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Release Notes

The items below list the changes in McIDAS-V for the most recent release version. For the release notes of previous versions, see Previous Release Notes.

For a current list of known bugs and requested enhancements, please see the Open Inquiries Report from the McIDAS-V Inquiry System. To view the items currently under development, see the list of Critical Bugs and Critical Development Items.


McIDAS-V
Version 1.7u1

The item below reflects the change since the 1.7 release.

Bug Fix
Bug Fix

Windows Startup Problem

Fixed a bug on Windows platforms that caused a Null Pointer Exception at startup and the Data Sources tab of the Data Explorer to not show any choosers.

If the last file loaded through a local data chooser is from a drive that is no longer accessible from the machine (e.g., an ejected flash drive), then the error will occur. The error can occur in any of the local choosers, including:

  • Satellite > HYDRA
  • Radar > Level II > Local
  • Gridded Data > Local
  • General > Files/Directories

McIDAS-V
Version 1.7

The items below reflect the changes since the 1.6 release.

Documentation Changes
Data Changes
Display Changes
Other Changes
Under Development
Documentation Changes

McIDAS-V User's Guide

Updated the McIDAS-V User's Guide to contain new features and more detailed content.
Data Changes

Image Chooser Speedup

Improved the speed of the Satellite>Imagery chooser when using a dataset of geostationary data. The speed increase will be most noticeable with large datasets, as now only one ADDE call is made to generate the preview image. This improvement will be seen in the Field Selector tab of the Data Explorer. Once the band and calibration have been selected, the subset tabs (Times, Region, and Advanced) tabs will appear quicker than in previous versions of McIDAS-V.

GOES 16 ABI Remote Server

Added a new remote ADDE server to the Satellite>Imagery chooser (lead.unidata.ucar.edu) that contains realtime remote GOES 16 level 1b data and level 2 products. There are three different datasets on this server for GOES 16 data: EAST, NPGOESR, and RTGOESR. This server is maintained by Unidata.

Local Servers

Updated local ADDE servers on Linux and OS X platforms. In conjunction with this, navigation improvements have been made to GOES 16 ABI and Himawari data loaded via ADDE. For specific information about the local ADDE servers, see Local ADDE Data Manager.

GLM Plugin

Added a new plugin to the Plugin Manager under Data Sources>GLM NetCDF Files. After this plugin is installed, local GLM netCDF files can be loaded through the General>Files/Directories chooser with the three new data types designed plot event data (GLM Events Data files), flash data (GLM Flashes Data files), and group data (GLM Groups Data files). To plot flash data, select the data file (or multiple data files can be selected at once to create a loop), choose the GLM Flashes Data files Data Type, and click Add Source. Note that the files must be mission-standard format and follow the GRB naming convention, and thus look similar to OR_GLM-L2-LCFA_G16_s20172151749200_e20172151749400_c20172151749467.nc. Once in the Field Selector, it is suggested to adjust the time binning settings of the data source. Each point in the data is its own time, and time binning allows for creating a loop where multiple points are plotted at the same time step. For example, Bin Size and Round To can be set to '5 minutes' to create a loop with time intervals of 5 minutes. This data can be plotted using the Point Data Plot display type. Note that new GLM layout models have been added for event, flash, and group data.

ncdump Output of HYDRA Data Sources

Added the ability to view the ncdump output of a HYDRA data source. Once the data source has been added to the Field Selector, right-click on the data source and choose Properties. In the Properties window, there is a new Metadata tab that includes the ncdump output.

Grid Trajectory Controls

Expanded the Grid Trajectory Controls to add the ability to set the trajectory initial area as well as the trajectory form (e.g. Ribbon, Line, Cylinder). A new trajectory form, Points, was also added.
Display Changes

ProfileAlongTrack Display

Improved the controls to display lidar (CALIPSO, CloudSat, and HSRL2) data by making subsetting (geographic and resolution) easier. The ability to plot HSRL2 lidar was added for this release. For more information, see ProfileAlongTrack Controls.

Spanish Characters for High and Low Symbols

Added the ability to change the 'H' and 'L' shapes (High and Low) from the Drawing Controls to 'A' and 'B' for the Spanish words 'Alto' (high) and 'Bajo' (low).

