Climate Atlas of the United States
Operation

Back to Climate Atlas

Getting Started

The first thing you should do is install your Climate Atlas.  Please read the Atlas help section, "Installation", for instructions on how to install your Atlas.  After that, come back here for further information.

Access Methods

There are two ways to access the maps provided with this Atlas. 

  1. Through the Climate Atlas interface -- the preferred method for most users
  2. Through ArcExplorer directly

There are advantages and disadvantages to each.

1. Accessing maps through the Climate Atlas interface

Using the Climate Atlas interface is simpler.  It allows you to access maps without concerning yourself with where the maps are located (what folder they're in).  Steps listed immediately below this paragraph tell how to access a map through the Climate Atlas interface.  There is a slight inconvenience to using the Climate Atlas interface.  Each time you access a map through the interface it spawns an instance of ArcExplorer. For some computers, a few instances of ArcExplorer (depending on your computer's available memory) will "use up" all available memory and cause the computer to hang.  You can avoid a hang-up caused by this problem if you close the ArcExplorer window you were just using, before you request another map from the interface.

  • Double-click on the desktop icon titled "Climate Atlas of the United States".  It looks like a miniature map.
  • After the interface presents itself, select an element radio button by clicking in the circle beside the element.
  • Click on an element parameter in the list provided below. 
  • Click on "View the Maps".  ArcExplorer will present the maps momentarily, depending on your computer's speed and other tasks it's running.  (See the FAQ on ArcExplorer for help in using ArcExplorer.)
  • When you have finished viewing the map, close the ArcExplorer window you were just using. If you made any changes to the presentation of the project you opened, ArcExplorer will ask you if you want to save your changes.  If you installed your Atlas onto your computer's hard disk drive, you may save the changes.  However, if you save changes to a map with numeric values on it, the maps' themes will lose their pre-determined colors in their legends.   If you did not install the Atlas onto your computer's hard disk drive, you are running it from the CD.  You cannot save changes to the CD, so you should answer "No" to the question.

2. Accessing maps through ArcExplorer directly:  

Using ArcExplorer directly allows you to access all maps from within the same instance of ArcExplorer.  So, you won't "use up" all available memory and cause the computer to hang (or, if it does hang up, it won't be due to too many instances of ArcExplorer).  Steps listed immediately below this paragraph tell how to access a map through ArcExplorer.  The disadvantage is that using ArcExplorer from the desktop requires that you use the element cross-reference table of file names to know which file contains the maps of the climatic element you're interested in seeing.  You have to know that to tell ArcExplorer which file to open.

  • Start ArcExplorer.
  • The ArcExplorer interface presents a standard Windows-like menu bar.  The menu bar offers tools you can use to open the project you're interested in.  (See the FAQ on ArcExplorer for help in using ArcExplorer.)  The projects will be located in a folder structure named "climatls\aeprojs".  That folder structure will be off the root of your Atlas CD, or off the directory structure you chose if you installed the Atlas onto your computer's hard disk drive.  In either case, ArcExplorer will present the maps momentarily, depending on your computer's speed and other tasks it's running.

When you have finished viewing the map, you may open another project from within the same instance of ArcExplorer.  If you made any changes to the presentation of the project you opened, ArcExplorer will ask you if you want to save your changes.  If you installed your Atlas onto your computer's hard disk drive, you may save the changes.  However, if you save changes to a map with numeric values on it, the maps' themes will lose their pre-determined colors in their legends.  If you did not install the Atlas onto your computer's hard disk drive, you are running it from the CD.  You cannot save changes to the CD, so you should answer "No" to the question.