pub/incoming
put filename
bye

Please let me know the filename if you post one.

Thanks,
Bob Carp
McIDAS User Services

[Cloudy]

Hi Bob, disabling "Clip View Box" fix the problem. same with some displays, such as CAPE index in "Color Filled Contour Plan View". many thanks.
Raul

[bobc]

Hi Raul,

Great! I'm glad that disabling this option made your data visible. If you like clipping of the wireframe box on the horizontal scale, but still want all of your vertical levels visible, you could increase the height of your wireframe box. This can be done with the "set vertical range" button on the left side of the Main Display window:

Set Vertical Range

vert.png (4.07 KiB) Viewed 4771 times

After clicking this button, you'll get a window where you can increase the "Max Value". The default Max Value is 16,000m. Just testing with GFS data, I couldn't get 100hPa temperatures to display with clipping enabled and the height of the wireframe box set to 16,000m. I bumped this level up to 20,000m and the data displayed.

Thanks for following up and please let me know if you have any other questions about McIDAS-V.

Bob

[Cloudy]

wonderful, I can see data up to 80 km. great tool for southern hemisphere stratospheric vortex. thank you.