Default McIDAS-V Logo

Added a default McIDAS-V logo to the Display Window Preferences tab of the User Preferences. By default, this logo is positioned at the bottom left corner of each display panel.
Other Changes

Relative Times Tab Update

Updated the Relative Times tab in the Satellite>Imagery, Radar Level II>Remote, Radar>Level III, and Point Observations>Plot/Contour choosers to have a text entry box for the user to enter the number of relative times to load. In the past, users were limited to selecting a maximum of 100 relative times, but this limit has been removed.

Absolute Times Tab Update

Updated the Absolute Times tab in the Satellite>Imagery chooser to have a text entry box for the user to enter the number of absolute times to list in the chooser. In the past, the default was to list the last 100 times, and the only alternative was to list all of the times in the dataset. Now, a user can enter any integer value greater than zero and click the List Images button. As an alternative to a numerical value, entering "ALL" will return all of the times in the dataset.

Local mcidasv.rbi File Added

Added a mcidasv.rbi file to the user's McIDAS-V directory. This RBI (Resource Bundle for the IDV) file allows for defining the location of different resources used by McIDAS-V. These different resources include color tables, formulas, help tips, etc.. Users can modify this mcidasv.rbi file to customize their sessions to only use specific resources. For example, a user can create a mcidasv.rbi file in a way that the resource used for color tables is only pulled from a sitepath directory (specified by the sitepath argument at startup) and not use the native color tables included with McIDAS-V. This mcidasv.rbi file also allows for user configuration of resources that can't be altered through the user interface, such as help tips. A user can create their own helptips.xml file and point to it in mcidasv.rbi, allowing for McIDAS-V to read and display their own custom help tips. For more information on this, see Site Configuration.

Java, Java 3D, JOGL, and NetCDF Versions

Updated Java from version 1.8.0_45 to 1.8.0_112

Updated Java 3D from version 1.6.0-pre11 to 1.6.0-pre12.

Updated JOGL from version 2.2.3 to 2.3.2.

Updated NetCDF from version 4.6.5 to 4.6.11

Scripting

Added a variety of functionality related to scripting since the release of 1.6. Below is a list of significant changes:
  • New functions:
    • Added a new function called setLegendLabel() that sets the Legend Label (the blue text) of the layer in the Legend of the Main Display window.
    • Added a new function called setExtraLegendLabel() that sets the Extra Legend Label (the text below the Legend Label) of the layer in the Legend of the Main Display window.
    • Added a new function called findUnits() that returns the units associated with a data object.
    • Added new functions called getDisplayUnit() and setDisplayUnit() to return and set the unit of a displayed layer.
  • New functionality with existing functions:
    • Added a new keyword to annotate() called bgColor, which adds a background color to annotated text. The default is for the text to not have a background.
    • Added new keywords to writeMovie() that allow for defining the number of frames to show per second (framesPerSecond) and how long to show the last frame in the animated GIF (endFramePause).
    • Added a new keyword to captureImage() called index that allows for specifying which frame (index) to capture when multiple frames are displayed in a loop.
  • Miscellaneous scripting-related changes:
    • Added a new keyboard shortcut to open the Jython Shell: Ctrl+J
    • Added a new keyboard shortcut to open the Jython Library: Alt+J

Great Lakes Location Labels

Added location labels for the Great Lakes that can be added to the display from the Display>Plot Location Labels>US>Great Lakes menu item.

Range Ring Linking

Added the ability to link the Color and Line Width settings in the Range Ring controls between the Range Rings, Radials, and Labels. This makes it easy to set all of the components of the range rings to be the same color and width.

Shapefiles in Zipped Bundles

Added the ability to save shapefiles in zipped bundles.

URL Redirects

Added the ability for McIDAS-V to handle URL redirects in all locations where URLs can be used, including the General>URLs chooser. A common case of this would be an HTTP URL that is redirected to HTTPS.
Under Development

JPSS Chooser

Changed the name of this chooser from "Imagery - Suomi NPP" to "Imagery - JPSS".

Added a button to change the listing of fields in the Field Selector between variable names and the long_name attribute of each variable. This button is only available if the variable names and long_name attributes are different.

Added support for the VIIRS Cloud Mask EDR (Environmental Data Record) with the naming convention of VICMO, which was released in March 2017. The same EDR product with the previous naming convention of IICMO is supported as well.

Advanced Dvorak Technique Display

Added a new display type, Advanced Dvorak Technique (Under Development), that provides Advanced Dvorak Technique (ADT) analysis results for local and remote ADDE satellite data. Note that this display type is considered to be under development. Current documentation can be found here: https://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mcidas/software/v/resources/adt/McV_ADT_1p7.pdf.

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