20011113: why a DATALOC doesn't update to the fesired host (cont.)

>From: "Paul L. Sirvatka" <address@hidden>
>Organization: COD
>Keywords: 200111082120.fA8LK8121993 McIDAS ADDE DATALOC

Paul,

>OK...I have got this dataloc thing down now! Thanks for your
>perserverence. I have temporarily fuxed things by having each shell script
>with a different place to WRITE the info to and hence read from. Trust me
>I get it:-)

Super!  I had no doubt that you would be able to get past the McIDASy
stuff!

>Just a few loose ends - Would it be feasible or even advantageous to allow
>a global keyword to append what server to use rather than having only a
>default?
>
>For instance IMGDISP RTGINI/GE4KIR STA=DEN SERVER=ADDE.UCAR.EDU
>
>Just a thought.

Feasible: not without some undetermined amount of code changes.

Advantageous: I never really liked the setup for setting which server
  to get a dataset from.  In particular, I think it makes more sense to
  allow one to point at different servers for different portions of
  a dataset.  Some like the following would be nice _if_ it was possible:

  RTPTSRC/SFCHOURLY -> ADDE.UCAR.EDU
  RTPTSRC/LIGHTNING -> LOCAL-DATA
  RTPTSRC/PROF6MIN  -> WALDO.STCLOUDSTATE.EDU
  etc.

>One last question (I hope) about the images on the server side. When a
>GOES EAST file arrives (for example) do all the files come at the same
>time?

When the images arrive at a server are ultimately determined by their
NOAAPORT broadcast schedule and availability.  In general, however, the
answer should be yes: all of the GOES-East products are broadcast
within a short time of each other since they are all broadcast on the
same NOAAPORT channel.  Now, the complication in what you are trying to
do is that the images on adde.ucar.edu and papagayo.unl.edu are
governed by the reception at UCAR using an NWS AWIPS ingest station
followed by IDD movement of the files first to adde.ucar.edu and then
to papagayo.unl.edu (and, by the way) to stratus.al.noaa.gov).  At the
same time, the images at servers like snow.plymouth.edu and
cacimbo.ggy.uga.edu are governed by when their NOAAPORT reception
systems get the images (Unisys system at Plymouth; Planetary Data,
Inc.  system at UGA) and when the reception systems send the images
over to the machine that is hosting the ADDE server.

>Meaning would GW4KIR, GW8KWV and GW1KVIS be available at the same
>time from the same Group? Or do the files get sent at different times?

The broadcast of images in the NOAAPORT streams is serialized: only one
image is sent at a time, so there will be a time gap between when the
first and succeeding images are received.  The time difference _should_
be small (like a few minutes), but that is totally dependent on the
broadcast schedule, something we nave no control over.

>I think I might need to re-do my MCBASI scripts to make them better. Right
>now it is a patchwork of fixes!

There are different approaches to making sure that you get/display the
images you want.  One way is to do time listings from the server being
pointed at and select the time you really want.  As in anything, the
scripts can get as exotic as you can imagine.

Tom