Exercise 1: Web interface

Selected Madrigal sites

Simple Local Data Access

  1. Start at the SRI or the CEDAR Madrigal site, and choose Simple Local Data Access. We will be looking at Sondrestrom data, and those are the only two sites that have local copies. As the name suggests, Simple Local Data Access is only for local data.

    1. Choose the Sondrestrom radar. If you are using the CEDAR site, it will be easier if you choose "Incoherent Scatter Radars" as the instrument type. This option does not appear on the SRI site because it only has data from a few instruments.

    2. Choose 2012, then January, and then the 12th.

    3. Sondrestrom ran two experiments on this day. Choose the StratWarm (for Stratospheric warming) experiment.

    4. Sondrestrom creates a number of different types of files. Choose ACPORT - FITTED GATE DATA FROM DWELLS.

    5. Use the Download data to download the file in both ascii and Hdf5 format.

    6. Use the Print data to display the file in ascii format in the browser.

    7. Use the View info, Show plots, and More parameters buttons. The More parameters button is a link to the full UI that allows you to choose parameters and set filters.

Browse for Individual Madrigal Experiments

  1. Start at any Madrigal site above (SRI, CEDAR, Millstone, or EISCAT).

  2. Use Full Access Data and then Browse for Individual Madrigal Experiments. Search for all instruments that were running on 2007-03-27. Use the default All Madrigal Sites option. Go back and repeat the search so only Incoherent Scatter Radars are shown.

  3. Select the Poker Flat World Day experiment that was running on 2007-03-27, and do the following with that experiment:

    1. Determine how many data files there are for that experiment, and how they differ.

    2. For one of the files, choose "View description from the catalog and/or header records", and read the summary information stored there. Ask questions if anything is unclear.

    3. Download one of the files is ascii format by using the Download file link, and sticking with the default Simple column-formated ascii option. Remember that this option does not filter the data, and no derived parameters will be included. Open the downloaded file with a text editor to make sure its easy to understand and parse.

    4. Madrigal administrators can add plots and links to each Madrigal experiment. Click on the Geometry Plot link to see the beams that were used. Examine other plots from that experiment.

    5. For the default file for Alternating Code (AC16-30), choose "Print file as ascii (isprint)". This link allows you print both measured and derived parameters. For this file, choose time parameters (year, month, day, hour, min, sec), geographic parameters (elm, azm, gdlat, glon, gdalt), geophysical parameter (kp), and I. S. Radar Basic Parameters (ne, dne, ti, dti, te, dte). Which of these parameters are in the file, and which are derived?

    6. Repeat the above with headers off and missing data replaced with the string NaN.

    7. Save the result in a file using the Save text to file button.

    8. Determine what the Autocorrelation parameter NUMTXAEU means.

    9. Next, we'll try to filter the data. There are some standards filter at the top of the web page, such as elevation or altitude. Just under them are free-form filters that allow filtering using any parameter. First, apply a filter to eliminate elevations under 75 degrees. Look at the resulting data to be sure all data with elevation less than 75 degrees is eliminated.

    10. Add a filter so that only data where te/dte is greater than 10.0 is printed (that is, the error in te is less than one-tenth the measured value).

Run Models

  1. Use the Madrigal page Run Models->Calculate any Madrigal parameter for a given time and range of lat, lon, and alt to calculate the shadow height (SDWHT) and magnetic field vector (BN,BE,BD) 1000 km directly above PFISR (lat 65.130, lon -147.471) at 2007-03-27 12:00:00 UT.

(Alternate Web interface exercises page)

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