Introduction

MeteoInfo is an integrated framework both for GIS application and scientific computation environment, especially for meteorological community.

MeteoInfoMap is a GIS application which enables the user to visualize and analyze the spatial and meteorological data with multiple data formats.

MeteoInfoLab is a scientific computation and visualization environment using Jython scripting with the ability of multiple dimensional array calculation and 2D/3D plotting.

It requires that Java 8 or greater with 64-bit be installed on your computer. Java 11 64-bit version is suggested.

Publication

  • Wang, Y.Q., 2014. MeteoInfo: GIS software for meteorological data visualization and analysis. Meteorological Applications, 21: 360-368.

  • Wang, Y.Q., 2019. An Open Source Software Suite for Multi-Dimensional Meteorological Data Computation and Visualisation. Journal of Open Research Software, 7(1), p.21. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/jors.267

Presentation

  • MeteoInfo introduction in 2018 HYSPLIT workshop: PPT ; Video

Downloading

The current version of MeteoInfo, along with other information about the application, may always be found at http://www.meteothink.org

Installing MeteoInfoMap/MeteoInfoLab

There is no specified installation file, just unzip the downloaded MeteoInfo file. The complete MeteoInfo Java “Generic” package should, after uncompression, include the following items:

  • MeteoInfo launcher in a shell command files called “mimap.sh” and “milab.sh” for MAC OS, Linux, Unix system.

  • MeteoInfo launcher in a batch command files called “mimap.bat” and “milab.bat” for Windows system.

  • MeteoInfo executable files called “MeteoInfoMap.exe” and “MeteoInfoLab.exe” for Windows system.

  • MeteoInfo jar files called “MeteoInfoMap.jar” and “MeteoInfoLab.jar”.

  • Default MeteoInfo project file called “default.mip”.

  • Configure file called “config.xml” for MeteoInfo and “milconfig.xml” for MeteoInfoLab.

  • Splash file called “splash.png’ for MeteoInfo and “splash_mil.png” for MeteoInfoLab.

  • Color map files in a folder called “colormaps”.

  • Image data files in a folder called “image”.

  • Library files in a folder called “lib”.

  • Map data files in a folder called “map”.

  • Plugin files in a folder called “plugins” for MeteoInfo.

  • Jython program files in a folder called “pylib” for MeteoInfoLab.

  • Sample data files in a folder called “sample”.

  • Synop and METAR station files in a folder called “station”.

  • A README file.

Running MeteoInfoMap/MeteoInfoLab

Run MeteoInfoMap:

On Windows paltform, you can launch MeteoInfoMap by double-clicking MeteoInfoMap.exe file, or by run the batch command file mimap.bat.

On Linux/Unix platforms, you should run MeteoInfoMap from the shell command line; ‘cd’ into the directory where the above files are located and then type:

./mimap.sh

This will execute a one-line command in the shell file which starts MeteoInfoMap and requests that it be allocated 1 GB of memory.

On Mac OS platform, you can launch MeteoInfoMap similar with Linux paltform but using:

./mimap_mac.sh

Run MeteoInfoLab:

On Windows paltform, you can launch MeteoInfoLab by double-clicking MeteoInfoLab.exe file, or by run the batch command file milab.bat. The batch command file with parameters will run a Jython script:

milab.bat test.py

On Linux/Unix platforms, you should run MeteoInfoLab from the shell command line; ‘cd’ into the directory where the above files are located and then type:

./milab.sh

This will execute a one-line command in the shell file which starts MeteoInfoLab and requests that it be allocated 1 GB of memory. To run the script, type:

./milab.sh test.py

To run the script with headless model, a system configuration in which the display device is lacking, type: ./milab.sh -b test.py It is specially useful in Unix/Linux crontab.

On Mac OS platform, you can launch MeteoInfoLab similar with Linux paltform but using:

./milab_mac.sh

Run MeteoInfo with more memory:

JVM will be started with Xms amount of memory and will be able to use a maximum of Xmx amount of memory. For example, starting a JVM like below will start it with 128 MB of memory and will allow the process to use up to 1 GB of memory:

java -Xmx1G -Xms128m

Try to increase Xmx value in the MeteoInfoMap and MeteoInfoLab starting files when you encounter a java.lang.OutOfMemoryError. In windows, you can change MeteoInfoMap.l4j.ini and MeteoInfoLab.l4j.ini files, when you staring the applications using MeteoInfoMap.exe and MeteoInfoLab.exe files.

Also the starting files of mimap.bat and milab.bat can be edited in Windows. The corresponding files are mimap.sh and milab.sh in Linux and Unix, mimap_mac.sh and milab_mac.sh in Mac OS.

Lib files

The folder called lib must remain in the same directory as the mimap.sh application, and all the “jar” files it holds must remain in the lib folder. These file contain the MeteoInfo application code and (re)moving any of them will break MeteoInfo.

Contact

MeteoInfo was written by Dr. Yaqiang Wang. Please send bug reports, etc., to:

Yaqiang Wang

email: yaqiang.wang@gmail.com

Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences

46 Zhong-Guan-Cun South Avenue, Beijing, China

Acknowledgment

MeteoInfo uses Java classes and libraries written by several third-party organizations.