IDL – Meteorology – BoMIDL – Meteorology – BoM

Dr Robert Dahni

r.dahni@bom.gov.au

Bureau of Meteorology

Melbourne AUSTRALIA

6 August 2001

IDL and Bureau of MeteorologyIDL and Bureau of Meteorology

IDL used since 1993BMRC (research)COSB (operations)AIFS (major project)Olympics (special event)SSU (commercial)

IDL and Malaysian Meteorological IDL and Malaysian Meteorological Service (MMS) UpgradeService (MMS) UpgradeBoM (SSU) commercial projectIDL requirements for MMS upgradeSSU implementation strategyBackground mapsIDL applications (demo)Tips, techniques and resourcesWork in progress …

IDL Requirements for MMS UpgradeIDL Requirements for MMS Upgrade

Background maps– coastlines, political, topography

Interactive visualisation (GUI)– real-time meteorological data– server, workstation and/or PC–UNIX, PC X-Emulation, Windows

Product generation – assistantWeb graphics – image files

SSU Implementation StrategySSU Implementation Strategy

Get experienced IDL programmerWrite software requirementsUtilise existing AIFS/IDL applicationsDevelop prototype applicationsFeedback, training and documentationOperational implementationWork in progress …

Background MapsBackground Maps

Global 1-km topography GTOPO30 (~1.8 Gb) gettopo.pro -> binary file Textured fill topography maptopo.pro -> image file displaymap.pro -> window 2 CD’s of data

0E - 180E, 50oS - 50oN

180W - 0W, 50oS - 50oN

Background Maps (continued)Background Maps (continued)

Global variable-resolution coastlines (GSHHS) map_gshhs.pro -> coastlines U.S. Geological Survey “Coastline Extractor” plot_boundaries.pro -> political

IDL Applications (demo)IDL Applications (demo)

OBSViewer – weather observationsNWPViewer – NWP model outputMapDraw – drawing toolGONO – marine model outputStreamline – product generationMapGrid – NWP web graphicsMapObs – observations web graphicsWork in progress …

OBSViewer – weather observationsOBSViewer – weather observations

NWPViewer – NWP model outputNWPViewer – NWP model output

MapDraw – drawing toolMapDraw – drawing tool

GONO – marine model outputGONO – marine model output

Streamline – product generationStreamline – product generation

MapGrid – NWP web graphicsMapGrid – NWP web graphics

MapGrid (continued)MapGrid (continued)

MapObs - observations web graphicsMapObs - observations web graphics

Tips, Techniques and ResourcesTips, Techniques and Resources

Re-utilise existing relevant code Check publicly available IDL code Write neat, re-usable procedures Development – IDL (Windows 2000) Implementation – Windows and/or UNIX Use Direct Graphics unless interactive 3D Simple, flexible GUI design (non-resizable) Batch mode (use Z-buffer or Postscript)

Tips, Techniques and Resources Tips, Techniques and Resources (continued)(continued) Use both IDL 5.3 and 5.4 (or latest version) Parameterise image format (GIF or PNG) Use read/write_image (NOT read_gif) Support 8- AND 24-bit color (Color_Quan) device, get_visual_depth=visual_depth device, Decomposed=0, Retain=2 Use color names (FSC_Color) Split color table (data/drawing colors)

Tips, Techniques and Resources Tips, Techniques and Resources (continued)(continued) Global 1-km topography (GTOPO30) Textured fill topography Use cylindrical map projection

/cyl, /noborder, xmargin=0, ymargin=0

to overlay geo-referenced data Global coastlines (GSHHS) Political boundaries (Coastline Extractor) …

Tips, Techniques and Resources Tips, Techniques and Resources (continued)(continued) Australian IDL website

Graphics - IDL Image Gallery

http://www.metvis.com.au/graphics

Robert Dahni’s IDL Web Pages

http://www.metvis.com.au/idl/

Links to publicly available IDL code and applications

http://www.metvis.com.au/idl/idl_code.html

Links to coastline, topography data sets

http://www.metvis.com.au/idl/idl_resources.html

Updated links to IDL resources worldwide