McIDAS-X for XP Fastrack Version 2009.2
Software and Instructions

This page contains the software and instructions for installing McIDAS-X for XP version 2009.2, a fully supported Fastrack release. Significant modifications made since the previous release (version 2009.1) include:

• updated the IMGCOPY command to (a) include the new keyword CF=YES to create CF-compliant netCDF image files, (b) allow writing of negative values into netCDF image files, (c) prohibit multi-band copies to netCDF image files; the last change means that if you need to create netCDF image files from a multi-band source image you will need to IMGCOPY each of the bands separately (using the BAND= keyword) into the netCDF-format dataset
• updated the Level 1b servers to properly file navigation for NOAA-19 data
• updated the ABI (Advanced Baseline Imagery for GOES-R) calibration and navigation routines; the changes include navigation corrections and defining of bands 1-6 as visible and all others as IR
• updated the GVAR and POES servers to accommodate GOES-14 and NOAA-19, respectively; these changes only affect users who have the raw data on their local McIDAS-X workstation
• updated the PTCOPY command to work with the SSEC Data Center's archive point datasets
• updated the McIDAS-XRD package (which is included in the McIDAS-X installation files) to include three new commands (IMGCOMBO, IMGPARM and MDSCAT) and two new servers (amseadir and amseaget); also made significant changes to the output generated by the GVARINFO command; if you use GVARINFO and have scripts that parse its output you will need to modify the scripts to accommodate the new output

Before installing Fastrack version 2009.2, make sure you view the complete list of Fastrack 2009.2 Software Changes, and, if you do any programming or local code development/modification also view and complete the appropriate actions described in the Fastrack 2009.2 Programmer Notes (pdf). You might want to print or download these two documents for future reference.

McIDAS-X 2009.2 is a fully supported Fastrack release. 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 workstation configurations. Full system testing will occur at least once on each platform during each calendar year. If you elect to install 2009.2, we ask that you notify the McIDAS Help Desk if you encounter any bugs. Please be sure to mention that you are running version 2009.2.

Also note that if you plan to upgrade to 2009.2 from a version earlier than 2009.1, 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 2007 to 2009.2, you must first read and perform any required actions in the release documents for versions 2008 and 2009.1. See the past versions page for links to those and other materials from past versions.

 

To obtain and install McIDAS-X and/or McIDAS-XRD 2009.2, complete the following steps.

1. Download the following files to the ~mcidas directory on your McIDAS-X for XP workstation.
   Note: The installation will fail if the names of the downloaded files do not exactly match those listed below. If your web browser changes the names of the files during download (e.g., mcidas2009.2.tar.gz becomes mcidas2009.2_tar.gz), you must rename the files to those below before installing.

   File name	Size	Description
   README	1 KB	disk space requirements
   mcidas2009.2.sh	20 KB	install/uninstall script (right click to download)
   mcidas2009.2.tar.gz	135204 KB	compressed tar file containing binaries, source and data files
   mcidas.mcenv	8 KB	environment variables used by McIDAS-X
   mcidas.profile	4 KB	template for creating a .profile file in user accounts that don't have a pre-existing .profile

2. Examine the README file to read about the disk space requirements.
3. To install McIDAS-X and/or -XRD 2009.2 on your workstation, complete the instructions in the section titled "Installing and Configuring McIDAS-X" in Chapter 1 of the McIDAS User's Guide.