4 :Email: <Doppler5@aol.com>
7 :Website: http://pileus.org/aweather/
9 About and contact information
10 -----------------------------
11 AWeather was created in the summer of 2008 and functions as a NEXRAD Level II
12 radar display program. The goal of this application is to fulfill a need through
13 providing ample weather information without excessive cost and size that is not
14 limited to the Linux operating system.
16 It is written in a standard GTK+/GObject architecture and features an
17 interactive display utilizing Grits and OpenGL technologies.
19 The software source code is available for download at
20 git://pileus.org/aweather.
22 AWeather relies upon the following dependencies: http://www.gtk.org/[gtk+] 2.18
23 or later, http://www.gnome.org/[libsoup] 2.26 or later, http://bzip.org/[bzip],
24 http://trmm-fc.gsfc.nasa.gov/trmm_gv/software/rsl[rsl] 1.42 or later, and
27 Packaged versions of the software are currently available for Gentoo, Debian,
28 Ubuntu, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OSX operating systems.
30 The program currently provides data viewing from the standard two dimensional
31 plan view to user-defined three-dimensional dynamic views of current and recent
34 The software was developed and is maintained by Andy Spencer. He may be
35 contacted through e-mail at andy753421@gmail.com and chat through IRC at #pileus
41 AWeather is provided as free software according to the terms of the GNU General
42 Public License (version 3 or later) as published by the Free Software Foundation
43 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/).
46 Data types and sources
47 ----------------------
48 AWeather displays U.S. National Weather Service NEXt generation RADar (NEXRAD)
49 Level II data. This is the highest resolution form of radar data available in
50 the public domain and consists of multiple tilts of data updated every 5 to 10
51 minutes depending on the current scan mode of each radar.
53 The following Level II data types are supported by this program:
55 - Base reflectivity (power return of current precipitation intensity)
57 - Base velocity (Doppler-derived speed and direction of radar returns)
59 - Spectrum width (The variation of velocity detected within each radar pixel or
62 - Differential Reflectivity (The ratio of the reflected horizontal and vertical
63 power returns) footnoteref:[dualpol]
65 - Differential Phase (A comparison of the phase difference between the
66 horizontal and vertical returns) footnoteref:[dualpol]
68 - Correlation Coefficient (A statistical correlation between the reflected
69 horizontal and vertical power returns) footnoteref:[dualpol,Only available at
70 WSR-88D sites that have been upgraded to support dual-polarization]
72 Level II data has been available through private weather data vendors for some
73 time but recently has been generously provided by some universities.
75 AWeather requires an active internet connection along with a data source in
76 order to retrieve, decode and display current or recent radar data.
78 The default radar feed is publically accessible thanks to Iowa State University
79 and is located at: http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/data/nexrd2/raw/.
81 AWeather also displays some severe weather alerts provided by the NOAA weather
82 alerts http://alerts.weather.gov/[feed].
84 When run under Linux, AWeather can interface with the
85 http://www.catb.org/gpsd/[GPSd] location services to track and display the
86 user's current location.
91 AWeather consists of a graphical user interface window that contains a file menu
92 bar, a button bar, a date and time side bar, a large map and data viewing pane
93 and a bottom data status bar.
96 The file menu commands
97 ----------------------
98 The program file menu consists of 5 entries:
102 Offline:: stops the program from downloading data through the internet
103 Refresh:: reloads the current display
104 Auto-updae:: automatically refresh the the radar after a certain delay
105 Clean cache:: removes data files from the program's internal cache
106 Quit:: closes the program window and exits from memory
110 Preferences:: opens the preferences window, which contains the following
116 Offline checkbox:::: if selected keeps the program from connecting
118 Update Freq:::: sets the timeout value for automatic updating
119 Initial site listbox:::: allows the user to select a default radar site
120 to jump to when the program loads
121 NEXRAD URL text box:::: allows the user to select a different server to
122 download Level-II NEXRAD data from
123 Debug level text box:::: allows the user to select what level of
124 debugging the program should conduct while
125 running (7 is recommended only for debugging)
130 alert checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle the weather alerts
131 elev checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle terrain rendering
132 env checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle a blue atmosphere and
134 gps checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle gps tracking
136 map checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle the map overlays
137 radar checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle the radar data
138 sat checkbox:::: allows the user to toggle satellite ground images
139 test checkbox:::: used by the developers for debugging
144 Zoom in:: decreases the viewing area
145 Zoom out:: increases the viewing area
146 Fullscreen:: maximizes the window and only displays the button menu bar along
147 with the map and data viewing pane when the mouse is moved to the
152 The radar menu contains list of all the support NEXRAD radar sites sorted by
153 state. Selecting a site will zoom AWeather to that location.
