Molenar, Connell, Dostalek, Gosden, Smith, Hillger

A new and unique system for SAB (Satellite Analysis Branch) RAMSDIS has been developed, and was delivered in September 1999.  The main purpose is for evaluation of experimental products.  Support will be provided with refinements and additions, along with interaction on product evaluation.  New products include: SSMI and AMSU display to match a floating sector with GOES images for hurricane analysis, 24-hour average water vapor image loop, a center relative IR average image loop for hurricanes, PC images, and 3.9 micrometer images for volcanic ash analysis.

Tropical RAMSDIS was expanded to 350 frames with additional products and ingest.  It is used for IR image archiving, product development and evaluation, and for daily hurricane briefings.  Sea-surface temperature loops, AMSU Channel 7 images, and a Meteosat-5 (at 63E longitude) floater loops, were added.

Ongoing RAMSDIS support has been provided to the NWS sites.

The In-house RAMSDIS systems have updated with the Y2K compliant McIDAS version 7.5 and OS/2 Warp version 4.0.

Preparation and planning are taking place for a trip to Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica to determine the feasibility of installing RAMSDIS workstations in the meteorological offices of each country (hurricane Mitch restoration project).

Work has begun on converting climatology processing and display programs to run under McIDAS 7.5 and McIDAS 7.6 NT.