Download McIDAS-XCD v. 2018.1

Since May 2009 SSEC has been distributing McIDAS-XCD updates as fully supported Fastrack releases. This means that the software is fully supported by SSEC, and that each change to the software has been tested on all of the supported system configurations. Prior upgrade versions were distributed once a year, normally in late-May.

The SSEC McIDAS Help Desk provides full assistance for McIDAS software questions pertaining to the current or previous issue. The Help Desk will still assist those sites that are two issues behind the current issue at a reduced capability. A complete description of your MUG support is detailed in the SSEC McIDAS Users’ Group Policy Document.  Also note that if you plan to upgrade to 2018.1 from a version earlier than the previous release (2017.2), you must first read and perform any required actions in the release documents for each of the versions you skipped so you know about their major changes and any required actions in the interim. For example, if you are upgrading from version 2015.2 to 2018.1, you must first read and perform the required actions in the release documents for versions 2016.2 and 2017.2 before proceeding to 2018.1. See the past versions page for links to those and other materials from past versions.

A login and password is required to download any software. Once you’ve entered your valid login and password, you can obtain any other McIDAS software your site is licensed to receive (e.g., McIDAS-X and McIDAS-XCD).

McIDAS-XCD Software & Installation

2018.1 McIDAS-XCD Installation Instructions

As user oper download the following files to the ~oper/mcidas directory on your McIDAS‑XCD workstation.

System Requirements

If you are upgrading from an older version, please see the past versions page for links to download files and other materials from past versions.

What's New in McIDAS-XCD 2018.1

  • Implemented hourly synoptic data as seen in Europe, Australia, and Japan. Previous versions of McIDAS-XCD had 3-hour synoptic data where the hourly data was overwritten with the most recent in the 3-hour window. For example, a 2 UTC reading would overwrite a 0 UTC reading and would be considered a 0 UTC reading for that station in the synoptic MD file. Migrating to hourly synoptic data allows for a more accurate representation and does not discard data.
  • Updated McIDAS-XCD code and configuration files to accommodate the updated McIDAS-X station database file STNDB.CORE that was released in McIDAS-X 2018.1. Most of the station updates are due to the addition new sources AWIPS National Datasets Maintenance and NCAR/RAP.
  • Updated the file XCDNOAAPORTGRID.BAT to add 16 new RTGRIDS datasets. These include datasets of added models such as ETSS (Extratropical Storm Surge), GLSW (Great Lakes Short Range Wave Model), HREF (High Resolution Ensemble Forecast), and PETS (Probabilistic Extratropical Storm Surge).