Choosing Data Sources

3.4 Choosing Data Sources

The IDV can use data from local files, remote data servers such as OPeNDAP or ADDE and even web servers. You can read further about specific sources of data available.

The general idea is to select the sources of data that you want to work with within the IDV using the Data Chooser. Once selected, the data source will be shown in the Field Selector window where you can choose parameters, times and the displays to create.

The IDV can work with any number of data sources at one time. Choosing a data source with the IDV typically just reads the metadata (i.e., data about the data), no parameter data values are read until you request a display to be made.

To select the data that is to be used in the IDV you use the Data Chooser window, which is brought up by:

Selecting the Data Chooser tab in the Dashboard.
The Data->Choose Data menu item in the main menu bar.

This section describes how to:

3.4.0	Choose Data on Disk
3.4.1	Chooser a URL
3.4.2	Choose Cataloged Data
3.4.3	Choose Satellite Imagery
3.4.4	Choose NEXRAD Level III Radar Data
3.4.5	Choose NEXRAD Level II Radar Data
3.4.6	Choose Radar Data from Remote Server
3.4.7	Choose Point Observation Data
3.4.8	Choose RAOB Data (atmospheric balloon sounding)
3.4.9	Choose NOAA National Profiler Network Data
3.4.10	Poll on files in a Directory

Using the Map Selector

Some of the choosers (e.g., Level III radar, profiler, RAOB) use a map of stations. You can zoom and see more stations with a rubber-band box made by dragging the left mouse button on the map. Also note the icons below the map to zoom and pan. Reading from left to right, the plus icon zooms in, the minus icon zooms out, the curving arrow restores the previous view, and the house icon restores the original view. The up arrow moves the view up (map down); the down arrows moves the view down (map up), the left arrow moves the view left (map right) and the right arrow moves the view right (map left).

The Declutter check box allows you to show all stations (not checked), or only a limited number of stations that do not overlap each other (checked). You may need to zoom in to see all the stations clearly separated. TIP: It can be helpful to zoom into an area where you want to select stations, before clicking on the station, to avoid the chance of getting a neighbor station by mistake.

The station map may support selecting either one station (e.g. for radar data) or multiple stations (e.g., for profiler data). Left clicking on a station will select it. If in multiple selection mode Shift-drag will select all stations within a region. Control-drag will add the stations in the selected region to the set of already selected stations. Pressing the Control-A key will select all stations. Right clicking in the map will bring up a menu that allows you to select all stations and to clear the selection.

Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer > Dashboard