GEMPAK / N-AWIPS

REDBOOK Graphics

What are REDBOOK Graphics?

REDBOOK Graphics are products used for operational forecasts and are transmitted on the NWSTG channel of NOAAPORT. REDBOOK graphics are binary files which contain georeferenced drawing commands and can be mapped and reprojected into any desired display area. Since the products are not fixed to a set map area/projection, the end use can tailor the products to local needs. Moreover, the user can overlay graphics with other REDBOOK graphics, or any other GEMPAK data set. The product generation tools can be used to edit and modify these products as well by converting them to GEMPAK's Vector Graphics Format (VGF).

Redbook QPF and NEXRAD Mosaic

GEMPAK is capable of displaying REDBOOK Graphics using the GPMAP program. Additionally, I have provided a program DCREDBOOK in the Unidata distribution of GEMPAK to automate generation of graphical output of these products. Since the REDBOOK products are device independent, you can use any of the available GEMPAK device drivers to display them- including 11"x17" tabloid paper for postscript prints for a map wall. Moreover, if you want to change the display region, you can configure your desired plot area for each product.

Sample displays of REDBOOK Graphics products shows the range of analysis and forecast products currently available. The script used to generate the GIF output files is dcredbook_gif.csh.

The script bellow is an example of the use of dcredbook_ps (the dcredbook decoder linked directly to the PS driver) which can be used with the LDM pqact.conf file to automatically send REDBOOK graphics to a postscript printer:

#!/bin/csh -f
#
# Filename: dcredbook_ps.csh
#
# This script may be used as a pqact.conf action to automatically
# print REDBOOK graphics found on NOAAPORT.
#
# pqact.conf usage:
# 
# send all NOAAPORT graphic products (except those from KWAL) to this script
#HRS     ^P..... (K[^W]|KW[^A]|KWA[^L])
#	PIPE    -close  util/dcredbook_ps.csh
#
#
# source the GEMPAK environment so that table, mapfiles etc. are found
#
source /home/gempak/NAWIPS/Gemenviron

# Set a work directory and change directory to it
setenv PSDIR $GEMDATA/web/redbook
cd $PSDIR

# set the GEMPAK device line, use the process number of this script as the file ID.
# The default postscript output is for 8.5" x 11" paper. If you have an alternate
# paper tray for 11" x 17" paper, you can specify that paper size in the device
# options.
#
#set DEV='PS|'$$'.ps|11;17|M'
set DEV='PS|'$$'.ps||M'

# Redirect standard input to the dcredbook_ps decoder
cat | dcredbook_ps -v 1 -d $GEMDATA/logs/dcredbook.log $DEV

# print and remove the postscript file (use -c to copy the file to spool)
lp -c -dhp $$.ps
rm $$.ps

exit 0