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 libgis and OpenGL technologies.
19 The software source code for Ubuntu and other operating systems is available for
20 download on the RHLUG server at git://lug.rose-hulman.edu/proj/aweather.
22 AWeather relies upon the following dependencies: http://www.ijg.org/[jpeg],
23 http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/hdf4.html[hdf4], http://www.gnome.org/[libsoup] 2.26 or
24 later and http://www.gtk.org/[gtk+] 2.16 or later
26 Compiled packages of the software are currently available for the Gentoo,
27 Debian, and Microsoft Windows operating systems.
29 The program currently provides data viewing from the standard one dimensional
30 plan view to user-defined three-dimensional dynamic views of current and recent
33 The software was developed and is maintained by Andy Spencer. He may be
34 contacted through e-mail at andy753421@gmail.com and chat through IRC at #rhlug
40 AWeather is provided as free software according to the terms of the GNU General
41 Public License (version 3 or later) as published by the Free Software Foundation
42 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/).
45 Data types and sources
46 ----------------------
47 AWeather displays U.S. National Weather Service NEXt generation RADar data
48 (NEXRAD) Level II data. This is the highest resolution form of radar data
49 available in the public domain and consists of multiple tilts of data updated
50 every 5 to 10 minutes depending on the current scan mode of each radar.
52 The following Level II data types are supported by this program:
54 Base reflectivity (power return of current precipitation intensity)
56 Base velocity (Doppler-derived speed and direction of radar returns)
58 Spectrum width (The variation of velocity detected within each radar pixel or
62 Level II data has been available through private weather data vendors for some
63 time but recently has been generously provided by some universities.
65 AWeather requires an active internet connection along with a data feed source in
66 order to retrieve, decode and display current or recent radar data.
68 The default radar feed is publically accessible thanks to Iowa State University
69 and is located at: http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/data/nexrd2/raw/.
74 AWeather consists of a graphical user interface window that contains a file menu
75 bar, a button bar, a date and time side bar, a large map and data viewing pane
76 and a bottom data status bar.
79 The file menu commands
80 ----------------------
81 The program file nenu consists of 3 entries:
85 Offline:: stops the program from downloading data through the internet
86 Preferences:: opens the preferences window, which contains the following
92 Offline checkbox:::: if selected keeps the program from connecting
94 Initial site listbox:::: allows the user to select a default radar site
95 to jump to when the program loads
96 Debug level text box:::: allows the user to select what level of
97 debugging the program should conduct while
98 running (7 is recommended only for debugging)
103 elev checkbox:::: ???
105 map checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle the map overlays
106 radar checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle the radar data
107 sat checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle satellite data
108 test checkbox:::: ???
110 Clean cache:: removes data files from the program's internal cache
111 Quit:: closes the program window and exits from memory
116 Zoom in:: decreases the viewing area
117 Zoom out:: increases the viewing area
118 Fullscreen:: maximizes the window and only displays the button menu bar along
119 with the map and data viewing pane
120 Refresh:: reloads the current display
125 Contents:: displays this documentation of program operation and features
126 About:: contains current program version, copyright, development site,
127 credits and licensing information
132 The program button bar contains 6 options:
135 Magnifying glass with plus sign:: decreases the viewing area
136 Magnifying glass with minus sign:: increases the viewing area
137 Window icon with expanding arrows:: Toggles between fullscreen and normal viewing modes
138 Plug button:: toggles between offline and online program mode
139 Circular arrow button:: reloads the current display
140 Wrench and screwdriver button:: Opens the preferences window
143 The date and time side bar
144 --------------------------
145 The date and time side bar resides on the right side of the program window, it contains:
147 * The date button, which reveals a calendar of the current month when clicked
149 * The time button, which reveals a list of each hour when clicked
151 ** Clicking on an hour will reveal a list of times in 5 minute intervals that
152 the user can select to load radar data from
155 The map and data viewing pane
156 -----------------------------
157 On program startup and when zoomed far from the earth's surface AWeather
158 displays a national radar composite image.
160 As the user zooms closer to the earth AWeather will automatically activate
163 The radar data will be plotted on the map while the scan and product information
164 will be displayed at the bottom of the program.
166 All active radar sites will show as tabs while site's available tilt and product
167 data will display to the right of the tab.
169 Simply click on a button to display that product/tilt in the map window.
171 An isosurface slider is shown below the product/tilt buttons. Slide the
172 selector to reveal the rendered isosurface structure of the selected
175 A color scale will automatically appear at the top left corner of the map window
176 corresponding to each available product.
179 Panning, zooming and tilt functions
180 -----------------------------------
181 AWeather supports the use of the mouse and keyboard commands to change the map
186 Left click and drag::: Pan the surface of the earth
187 Middle click and drag::: Zoom toward or away from the earth
188 Right click and drag::: Rotate the camera left or right
196 i, +, Scroll Up::: Zoom in
197 o, -, Scroll Down::: Zoom out
198 J::: Rotate camera toward earth
199 K::: Rotate camera toward sky
200 H::: Rotate camera left
201 L::: Rotate camera right
202 w::: Draw wire frame of the earth (for debugging)
203 q::: Exit the program
204 Tab::: Cycle through available plugins
205 CTRL+R::: Refresh the display
210 The following commands can help advanced users take full advantage of the
213 aweather [*-hoaf*] [-d 'level'] [-s 'site'] [-t 'time']
218 *-d*, *--debug*='level'::
219 Change default log level*, a debug level ranges from 0 to 5. A debug
220 level of 5 is recommended only for debugging purposes.
222 *-s*, *--site*='site'::
223 Set initial site. The site should be given as a WSR88D site code such
226 *-t*, *--time*='time'::
227 Set initial time. The time format should be provided in the
228 *YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM* format.
231 Run in offline mode, AWeather will not attempt to connect to the
232 internet to download radar files but will show the closest matching
235 *-a*, *--autoupdate*::
236 Run in autoupdate mode, AWeather will periodically poll data servers
237 for updated information.
239 *-f*, *--fullscreen*::
240 Run in fullscreen mode, AWeather start up using the entire screen as he
241 main display area. Toolbars and side panels are hidden by default and
246 The author intends to develop additional features in the future as time and
249 Some of these enhancements include:
251 * Vertical cross sections, volume display
252 * Support for derived L3 data (storm relative motion, echo tops, composite
254 * Additional data sources for watches, warnings, surface data, etc
255 * Auto-updating of data
257 * A 3D volume browser
258 * API for radar algorithms
259 * Additional features
261 // vim: ft=asciidoc ts=4 tw=80