4 :Email: <Doppler5@aol.com>
7 :Website: http://lug.rose-hulman.edu/proj/aweather/
9 About and contact information
10 -----------------------------
11 AWeather was created in the summer of 2008 and functions as a NEXRAD Level II
12 radar display program. The goal of this application is to fulfill a need through
13 providing ample weather information without excessive cost and size that is not
14 limited to the Linux operating system.
16 It is written in a standard GTK+/GObject architecture and features an
17 interactive display utilizing Grits and OpenGL technologies.
19 The software source code is available for download on the RHLUG server at
20 git://lug.rose-hulman.edu/proj/aweather.
22 AWeather relies upon the following dependencies: http://www.gtk.org/[gtk+] 2.16
23 or later, http://www.gnome.org/[libsoup] 2.26 or later, http://bzip.org/[bzip],
24 http://trmm-fc.gsfc.nasa.gov/trmm_gv/software/rsl[rsl] 1.42 or later, and
27 Packaged versions of the software are currently available for Gentoo, Debian,
28 Ubuntu, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OSX operating systems.
30 The program currently provides data viewing from the standard one dimensional
31 plan view to user-defined three-dimensional dynamic views of current and recent
34 The software was developed and is maintained by Andy Spencer. He may be
35 contacted through e-mail at andy753421@gmail.com and chat through IRC at #rhlug
41 AWeather is provided as free software according to the terms of the GNU General
42 Public License (version 3 or later) as published by the Free Software Foundation
43 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/).
46 Data types and sources
47 ----------------------
48 AWeather displays U.S. National Weather Service NEXt generation RADar data
49 (NEXRAD) Level II data. This is the highest resolution form of radar data
50 available in the public domain and consists of multiple tilts of data updated
51 every 5 to 10 minutes depending on the current scan mode of each radar.
53 The following Level II data types are supported by this program:
55 - Base reflectivity (power return of current precipitation intensity)
57 - Base velocity (Doppler-derived speed and direction of radar returns)
59 - Spectrum width (The variation of velocity detected within each radar pixel or
62 - Differential Reflectivity (The ratio of the reflected horizontal and vertical
63 power returns) footnoteref:[dualpol]
65 - Differential Phase (A comparison of the phase difference between the
66 horizontal and vertical returns) footnoteref:[dualpol]
68 - Correlation Coefficient (A statistical correlation between the reflected
69 horizontal and vertical power returns) footnoteref:[dualpol,Only available at
70 WSR-88D sites that have been upgraded to support dual-polarization]
72 Level II data has been available through private weather data vendors for some
73 time but recently has been generously provided by some universities.
75 AWeather requires an active internet connection along with a data feed source in
76 order to retrieve, decode and display current or recent radar data.
78 The default radar feed is publically accessible thanks to Iowa State University
79 and is located at: http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/data/nexrd2/raw/.
81 AWeather also displays some severe weather alerts provided by the NOAA weather
82 alerts http://alerts.weather.gov/[feed].
87 AWeather consists of a graphical user interface window that contains a file menu
88 bar, a button bar, a date and time side bar, a large map and data viewing pane
89 and a bottom data status bar.
92 The file menu commands
93 ----------------------
94 The program file menu consists of 5 entries:
98 Offline:: stops the program from downloading data through the internet
99 Refresh:: reloads the current display
100 Auto-updae:: automatically refresh the the radar after a certain delay
101 Clean cache:: removes data files from the program's internal cache
102 Quit:: closes the program window and exits from memory
106 Preferences:: opens the preferences window, which contains the following
112 Offline checkbox:::: if selected keeps the program from connecting
114 Update Freq:::: sets the timeout value for automatic updating
115 Initial site listbox:::: allows the user to select a default radar site
116 to jump to when the program loads
117 NEXRAD URL text box:::: allows the user to select a different server to
118 download Level-II NEXRAD data from
119 Debug level text box:::: allows the user to select what level of
120 debugging the program should conduct while
121 running (7 is recommended only for debugging)
126 alert checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle the weather alerts
127 elev checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle terrain rendering
128 env checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle a blue atmosphere
129 map checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle the map overlays
130 radar checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle the radar data
131 sat checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle satellite ground images
132 test checkbox:::: used by the developers for debugging
137 Zoom in:: decreases the viewing area
138 Zoom out:: increases the viewing area
139 Fullscreen:: maximizes the window and only displays the button menu bar along
140 with the map and data viewing pane when the mouse is moved to the
145 The radar menu contains list of all the support NEXRAD radar sites sorted by
146 state. Selecting a site will zoom AWeather to that location.
