====================
:Author: Jason Holmes
:Email: <Doppler5@aol.com>
-:Date: 2011-12-27
-:Revision: 0.6.1
+:Date: 2012-01-10
+:Revision: 0.6.3
:Website: http://lug.rose-hulman.edu/proj/aweather/
About and contact information
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.
+interactive display utilizing Grits 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.
+The software source code 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
+AWeather relies upon the following dependencies: http://www.gtk.org/[gtk+] 2.16
+or later, http://www.gnome.org/[libsoup] 2.26 or later, http://bzip.org/[bzip],
+http://trmm-fc.gsfc.nasa.gov/trmm_gv/software/rsl[rsl] 1.42 or later, and
+others.
-Compiled packages of the software are currently available for the Gentoo,
-Debian, and Microsoft Windows operating systems.
+Packaged versions of the software are currently available for Gentoo, Debian,
+Ubuntu, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OSX 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
+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.
The following Level II data types are supported by this program:
-Base reflectivity (power return of current precipitation intensity)
+- Base reflectivity (power return of current precipitation intensity)
-Base velocity (Doppler-derived speed and direction of radar returns)
+- Base velocity (Doppler-derived speed and direction of radar returns)
-Spectrum width (The variation of velocity detected within each radar pixel or
-bin)
+- Spectrum width (The variation of velocity detected within each radar pixel or
+ bin)
+- Differential Reflectivity (The ratio of the reflected horizontal and vertical
+ power returns) footnoteref:[dualpol]
+
+- Differential Phase (A comparison of the phase difference between the
+ horizontal and vertical returns) footnoteref:[dualpol]
+
+- Correlation Coefficient (A statistical correlation between the reflected
+ horizontal and vertical power returns) footnoteref:[dualpol,Only available at
+ WSR-88D sites that have been upgraded to support dual-polarization]
Level II data has been available through private weather data vendors for some
time but recently has been generously provided by some universities.
The default radar feed is publically accessible thanks to Iowa State University
and is located at: http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/data/nexrd2/raw/.
+AWeather also displays some severe weather alerts provided by the NOAA weather
+alerts http://alerts.weather.gov/[feed].
+
Program layout
--------------
The file menu commands
----------------------
-The program file nenu consists of 3 entries:
+The program file menu consists of 5 entries:
File
~~~~
Offline:: stops the program from downloading data through the internet
+Refresh:: reloads the current display
+Auto-updae:: automatically refresh the the radar after a certain delay
+Clean cache:: removes data files from the program's internal cache
+Quit:: closes the program window and exits from memory
+
+Edit
+~~~~
Preferences:: opens the preferences window, which contains the following
commands
[horizontal]
Offline checkbox:::: if selected keeps the program from connecting
to the internet
+ Update Freq:::: sets the timeout value for automatic updating
Initial site listbox:::: allows the user to select a default radar site
to jump to when the program loads
+ NEXRAD URL text box:::: allows the user to select a different server to
+ download Level-II NEXRAD data from
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:::: ???
+ alert checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle the weather alerts
+ elev checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle terrain rendering
+ env checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle a blue atmosphere
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
+ sat checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle satellite ground images
+ test checkbox:::: used by the developers for debugging
View
~~~~
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
+ with the map and data viewing pane when the mouse is moved to the
+ edge of the screen
+
+Radar
+~~~~~
+The radar menu contains list of all the support NEXRAD radar sites sorted by
+state. Selecting a site will zoom AWeather to that location.
Help
~~~~
[horizontal]
-Contents:: displays this documentation of program operation and features
+User Guide:: displays this documentation of program operation and features
+Man Page:: displays a HTML version of the UNIX man page
About:: contains current program version, copyright, development site,
credits and licensing information
* 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 user can select to load radar data from footnote:[Radar data can only be
+ loaded if it has been previously cached or is from a recent enough date and
+ can still be obtained from the NEXRAD server]
The map and data viewing pane
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.
+selector to reveal the rendered isosurface structure of reflectivity data.
A color scale will automatically appear at the top left corner of the map window
corresponding to each available product.
+Viewing severe weather alerts
+------------------------------
+When the alert plugin is enabled, AWeather will automatically shade each county
+that is under a weather alert in a color corresponding to the type of alert.
+
+For storm based warnings, AWeather will also draw a polygon representing the
+warning area.
+
+Individual alert types can be enabled and disabled by clicking on the toggle
+button in the alert tab at the bottom of the screen.
+
+To view more information about a particular alert, click on one the shaded
+county or inside the polygon warning area in the viewing pane. This will bring
+up the alert details dialog with a tab for each alert that is active for the
+location that was clicked.
+
+The alert dialog displays the alert title and valid time along with the text
+descriptions provided by the weather service. Clicking the "Full Text" button
+will open the full text of the alert in a web browser.
+
+
Panning, zooming and tilt functions
-----------------------------------
AWeather supports the use of the mouse and keyboard commands to change the map
w::: Draw wire frame of the earth (for debugging)
q::: Exit the program
Tab::: Cycle through available plugins
+ Escape::: Close the currently active dialog box
CTRL+R::: Refresh the display
Command Line Options
--------------------
-The following commands can help advanced users take full advantage of the
-AWeather program:
+The following command line options can help advanced users take full advantage
+of the AWeather program:
aweather [*-hoaf*] [-d 'level'] [-s 'site'] [-t 'time']
*-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
+ main display area. Toolbars and side panels are hidden by default.
Future Features
Some of these enhancements include:
- * Vertical cross sections, volume display
+ * Vertical cross sections
* 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
+ * Additional data sources for surface data, etc
* Animation support
- * A 3D volume browser
* API for radar algorithms
* Additional features
projects / aweather / commitdiff