20000208: Y2K issue with McIDAS-X 7.6 version of LA

>From: Angel Li <address@hidden>
>Organization: University of Miami
>Keywords: 200002082027.NAA17818 McIDAS-X 7.6 Y2K LA

Angel,

Its been a long time!

>I just noticed the following problem. When GOES 8 IR data comes in,
>the following batch job is triggered:
>
>NORTMAPR 9016 %2 9993 N1 L 0 9016 ECHO=N
>GU REST GRAPHIC 1
>DF #SYS(2127) 1 EC 32 82 SF=NO EU=TOPOSAT
>BAR 1 SU=IRTOPO
>FRMLABEL C IMA=1 LEV=254 0 "GOES-8 IR/TOPOGRAPHY COMPOSITE (DAY) (JDAY) (HHMM)
>  - UNIDATA
>LA %2 %2 DEV=F GOES8IR.WHR R
>SVGIF 1 GOES8IR.GIF
>FRONT GRA=1
>SVGIF 1 G8FRONT.GIF
>OS "/bin/Mail -s GOES8-IR wobb </dev/null >/dev/null
>GOESCOMP NONE %2 9986 C CI N7 SCRAREA=9981 9984 MAP=YES 9019 9970 DEV=NNN
>DF #SYS(2157) 1 EC 32 100 SF=NO EU=TOPOSAT
>FRMLABEL C IMA=1 LEV=254 0 "GOES-8/9 IR/TOPOGRAPHY COMPOSITE (DAY) (JDAY) (HHM
> M) - UNIDATA
>BAR 1 SU=IRTOPO
>SVGIF 1 GOES89IR.GIF
>DF #SYS(2157) 1 AC 296 602 -2 SF=NO EU=TOPOSAT
>FRMLABEL C IMA=1 LEV=254 0 "GOES-8/9 IR/TOPOGRAPHY COMPOSITE (DAY) (JDAY) (HHM
> M) - UNIDATA
>SVGIF 1 G89IRZM.GIF
>
>The error occurs in the output of the LA command:
>
>  area  ss  yyddd hhmmss  lcor  ecor lr er zr  lsiz  esiz z    bands
>  ---- ---- ----- ------ ----- ----- -- -- -- ----- ----- -    -----
>   153  70  ***** 191500  2785  9141  4  8  1  1400  1728 1 ...4............
> Done                                                                         

This is caused by LA not being Y2K compliant.  The date format in McIDAS
AREA files has been changed from YYDDD to YYYDDD, where YYY is the number
of years since 1900.  The format specification in la.pgm only allows for
the 5 digit date, YYDDD.

I recently modified la.pgm so that it would list out dates in the new
YYYDDD format.  I am planning on releasing this fixed version in a
bugfix addenda soon, but I will give you a head start on the mod by
putting the source code, la.pgm, out in the pub/mcidas directoryu of
anonymous FTP on our FTP server, ftp.unidata.ucar.edu.  What you need
to do is:

<login as 'mcidas'>
cd mcidas7.6/src
mv la.pgm la.pgm.bak
ftp ftp.unidata.ucar.edu
  anonymous
  <your full email address>
  cd pub/mcidas
  get la.pgm
  quit
make la.k
rm ~/bin/la.k
ln la.k ~/bin

The output from the new version of LA will look a little different,
so you may have to adjust your scritp(s).  Instead of seeing dates
like 99255, you will start seeing dates like 100035.

>I use the output from LA to get annotate the web page with the GOES
>picture.

I understand.  I have to warn you, however, that the old, non-ADDE McIDAS
commands will be going away (planned for this summer but may be pushed back
depending on what the SSEC 7.7 release looks like in May), so it would
be wise to start comning up to speed on use of the newer ADDE commands.

To get started on ADDE, you should look through the ADDE section in the:

Unidata McIDAS Learning Guide
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/mcidas/mclearn760/learn_guide.html

>Thanks,

You are welcome.

Tom Yoksas