Getting Started

Next: An Animation Loop of Satellite Imagery

2 Getting Started

This section describes how to quickly get started using the IDV and making displays of common data available through the IDV. It is not intended to be a complete tutorial. For a more detailed guide to IDV usage, see the Unidata IDV Training Workshop material.

IDV Main Windows

There are two main windows in the IDV reference application - - the Dashboard window and the Main Display window. Other windows may appear when needed.

Dashboard

The Dashboard window is central to the IDV. You use it to choose among data sources and parameters to display, choose the kinds of displays to make, and choose times of data to display. Information on the use of this window can be found in the Dashboard section.

View Window

The View Window or view manager window includes many of the IDV displays, the legends, time animation controls, view point controls for 3D displays, icons to zoom and pan, menus of maps, and the main IDV menu. All these features have sections throughout the user guide.

Common Usage Scenario

To create displays with the IDV, the common usage scenario is:

Getting Started Sections

2.0	An Animation Loop of Satellite Imagery
2.1	An Animation Loop of NWS WSR-88D Level III Radar Imagery
2.2	Level II Radar
2.3	Plots from Gridded Data
2.4	Cross Boundary Subset
2.5	Surface Observations - METAR and Synoptic Plots
2.6	Skew-T Plot of RAOB data (Balloon soundings)
2.7	Profiler Winds
2.8	Globe Display

Learning more

Review the material about Choosing Data Sources, Selecting Data Parameters and Displays, and the Main Menu to learn more about data selection and making displays. The Available Data Sources page lists the different data sets available for the IDV.

Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer