Observational - Text (ASCII, CSV) - local files
Global balloon soundings
- ADDE - ADDE servers
- netCDF (Unidata, AWIPS/MADIS formats) - local files
- CMA text format - local files
- GEMPAK - local files
GIS
Data typically used in Geographic
Information Systems (GIS)
- ESRI Shapefile - local files, HTTP
- USGS DEM - local files
QuickTime QuickTime movies (without extensions) - QuickTime - local files, HTTP
Remote Data Servers
Extensive meteorological and oceanographic data is available from remote data servers for use in research and education. Some of these data have
restrictions on their use, see Using Data Acquired via Unidata for that information.
Abstract Data Distribution Environment (ADDE)
Most of the data choosers in McIDAS-V use ADDE as the access method (satellite imagery, Level III radar, surface, and RAOB). The ADDE
choosers are pre-configured with a list of available servers. SSEC and the Unidata community each maintain a set of cooperating ADDE servers
which serve up real-time and archived atmospheric datasets for use in McIDAS-V. You can use any of these to access the near-realtime data. For
more information on accessing data on ADDE servers, see the Data Sources section.
SSEC image data sets include:
rets1.ssec.wisc.edu
CIMSSP1 - GOES East and West Cloud mask, imager CTP and ECA, and sounder products.
Additional data sets:
adde.ssec.wisc.edu*
BLIZZARD - Archived data from the 1993 Storm of the Century.
CIMSS - Products derived from one or more channels, made by CIMSS, SSEC.
GINIALL - GINI images over different regions with different resolutions.
GINICOMP - GINIEAST AND GINIWEST composites.
GINIEAST - GOES East images, remapped to conic, Mercator (cylindrical equidistant), or polar projections channel 1.
GINIWEST - GOES West images, remapped to conic, Mercator (cylindrical equidistant), or polar projections channel 2.
GLOBAL - Global composite IR and WV images
IMAGEALL - GOES images, Antarctic composites and Radar.
NEXRCALL - Composites of radar reflectivity, echo tops, and storm precipitation with different resolutions.
NEXRCOMP - Composites of NEXRAD imagery (1km, 6km, 10 km radar coded message, 1-hour precipitation total, storm total
precipitation).
RTIMAGES - GOES East and West images in native view, not remapped. Also some global Mollweide images, and an Antarctic
composite.
TOPO - Plots land elevations with different projections using the color scales relevant to the chosen descriptor. The image will remap.
NEXRALL - NEXRAD imagery of a variety of products for individual sites.
RTNEXRAD -NEXRAD imagery of a variety of products for individual sites.
RTPTSRC - Point data from hourly observations, planes, ships, and soundings.
RTWXTEXT - Text data used to plot front analysis and forecasts.
goessouth.unidata.ucar.edu
SOUTH - GOES South (GOES-12) imager and sounder coverage of South America.
satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov
PUB - FY2C, METEOSAT-9 (6-hourly) and MTSAT imagery. GOES-East and West imagery and products.
You can configure defaults for particular images by creating a custom defaults file. For more information, see Configuring Image Defaults.
*Additional alternate servers include: stratus.al.noaa.gov, atm.ucar.edu, goessouth.unidata.ucar.edu, satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov, and
weather2.admin.niu.edu. These alternate servers have most or all of the datasets listed under adde.ssec.wisc.edu.
THREDDS Data Server (TDS)/OPeNDAP
McIDAS-V can access gridded data (netCDF/GRIB/GEMPAK) and NEXRAD radar data stored on a THREDDS Data Server (TDS) through the
OPeNDAP (formerly called DODS) protocol. See Choosing Cataloged Data for more information.
HTTP
Many of the data sources listed in the table above can read files directly from web servers (e.g. Apache) through the HTTP protocol. In most cases,
the server must support the HTTP 1.1 protocol and be configured to set the "Content-Length" and "Accept-Ranges: bytes" headers. See the
Choosing a URL for more information.