AWeather Users Guide ==================== :Author: Jason Holmes :Email: :Date: 2011-12-27 :Revision: 0.6.1 :Website: http://lug.rose-hulman.edu/proj/aweather/ About and contact information ----------------------------- AWeather was created in the summer of 2008 and functions as a NEXRAD Level II radar display program. The goal of this application is to fulfill a need through providing ample weather information without excessive cost and size that is not limited to the Linux operating system. It is written in a standard GTK+/GObject architecture and features an interactive display utilizing libgis and OpenGL technologies. The software source code for Ubuntu and other operating systems is available for download on the RHLUG server at git://lug.rose-hulman.edu/proj/aweather. AWeather relies upon the following dependencies: http://www.ijg.org/[jpeg], http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/hdf4.html[hdf4], http://www.gnome.org/[libsoup] 2.26 or later and http://www.gtk.org/[gtk+] 2.16 or later Compiled packages of the software are currently available for the Gentoo, Debian, and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The program currently provides data viewing from the standard one dimensional plan view to user-defined three-dimensional dynamic views of current and recent radar data. The software was developed and is maintained by Andy Spencer. He may be contacted through e-mail at andy753421@gmail.com and chat through IRC at #rhlug on irc.freenode.net. Licensing information --------------------- AWeather is provided as free software according to the terms of the GNU General Public License (version 3 or later) as published by the Free Software Foundation (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/). Data types and sources ---------------------- AWeather displays U.S. National Weather Service NEXt generation RADar data (NEXRAD) Level II data. This is the highest resolution form of radar data available in the public domain and consists of multiple tilts of data updated every 5 to 10 minutes depending on the current scan mode of each radar. The following Level II data types are supported by this program: Base reflectivity (power return of current precipitation intensity) Base velocity (Doppler-derived speed and direction of radar returns) Spectrum width (The variation of velocity detected within each radar pixel or bin) Level II data has been available through private weather data vendors for some time but recently has been generously provided by some universities. AWeather requires an active internet connection along with a data feed source in order to retrieve, decode and display current or recent radar data. The default radar feed is publically accessible thanks to Iowa State University and is located at: http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/data/nexrd2/raw/. Program layout -------------- AWeather consists of a graphical user interface window that contains a file menu bar, a button bar, a date and time side bar, a large map and data viewing pane and a bottom data status bar. The file menu commands ---------------------- The program file nenu consists of 3 entries: File ~~~~ Offline:: stops the program from downloading data through the internet Preferences:: opens the preferences window, which contains the following commands General tab::: [horizontal] Offline checkbox:::: if selected keeps the program from connecting to the internet Initial site listbox:::: allows the user to select a default radar site to jump to when the program loads Debug level text box:::: allows the user to select what level of debugging the program should conduct while running (7 is recommended only for debugging) Plugins tab::: [horizontal] elev checkbox:::: ??? env checkbox:::: ??? map checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle the map overlays radar checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle the radar data sat checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle satellite data test checkbox:::: ??? Clean cache:: removes data files from the program's internal cache Quit:: closes the program window and exits from memory View ~~~~ [horizontal] Zoom in:: decreases the viewing area Zoom out:: increases the viewing area Fullscreen:: maximizes the window and only displays the button menu bar along with the map and data viewing pane Refresh:: reloads the current display Help ~~~~ [horizontal] Contents:: displays this documentation of program operation and features About:: contains current program version, copyright, development site, credits and licensing information The button bar -------------- The program button bar contains 6 options: [horizontal] Magnifying glass with plus sign:: decreases the viewing area Magnifying glass with minus sign:: increases the viewing area Window icon with expanding arrows:: Toggles between fullscreen and normal viewing modes Plug button:: toggles between offline and online program mode Circular arrow button:: reloads the current display Wrench and screwdriver button:: Opens the preferences window The date and time side bar -------------------------- The date and time side bar resides on the right side of the program window, it contains: * The date button, which reveals a calendar of the current month when clicked * The time button, which reveals a list of each hour when clicked ** Clicking on an hour will reveal a list of times in 5 minute intervals that the user can select to load radar data from The map and data viewing pane ----------------------------- On program startup and when zoomed far from the earth's surface AWeather displays a national radar composite image. As the user zooms closer to the earth AWeather will automatically activate nearby radar sites. The radar data will be plotted on the map while the scan and product information will be displayed at the bottom of the program. All active radar sites will show as tabs while site's available tilt and product data will display to the right of the tab. Simply click on a button to display that product/tilt in the map window. An isosurface slider is shown below the product/tilt buttons. Slide the selector to reveal the rendered isosurface structure of the selected product/tilt. A color scale will automatically appear at the top left corner of the map window corresponding to each available product. Panning, zooming and tilt functions ----------------------------------- AWeather supports the use of the mouse and keyboard commands to change the map window settings. Mouse usage:: [horizontal] Left click and drag::: Pan the surface of the earth Middle click and drag::: Zoom toward or away from the earth Right click and drag::: Rotate the camera left or right Keyboard shortcuts:: [horizontal] h::: Pan left j::: Pan down k::: Pan up l::: Pan right i, +, Scroll Up::: Zoom in o, -, Scroll Down::: Zoom out J::: Rotate camera toward earth K::: Rotate camera toward sky H::: Rotate camera left L::: Rotate camera right w::: Draw wire frame of the earth (for debugging) q::: Exit the program Tab::: Cycle through available plugins CTRL+R::: Refresh the display Command Line Options -------------------- The following commands can help advanced users take full advantage of the AWeather program: aweather [*-hoaf*] [-d 'level'] [-s 'site'] [-t 'time'] *-h*, *--help*:: Show usage. *-d*, *--debug*='level':: Change default log level*, a debug level ranges from 0 to 5. A debug level of 5 is recommended only for debugging purposes. *-s*, *--site*='site':: Set initial site. The site should be given as a WSR88D site code such as KLSX. *-t*, *--time*='time':: Set initial time. The time format should be provided in the *YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM* format. *-o*, *--offline*:: Run in offline mode, AWeather will not attempt to connect to the internet to download radar files but will show the closest matching cached file. *-a*, *--autoupdate*:: Run in autoupdate mode, AWeather will periodically poll data servers for updated information. *-f*, *--fullscreen*:: Run in fullscreen mode, AWeather start up using the entire screen as he main display area. Toolbars and side panels are hidden by default and Future Features --------------- The author intends to develop additional features in the future as time and conditions allow. Some of these enhancements include: * Vertical cross sections, volume display * Support for derived L3 data (storm relative motion, echo tops, composite reflectivity, etc) * Additional data sources for watches, warnings, surface data, etc * Auto-updating of data * Animation support * A 3D volume browser * API for radar algorithms * Additional features // vim: ft=asciidoc ts=4 tw=80