RfcGridReader

DESCRIPTION

This utility takes NWS's ABRFC radar images in XMRG, NetCDF, or GRIB format and
stores them in either native MetVue file format or DSS.

This utility has been superseded by GridReader which support much more
products and formats than those of of the ABRFC.

USAGE

RfcGridReader ((-inFile fileSpec (-outDir outputDirectory | -outFile outputFile))
&| -controlFile file) [-sTime time] [-eTime time] [-dTime timespan]
[-tinInputInterval timeInterval] [-maxTins numTins] [-fmt inputFormat]
[-type type] [-inUnits units] [-shg] [-shift timespan] [-localTime]
[-title title] [-outUnits units] [-dssA dssApart] [-dssB dssBpart]
[-dssC dssCpart] [-dssF dssFpart]

OPTIONS

-inFile fileSpec

The filename to process.

-controlFile file

Designates input file that contains a list of argument blocks.
Each block is delimited by an empty line and all contents in between
specify additional operations to perform beyond what is specified at the
command line, and any missing necessary arguments within a block are
filled with command line arguments.

Example Control File Block:

infile: inputFile.nc
outfile: outputFile.nc
stime: 06OCT1985,000000
etime: 06OCT1985,010000

-outDir outputDirectory

When the output directory is specified, the output will be to a file
with a name based on the input filename.
This cannot be combined with -outFile

-outFile outputFile

The name of the output file to use.
If the output file is a DSS file or has a DSS extension, the images
will be stored in DSS.
If the file does not exist or is not a DSS file, the images will be
stored on the file system.
Output files may be specified with a filename mask to specify naming
conventions (e.g. %e:yyyyMMMdd_HHmm%.tin).
This cannot be combined with -outdDir

-tinInputInterval timeInterval

Used to constrain the TINs to the specified time interval. Refer to -dTime
option for applicable formats. Use this option to ensure that the program
uses only TINs with a specific time interval for computations.
For example use '-tinInputInterval 1Hour' to ensure that files or paths which
match the given file/path masks are also 1 hour time interval.

-maxTins numTins

Specify the maximum number of TINs that can be processed during the
invocation of the command. All the possible variations of the command
options may result in an unintentionally large set of TINs to be processed.
For example, if an erroneous time span was entered, an excessive number
of TINs may be processed. When this occurs the program can appear to
freeze as it iterates through all the possibilities.
By default this value is set as 100,000.

-fmt inputFormat

Use either 1 for netCDF files, 2 for XMRG files, or 3 for
Nexrad_Grib files. If neither is specified, all will be attempted if
necessary.

-inUnits unit

Specify data units that the input file units are in. Default is 'mm' if
not specified and cannot be determined from the input file directly.

-shg

Specifies to output a standard hydrologic grid DSS image. By default an
HRAP image will be generated. This option is only compatible with DSS
image storage and will not work with file based image storage.

-shift timespan

The amount of time to shift the image from its encoded time. It cannot
be used if either '-sTime', '-eTime', -dTime or '-localTime' are used.
The formats are the same as for the -dTime option with the additional
specification that the timespan can be negative. e.g. -06:00:00

-localTime

Shifts the data to localtime. It cannot be combined with '-sTime',
'-eTime', '-dTime', or '-shift'.

-type label

Data type (i.e. precipitation, temperature). This type is parsed from most
files, and therefore should generally be unnecessary. This option is provided as
an override, or to fill in the data type when not parsed from the data file.

-title title

Used to specify a title for the output file. If none is specified the
program will attempt to generate one from available information. A title
that has blanks should be enclosed in double quotes.

-outUnits units

Specify data units that the output file units are in. Default is 'mm'

-dssA through -dssF

Specifies pathname parts for the DSS path when DSS is used.

SAMPLE COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS:

Single NetCDF file being converted to DSS
-inFile C:\file.nc -outFile C:\file.dss

Multiple NetCDF files being converted to DSS with date masking, filtering by
1 hour duration, and only allowing a maximum of 10 images to be processed.
-inFile C:\filenamebase%e:yyyyMMMdd_HHmm% -outFile C:\file.dss
-sTime 06OCT1985,000000 -eTime 06OCT1985,240000
-tinInputInterval 1Hour -maxTins 10

Shifting NetCDF file 3 days forward and saving to DSS
-outFile C:\file.dss
-inFile C:\file.nc
-shift 72h

NOTE FOR WINDOWS USERS

Any command line arguments containing a % sign needs to be escaped in order
to work. For example The command:

-outFile %e:yyyyMMMdd_HHmm%.tin...

becomes:

-outFile %%e:yyyyMMMdd_HHmm%%.tin...

NOTE ON PERFORMANCE

This program may utilize a significant amount of memory depending on datasets specified.
   For extra intensive data operations, it may be necessary to increase the memory allocated
   to the jvm. This can be performed by setting the -Xmx argument, which can be altered
   easily in the "memory_setting" variable in the RfcGridReader.cmd example file provided.