151 User Guide:: displays this documentation of program operation and features
152 Man Page:: displays a HTML version of the UNIX man page
153 About:: contains current program version, copyright, development site,
154 credits and licensing information
159 The program button bar contains 6 options:
162 Magnifying glass with plus sign:: decreases the viewing area
163 Magnifying glass with minus sign:: increases the viewing area
164 Window icon with expanding arrows:: Toggles between fullscreen and normal viewing modes
165 Plug button:: toggles between offline and online program mode
166 Circular arrow button:: reloads the current display
167 Wrench and screwdriver button:: Opens the preferences window
170 The date and time side bar
171 --------------------------
172 The date and time side bar resides on the right side of the program window, it contains:
174 * The date button, which reveals a calendar of the current month when clicked
176 * The time button, which reveals a list of each hour when clicked
178 ** Clicking on an hour will reveal a list of times in 5 minute intervals that
179 the user can select to load radar data from footnote:[Radar data can only be
180 loaded if it has been previously cached or is from a recent enough date and
181 can still be obtained from the NEXRAD server]
184 The map and data viewing pane
185 -----------------------------
186 On program startup and when zoomed far from the earth's surface AWeather
187 displays a national radar composite image.
189 As the user zooms closer to the earth AWeather will automatically activate
192 The radar data will be plotted on the map while the scan and product information
193 will be displayed at the bottom of the program.
195 All active radar sites will show as tabs while site's available tilt and product
196 data will display to the right of the tab.
198 Simply click on a button to display that product/tilt in the map window.
200 An isosurface slider is shown below the product/tilt buttons. Slide the
201 selector to reveal the rendered isosurface structure of reflectivity data.
203 A color scale will automatically appear at the top left corner of the map window
204 corresponding to each available product.
207 Viewing severe weather alerts
208 ------------------------------
209 When the alert plugin is enabled, AWeather will automatically shade each county
210 that is under a weather alert in a color corresponding to the type of alert.
212 For storm based warnings, AWeather will also draw a polygon representing the
215 Individual alert types can be enabled and disabled by clicking on the toggle
216 button in the alert tab at the bottom of the screen.
218 To view more information about a particular alert, click on one the shaded
219 county or inside the polygon warning area in the viewing pane. This will bring
220 up the alert details dialog with a tab for each alert that is active for the
221 location that was clicked.
223 The alert dialog displays the alert title and valid time along with the text
224 descriptions provided by the weather service. Clicking the "Full Text" button
225 will open the full text of the alert in a web browser.
228 Panning, zooming and tilt functions
229 -----------------------------------
230 AWeather supports the use of the mouse and keyboard commands to change the map
235 Left click and drag::: Pan the surface of the earth
236 Middle click and drag::: Zoom toward or away from the earth
237 Right click and drag::: Rotate the camera left or right
245 i, +, Scroll Up::: Zoom in
246 o, -, Scroll Down::: Zoom out
247 J::: Rotate camera toward earth
248 K::: Rotate camera toward sky
249 H::: Rotate camera left
250 L::: Rotate camera right
251 w::: Draw wire frame of the earth (for debugging)
252 q::: Exit the program
253 Tab::: Cycle through available plugins
254 Escape::: Close the currently active dialog box
255 CTRL+R::: Refresh the display
260 The following command line options can help advanced users take full advantage
261 of the AWeather program:
263 aweather [*-hoaf*] [-d 'level'] [-s 'site'] [-t 'time']
268 *-d*, *--debug*='level'::
269 Change default log level*, a debug level ranges from 0 to 5. A debug
270 level of 5 is recommended only for debugging purposes.
272 *-s*, *--site*='site'::
273 Set initial site. The site should be given as a WSR88D site code such
276 *-t*, *--time*='time'::
277 Set initial time. The time format should be provided in the
278 *YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM* format.
281 Run in offline mode, AWeather will not attempt to connect to the
282 internet to download radar files but will show the closest matching
285 *-a*, *--autoupdate*::
286 Run in autoupdate mode, AWeather will periodically poll data servers
287 for updated information.
289 *-f*, *--fullscreen*::
290 Run in fullscreen mode, AWeather start up using the entire screen as he
291 main display area. Toolbars and side panels are hidden by default.
296 The author intends to develop additional features in the future as time and
299 Some of these enhancements include:
301 * Vertical cross sections
302 * Support for derived L3 data (storm relative motion, echo tops, composite
304 * Additional data sources for surface data, etc
306 * API for radar algorithms
307 * Additional features
309 // vim: ft=asciidoc ts=4 tw=80