McIDAS-X Learning Guide
Version 2020

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Real-time Data Access - Meteorological Diagrams

In this exercise, you will create four types of meteorological diagrams: a Skew-T diagram, a hodograph, a vertical cross section and a meteorogram. You will also list surface data in a tabular format.
  1. Erase frames 1 through 6.

    Type:    ERASE F 1 6

  2. List all of the upper-air stations reporting a 00 UTC observation today. The output is sorted alphabetically by state and then by ID.

    Type:    STNLIST CO=US DAT=RTPTSRC/UPPERMAND TIME=00

  3. Choose one of the stations listed. Show frame 1 and plot a Skew-T diagram for your chosen station (in this case, 72645, which is Green Bay, Wisconsin) at 00 UTC.

    Type:    SF 1;UAPLOT 72645 00

  4. Run the same command, but this time activate the interactive Skew-T.

    Type:    UAPLOT 72645 00 EDIT=YES

    Follow the instructions in the command output in the text window to change the temperature or dewpoint sounding. Notice the sounding analysis parameters change when you make the atmosphere more or less stable.

  5. Show frame 2 and plot a hodograph of the same station.

    Type:    SF 2;HODO 72645 00

  6. Show frame 3 and display a map of the upper-air stations reporting a 00 UTC observation.

    Type:    SF 3;RAOBPLOT IDN X MID 00

  7. Choose the two stations that are the farthest apart on the map. Show frame 4 and display a vertical cross section of theta, wind, and mixing ratio values from these two stations (in this case, International Falls, Minnesota (72747) to Nashville, Tennessee (72327). The MAP=YES keyword displays a map in the upper-right corner showing the cross section location and stations selected.

    Type:    SF 4;UACROSS 72747 72327 MAP=YES TIME=00 PAR=THA WINDB MIX

  8. Show frame 5 and plot a 24-hour surface meteorogram for Macon, Georgia.

    Type:    SF 5;SFCMG KMCN

    The default dataset in the SFCMG command is RTPTSRC/SFCHOURLY, so the command automatically accesses the real-time data on the remote server. You do not need to have the data on your local machine.

  9. List the surface hourly data for Macon, Georgia for the past 24 hours.

    Type:    SFCLIST KMCN 24

    You should notice that the data listed in the Text Window is the same as that displayed in the Image Window.

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