SunCal

SunCal analyses data from tsarchive time series files taken during sun scans.

Overview

SunCal analyses data from tsarchive time series files taken during sun scans.

Prerequesites

The following items are required:

• FMQ or tsarchive time series files

Parameter file

SunCal uses one parameter file that includes information about the files and sun scan analysis parameters.

Ensure file is up to date

To obtain the default parameter file, use the following command:

/path/to/lrose/install/bin/SunCal -print_params > param_file_name

If you already have a parameter file and simply want to check for (and add) updated parameters while retaining current parameters, use the following command:

/path/to/lrose/install/bin/SunCal -params orig_param_file_name -print_params > new_param_file_name

Important parameters

Data input

• input_mode: determines if the application reads time series from an FMQ (TS_FILELIST_INPUT), process files on the command line (TS_FMQ_INPUT), watch the input directory for new files (TS_REALTIME_DIR_INPUT), watch the input directory for new covariances files (COVAR_REALTIME_INPUT), process covariances files in input directory (COVAR_ARCHIVE_INPUT), or process the covariances files on the command line (COVAR_FILELIST_INPUT)
• input_fmq_name: path to FMQ files, for TS_FMQ_INPUT mode only
• input_dir: path to watch for incoming files, for TS_REALTIME_DIR_INPUT mode only
• archive_start_time: start time for files, for COVAR_ARCHIVE_INPUT mode only
• archive_end_time: end time for files, for COVAR_ARCHIVE_INPUT mode only
• covar_field_names: names of specified fields in covariances files

Radar name and location

• radar_name: radar name
• get_location_from_data: option to read latitude and longitude from the time series data

Write results

• write_text_files: option to write out text files instead of to stdout
• txt_output_url: output text files will be written to this directory

Output results to MDV files

• write_mdv_files: option to write out grids to MDV files
• mdv_output_url: path where MDV files will be written

Output summary results to Spdb XML

• write_summary_to_spdb: option to write out summary results to Spdb
• spdb_output_url: path where Spdb files will be written

Running SunCal

To check all command line options for SunCal, including debugging options and file paths, type the following command into a terminal.

/path/to/lrose/install/bin/SunCal -h

Once your parameter file is complete, use a command similar to the following to run the application:

/path/to/lrose/install/bin/SunCal -params param_file_name