158 User Guide:: displays this documentation of program operation and features
159 Man Page:: displays a HTML version of the UNIX man page
160 About:: contains current program version, copyright, development site,
161 credits and licensing information
166 The program button bar contains 6 options:
169 Magnifying glass with plus sign:: decreases the viewing area
170 Magnifying glass with minus sign:: increases the viewing area
171 Window icon with expanding arrows:: Toggles between fullscreen and normal viewing modes
172 Plug button:: toggles between offline and online program mode
173 Circular arrow button:: reloads the current display
174 Wrench and screwdriver button:: Opens the preferences window
177 The date and time side bar
178 --------------------------
179 The date and time side bar resides on the right side of the program window, it contains:
181 * The date button, which reveals a calendar of the current month when clicked
183 * The time button, which reveals a list of each hour when clicked
185 ** Clicking on an hour will reveal a list of times in 5 minute intervals that
186 the user can select to load radar data from footnote:[Radar data can only be
187 loaded if it has been previously cached or is from a recent enough date and
188 can still be obtained from the NEXRAD server]
191 The map and data viewing pane
192 -----------------------------
193 On program startup and when zoomed far from the earth's surface AWeather
194 displays a national radar composite image.
196 Each available radar site is displayed on the map using the name of a nearby
197 major city. Clicking on the city label will activate the radar site and center
200 As the user zooms closer to the earth AWeather will automatically activate
203 The radar data will be plotted on the map while the scan and product information
204 will be displayed at the bottom of the program.
206 All active radar sites will show as tabs while site's available tilt and product
207 data will display to the right of the tab.
209 Simply click on a button to display that product/tilt in the map window.
211 An isosurface slider is shown below the product/tilt buttons. Slide the
212 selector to reveal the rendered isosurface structure of reflectivity data.
214 A color scale will automatically appear at the top left corner of the map window
215 corresponding to each available product.
218 Viewing severe weather alerts
219 ------------------------------
220 When the alert plugin is enabled, AWeather will automatically shade each county
221 that is under a weather alert in a color corresponding to the type of alert.
223 For storm based warnings, AWeather will also draw a polygon representing the
226 Individual alert types can be enabled and disabled by clicking on the toggle
227 button in the alert tab at the bottom of the screen.
229 To view more information about a particular alert, click on one the shaded
230 county or inside the polygon warning area in the viewing pane. This will bring
231 up the alert details dialog with a tab for each alert that is active for the
232 location that was clicked.
234 The alert dialog displays the alert title and valid time along with the text
235 descriptions provided by the weather service. Clicking the "Full Text" button
236 will open the full text of the alert in a web browser.
239 Panning, zooming and tilt functions
240 -----------------------------------
241 AWeather supports the use of the mouse and keyboard commands to change the map
244 When the map is rotated, a red and white compass in the top right corner shows
245 the current direction of North. Clicking on the compass will reset the rotation
246 so that north points toward the top of the screen and the viewer is pointed
251 Left click and drag::: Pan the surface of the earth
252 Middle click and drag::: Zoom toward or away from the earth
253 Right click and drag::: Rotate the camera left or right
261 i, +, Scroll Up::: Zoom in
262 o, -, Scroll Down::: Zoom out
263 J::: Rotate camera toward earth
264 K::: Rotate camera toward sky
265 H::: Rotate camera left
266 L::: Rotate camera right
267 w::: Draw wire frame of the earth (for debugging)
268 q::: Exit the program
269 Tab::: Cycle through available plugins
270 Escape::: Close the currently active dialog box
271 CTRL+R::: Refresh the display
276 The following command line options can help advanced users take full advantage
277 of the AWeather program:
279 aweather [*-hoaf*] [-d 'level'] [-s 'site'] [-t 'time']
284 *-d*, *--debug*='level'::
285 Change default log level*, a debug level ranges from 0 to 5. A debug
286 level of 5 is recommended only for debugging purposes.
288 *-s*, *--site*='site'::
289 Set initial site. The site should be given as a WSR88D site code such
292 *-t*, *--time*='time'::
293 Set initial time. The time format should be provided in the
294 *YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM* format.
297 Run in offline mode, AWeather will not attempt to connect to the
298 internet to download radar files but will show the closest matching
301 *-a*, *--autoupdate*::
302 Run in autoupdate mode, AWeather will periodically poll data servers
303 for updated information.
305 *-f*, *--fullscreen*::
306 Run in fullscreen mode, AWeather start up using the entire screen as he
307 main display area. Toolbars and side panels are hidden by default.
312 The author intends to develop additional features in the future as time and
315 Some of these enhancements include:
317 * Vertical cross sections
318 * Support for derived L3 data (storm relative motion, echo tops, composite
320 * Additional data sources for surface data, etc
322 * API for radar algorithms
323 * Additional features
325 // vim: ft=asciidoc ts=4 tw=80