WSR-88D Visualization (WVS) Software

About WVS Visualization Software

The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is now distributing software including source code to display WSR-88D level II data. The WSR-88D Visualization Software (WVS) reads level II data tapes and writes the data to disk in a format for WVS to display. WVS displays individual sweeps of reflectivity, velocity and spectrum width data. Images can be displayed while the level II tape is being read and written to disk, or images can be displayed after the data have been written to disk. WVS runs on SUN, IBM, HP, and SGI unix-based workstations. WVS is written in C and Fortran and uses X windows v11.4 with Motif v1.1. This software was developed with ESDIM funding by the National Severe Storms Laboratory.

To Receive the Software

There are two ways to obtain a copy of WVS, either by mail on 8mm tape or through ftp. Whether receiving the software on tape or from ftp, the software is in one file. The file will be a tar file, which is one file containing many files. In addition to the tar file, there is a README file. (Consult your workstation manual if the tar instructions below do not work, your workstation may require different instructions.) All the software will reside in one directory.

In addition to the software in the tar file, there is also a WordPerfect 5.1 version of the user's guide which uses a scalable font with italics for printing. The user's guide was written in WordPerfect and uses special formatting for clarity. The user's guide is named "guide.wp". If you need a hard copy of the guide, you can obtain one from NCDC (address, phone, fax and e-mail are listed below). The user's guide is needed to install the WVS.

There are also files to overlay county lines on the images. There is one county line overlay file per radar. The file name is in the form 'countyLines.XXXX', where XXXX is the four letter identifier for the radar name (e.g., KMLB for Melbourne, FL).

When receiving the information on Exabyte tape, there is one tar file on the tape. This one tar file contains the software in a tar file (zzzwvstar), the User's Guide file (guide.wp), the read me file (README) and all of the available county line files (countyLines.XXXX). The information can be written to an 8200, 8500 or 8505 tape. A charge of $25.00 will be assessed to cover the cost of the tape and processing the order.

To contact NCDC:

     Write to:      National Climatic Data Center
                    Federal Building
                    37 Battery Park Avenue
                    Asheville, NC   28801-2733

     Or e-mail to:  

         INTERNET:  orders@ncdc.noaa.gov

    OMNET Mailbox:  NCDC.SERVICE

     Or call:       (828) 271-4800

     Or FAX:        (828) 271-4876

To Receive the Software via FTP

1.   Make a directory for the software and change your directory to
     that directory.

2.   From the directory created for the software, use ftp (file
     transfer protocol) to bring the software into the directory.

3.   Type:  ftp ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov

4.   login as anonymous

5.   use your username as the password

6.   Type:  cd /pub/nexrad_l2

7.   Type:  binary

8.   Type:  get README

9.   Type:  get zzzwvstar

10.  Type:  get guide.wp

11.  To get a county line overlay file,
     type:  get countyLines.XXXX,
     where XXXX is the radar name acronym.
     (Repeat this procedure for each countyline overlay file      
     desired.)

12.  To end the ftp session, type:  quit

13.  Type: tar xvf zzzwvstar

14.  Use appendix A of the user's guide to install WVS.

To Receive the Software via Tape

1.   Write, e-mail, fax, or call NCDC to request the software on
     tape.

2.   When the tape arrives, make a directory for the software and
     change your directory to that directory.

3.   Load the tape into the tape drive.

4.   From the directory created for the software, extract the files
     by typing:

     tar xvf tape-device  (to extract all the files from the one
     tar file on the tape)

                               or

     tar xvf tape-device file1 file2 file3 ... filen  (to extract
     individual files from the one tar file on the tape)

     Possible file names are: zzzwvstar   (tar software file)
                              guide.wp    (Users Guide)
                              README      (copy of announcement)
                              countyLines.XXXX    (county line
                              files, where XXXX is the radar site
                              acronym)

     If zzzwvstar is tarred in from the tape, it will have to be
     tarred again to produce the software files.  To do so, enter:

          tar xvf zzzwvstar
                                
     tape-device - the tape path name and tape drive name (e.g.
     /dev/rmt0).

5.   Use appendix A of the user's guide to install WVS.

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