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Using a “Super-Image” Base Map In WeatherProducer

Overview
June 2005

You can make a “super image” basemap to cover a variety of breaking weather situations when there might not be enough time to use MapMaker to build an event-specific map. The concept of a super image base map allows you to always have the weather event in the center of the image (or offset to one side or another, if that’s more convenient), without constantly having to create new base maps as the situation unfolds. A super image basemap is two to three times larger than normal. Since it contains more map data (either digital elevation model - DEM data, or high resolution satellite imagery data if you have that option), it can be zoomed in to whatever the window of interest is without undesirable loss of resolution. When used as a snapshot base layer of a product within the WeatherProducer application, the product’s navigation can be quickly re-defined and the product updated.

Steps
  1. Enter the MapMaker application
  2. If you normally use saved settings (color choices, edge effects, etc) when building maps, load that setting (File, Load Settings).
  3. From the Settings menu, choose Navigation
  4. If desired, change the projection (e.g. to a Mercator projection for hurricane tracking)
  5. Use the red box to define the area of interest. Make sure you have a large enough area to cover weather events in the area of interest (e.g. the east coast of the United States )
  6. Click on Edit, then Numeric Values.
  7. In the upper right portion of the resulting screen you will find the Output Size values (normally 720 for Width, and 486 for Height).
  8. Change the values for width and height to 3 times normal if building the map on an SGI machine (in the 720x 486 default example, the new values would be 2160 and 1458), or 1.75 times normal if building the map on a Dell machine (new values would be 1260 and 850).
  9. Press the Apply button to make the changes, and then click on the Close button.
  10. Save your new navigation settings with an appropriate name such as “East_Coast_Super_Image” (this step is particularly important for SGI machines as you will need the navigation settings later)
  11. If necessary, change any other Settings such as colors, edge effects, etc, but pay attention to the next step!
  12. This step is important! From the Settings menu, choose Effects, and change the water texture to any of the choices containing the word “tile” (e.g. WavesTurquois_tile), or any of the solid color textures. Do not use a texture such as “Spotlight” as the image is too large to properly represent this texture.
  13. Make sure that there are no layers in the “Overlays” section (delete any that may be present – you can add geopolitical borders later via the WeatherProducer application).
  14. Set the Build type to “WEATHERproducer” (Settings, Build Type, WEATHERproducer)
  15. Click on Settings, Source Data, and choose the appropriate setting (DEM Auto, or just Auto for non-high resolution imagery customers, or a high res earth if available.
  16. Save the new map settings by clicking File, then Save Settings. Use a descriptive name to distinguish it from normal settings (e.g. “Super_Image_Settings”)
  17. Click on the Build button to construct the map (give it a descriptive name such as “East_Coast_Super_Image”). Note: This step may take several minutes to complete, depending on your hardware configuration.

    If you used a Dell machine to build the map, it will automatically be added to the WeatherProducer snapshot library, and be ready to use, complete with navigation. If that is the case, proceed directly to step 28 below.
  18. On the WeatherProducer desktop, choose New, Product, Graphic, Imported Image File, and give the new product a descriptive name such as “Super_Image_Import”.
  19. Right click on the new product, and choose Edit Parameters
  20. Press the Select button, and in the Selection field, type /bigdisk/maptool/temp and press Enter (you will then see a listing of files in that directory)
  21. Select the file called “water.sgi”, and click OK.
  22. From the Options menu, choose “Zero Black”
  23. Also from the Options menu, click on Defaults
  24. In the right hand column, un-check the second to last item (Image Navigation), then click the Close button. The Map Definition button should now be available (no longer grayed out).
  25. Click on the Map Definition button, then click on Load. Choose the navigation you saved from MapMaker in step 10 above.
  26. Close the navigation window, and Update the product. You should see the super image base map (and if you stretch the display window, you can tell that it is much larger than a normal 720 x 486 product).
  27. Once the image is displayed, from the Product menu on the left, click on Save Snapshot, and give the new snapshot a descriptive name (e.g. “East_Coast_Super_Image”)

     
  28. You can now use this snapshot in any product such as a satellite image loop, hurricane tracks, etc. Find whatever product(s) you want to use with the new super image, and make a copy of the product (right mouse click on the product, and choose the copy option).
  29. You may want to rename the copied product to reflect that it will use the super image basemap (right mouse click, and choose the rename option).
  30. Edit Parameters for the new product. For the base (snapshot) layer, substitute the new super image from the snapshot library.
  31. From the Edit Parameters screen, click on Options, then Defaults.
  32. In the right hand column, un-check the second to last item (Image Navigation), then click the Close button. The Map Definition button should now be available (no longer grayed out).
  33. Click on the Map Definition button and move the red box around to “window into” the area you want covered by the product. You will need to experiment to see just how much you can zoom in and still produce a desirable on-air product, but remember that weather data such as thresholded (i.e. not full-spectrum) satellite data, and most radar data, can be smoothed to eliminate most pixelization.

Now, as conditions change with the weather event, it’s a simple matter of editing the Map Definition screen to move the map around, without going back to MapMaker to build a new map each time.