This is the instructional video for launching a case in WES-2 Bridge for WDTD’s AWIPS Fundamentals, as well as for the Applied Performance Drills for the Radar Applications Course, or RAC.

The objective of this tutorial is to open the WES-2 Bridge case in review mode and to set the CAVE clock to 2340Z on May 31, 2013, to correctly display the data that will be used throughout all AWIPS Fundamentals lessons which follow. Now, if you are using this video to set up for the RAC Applied Performance Drills, note that the appropriate clock times are going to be specified in each topic-specific video.

You can launch WES-2 Bridge from your system’s Application’s menu… here you can see that it’s the first item in the menu. If for some reason you don’t see this menu, WES-2 Bridge can also be loaded very simply in a terminal window, by changing directories with the command “cd /w2b/wes”… and then by running the program with the command “./wes.sh”.  This will open WES-2 Bridge in the same way as the icon in the applications menu.  We’ll just wait for this to finish loading… and we’ll just resize this quickly.
Now, if you’re rusty with or unfamiliar with WES-2 Bridge, we have a case list panel and, below, a panel showing what we call the EDEX instances, which are available slots for loading one of the above cases… even though, in this circumstance, we only have one case listed. Although an explanation of all the bells and whistles of WES-2 Bridge is outside the scope of this video, I will introduce you to a few features for basic setup. 
 
So, this training expects that your facilitator has loaded the case for these exercises, which is named 2013May31_OUN_AFun_FY18. This means two things.  First, that you see this case name in your case list panel (keeping in mind you may need to scroll down if you have many cases listed here). Second, the case should be loaded to one of the EDEX instances. The third column in our case list panel shows “case status”, and it should say “loaded.” Note that the fourth column shows to what EDEX instance the case has been loaded… mine says EDEX_02.  It’s OK for this to be a different instance on yours than it is on mine.  If an EDEX is listed here, you should be in good shape. If you don't see the case, or it isn’t loaded, you'll want to get your facilitator's help ensuring the case is visible to WES-2 Bridge and properly loaded.

For AWIPS Fundamentals, and the RAC Applied Performance Drills, we will launch our case with review mode by right-clicking the case name and selecting “Review”. Then, in the review wizard window which pops up, just click “Finish.”  This will launch CAVE. It’s possible that the EDEX instance holding your case was turned off, such as if the computer was restarted. That’s not a problem… If WES-2 Bridge prompts you to start up the EDEX first, just click OK and let that it do that for you too. 

Now, of all the ways we could view a case, we choose review because – for now – we don’t want the clock to be running and for data to be updating as it would in simulation mode.  Case review allows you to load all the available data across all times at once for a case and to browse it simply by manipulating the CAVE clock, as we will do in a moment.

Now, CAVE is finished loading here, but I also want to make a quick plug that if you’re interested in learning a little bit more about WES-2 Bridge, there’ll be a link in the references for WDTD online training to get forecasters more comfortable with that.  But that is not necessary for continuing with AWIPS Fundamentals or the RAC Applied Performance Drills. This video is enough. 

So here we have CAVE, and since we are in review mode, not simulation, WES-2 Bridge loaded the complete case all at once and defaulted the CAVE clock – which you can see at the bottom of the CAVE window - 0Z on June 1st. And In this mode, review mode, any further adjustment of the clock will be done manually by us. 

We’ll be interested in KCRI data for our Fundamentals lessons, so let’s go to the top menu of CAVE, select KCRI, and then the 0.5 Z + SRM8 product. This should be the first item in your KCRI menu. And once this loads, I’ll use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in a little bit more on that data. Now, with this combination product, I can use the period button on the numeric keypad (below the three) to toggle between reflectivity and storm relative motion. Now, it shows me a good cluster of storms, but the data we see now is not exactly the scenario we wish to analyze. 

Referring to the radar product legend, I can see that the KCRI data which I’ve loaded is valid at 23:59Z on May 31st, which is consistent with the 0Z time that the CAVE clock defaulted to when we opened the case. Remember that for all Fundamentals lessons, we wish to look at 23:40Z on May 31st, so this requires us to change the clock. 

To change the time, double click on the clock, which again is located on the bottom ribbon of the CAVE window. And, in the dialog box which opens, ensure that the radio button for “set time” is selected. Now, either by using the arrows next to each field or typing it in manually you can adjust the time. The year should already say 2013, so that’s fine, but I’ll enter 5 for the month, 31 for the day, 23 for hours, for minutes 40, and I’ll just do 00 for seconds for consistency. You will want to make sure that the check box for “freeze time at this position” is checked. This locks in 2340Z as the display time for CAVE and prevents the clock from running forward. Now we can hit OK to save changes and close the window.

We can verify that the CAVE clock updated. It says 2340Z on May 31st.  For AWIPS2 Fundamentals, always check at the beginning of a lesson that your clock is set to 2340Z on May 31, 2013. However note that, again, for RAC Applied performance drills, follow the instructions in each video to set the clock to the appropriate time.

Now, if you loaded data before adjusting your clock, as I did for demonstration, you’ll likely notice that time stamp of data in your product legend (2359 for our radar products) did not keep up with my change to the CAVE clock. If ever the data in your main pane has a time stamp which does not match the time displayed on the CAVE clock, and you know that there should be data at that time... try this trick.  Go right click on a side pane to put your data there, pause a moment, and then right click on the same side pane again to bring it back. Now we observe the product legend time … it says 2338Z. Now, this trick often helps nudge the data to update to the correct time. Otherwise you should clear the display with the “Clear” button on the top, and then reload your products to make them match the selected time.

Having matched the data timestamp to our CAVE clock, you should also visually check your data by comparing it to my screen. The difference in reflectivity is subtle, but you should see the same storms at a slightly earlier stage.  And if we switch to storm-relative motion, there’s a much more impressive velocity couplet. If you don’t see this, ensure that you’ve followed the steps to set your clock, and reload your data.

So, this concludes our tutorial. We’ve walked you through the basic steps for every fundamentals lesson, which are (1) loading the WES-2 Bridge test case in review mode, and (2) setting the CAVE clock to 2340Z on May 31, 2013, as well as checking that your loaded data’s timestamp matches the clock.