Download McIDAS-X v. 2018.2

McIDAS software releases are distributed as a total replacement of the core system.  Since May 2009 SSEC has been distributing McIDAS-X 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. Full system testing occurs at least once on each platform during each calendar year. 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 version. The Help Desk will still assist those sites that are two issues behind the current version at a reduced capability. A complete description of your MUG support is detailed in the SSEC McIDAS Users’ Group Policy Document.  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.

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

McIDAS-X 2018.2 – released 31 Dec 2018

McIDAS-X Software & Installation for Unix

2018.2 Installation Instructions for Unix

Download (e.g., right-click and select Save) the following files to the ~mcidas directory on your McIDAS-X workstation.

See -XRD Information for more information on McIDAS-XRD.

(the compiled version of -X & -XRD is about 1.3 GB)

McIDAS-X Software & Installation for Windows

2018.2 Installation Instructions for Windows

Download (e.g., right-click and select Save) the following files to the ~mcidas directory on your Windows7 workstation.

(the compiled version of -X & -XRD is about 745 MB)

Note: The installation will fail if the names of the downloaded files do not exactly match those listed. If your web browser changes the names of the files during download (e.g., mcidas2018.2_win7.tar.gz becomes mcidas2018.2_win7_tar.gz), you must rename the files before installing.

What's New in McIDAS-X 2018.2

  • [04 Feb 2019] Fixed calibration error with MCSTRETCH bands in AREA files created with STYPE=VISR prior to McIDAS-X 2017.2.
  • [17 Jan 2019] Fixed error code for ADDE server datasets defined with date expansion (YYYY)/(DDD)  in DIRFILE file matching.
  • Updated GOES-R Series ABI servers to report the ABI Scan Mode in IMGLIST output and include the percent good Data Quality Flag value in Area files created via single-band IMGCOPY commands.
  • First release of VIIR servers, which create ADDE datasets of JPSS Series VIIRS SDR files in HDF5 format.
  • Updated GLMDISP and GLMLIST commands to work with archive data and to correctly choose between GOES East and West datasets for the specified domain.
  • Updated GVAR calibration module to increase the precision of GOES-8 to -15 temperature values (TEMP) to two decimal places (hundredths) in IMGPROBE LIST.
  • Added new option in DSSERVE command to allow writing of GeoTIFF files with 32 bit floating point values.

See 2018.2 Significant Changes to see a more complete listing of the significant changes, or see 2018.2 – All Software Changes to see a list of all of the code changes included in the release.

If upgrading from an older version, see the past versions page for links to download files and documentation from past versions.

System Requirements

Tested & Supported OS Versions

Apple –

macOS 10.13.6 Intel w/ gcc & gfortran 7.3
macOS 10.12.6 Intel w/ gcc & gfortran 7.1
XQuartz X server

Microsoft –

Windows 7 Enterprise
with Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA) and SUA Community Complete Toolset

Red Hat –

Enterprise Linux 7.4 Intel w/ gcc & gfortran 4.8.5
Enterprise Linux6.9 Intel w/ gcc & gfortran 4.4.7

Complete System Requirements
[macOS & Linux] [Windows]

Future OS Support Plans

OS User Survey Results