User's Guide
Table Of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Preface
- 1.Overview
- 2. Setting Up Your System
- 2.1Setting Up Map Layers
- 2.2Setting Up Display Levels (for clients without .psf mapping data)
- 2.3Adding Water-Fill Points (for clients without .psf mapping data)
- 2.4Fixing Floods with Anti-Fill Points (for clients without .psf mapping data)
- 2.5Editing the Places Database
- 2.6Adjusting the Color Palette
- 2.7Using the Baron Chart
- 2.8Editing Colors for 256-Color Palettes
- 2.9Customizing Font Displays
- 2.10Manipulating the Automatic Legend
- 2.11Using Overlays
- 2.12Setting Up Icons
- 2.13Points to Remember
- 3.Adjusting Views
- 3.1Using the View Main Panel
- 3.2Setting Map Parameters
- 3.3Editing Topographical Data
- 3.4Saving and Organizing Views
- 3.5Using the View Options
- 3.5.1Adding Text to a View
- 3.5.2Zooming In and Out From a View
- 3.5.3Pointing to Features on a View
- 3.5.4Panning on a View
- 3.5.5Labeling Streets with Street Spotter
- 3.5.6Controlling Display of Radar Data
- 3.5.7Utilizing TeleTrac
- 3.5.8Displaying Lightning Strikes on a View
- 3.5.9Displaying Storm Spotter( Van data
- 3.5.10Toggling High-Definition Data Processing
- 3.5.11Displaying NEXRAD forecast data
- 3.5.12Displaying Neighborhood Weather Net( Sensor Data
- 3.5.13Zooming to a Specific City
- 3.5.14Adding Fronts and Pressure Markers
- 3.5.15Creating Temporary Pixel Query Points
- 3.5.16Creating Fixed Pixel Query Points
- 3.5.17Displaying Precipitation Type Maps
- 3.5.18Saving the Current View as a Bitmap
- 3.5.19Printing the Current View
- 3.5.20Highlighting Your Spotter Network On-Air
- 3.5.21Displaying National Weather Service Warnings
- 3.5.22Displaying Wind Speed and Direction
- 3.6Points to Remember
- 4.Managing Storm Tracks
- 5.Using SEQUENCER
- 6.Controlling Your Radar
- Glossary
FasTrac Millennium User’s Guide – May 2003
Managing Storm Tracks
4.6.2 Using Storm Marquees
Right-clicking on the base of the storm arrow displays the marquee for the
storm. The marquee is similar in style to the storm ETA box, but it gives
information about the storm. This information includes storm direction, speed,
max dBZ level, height, VIL level, top altitude, probability of hail, hail size, and
whether it exhibits Tornado Vortex Signature (TVS) or mesocyclonic activity.
You can control which of these attributes to display by
selecting Marquee Options in the Arrow Filter panel and
opening the StormScan Marquee Setup menu. Be careful.
This menu appears in the on-air portion of the screen. To
toggle display of a particular attribute, click the option in the
Marquee Preferences area. VIL Density and SWP displays
are reserved for COBRA Storm Tracking.
The top-half of the StormScan Marquee Setup menu has two
other areas. Be careful: these options can be confusing. The
Storm Filters area lets you set the minimum values for speed
and dBZ. Storm arrows will not appear for any storm whose
speed or dBZ falls below the minimum specified value. The
maximum attributes work differently. Storms with values
higher than the specified maximums do not filter from
display. Instead, the marquee shows the maximum speed or
dBZ instead of the storm’s real values, and storm arrows
shorten to reflect the maximum speed rather than the storm’s
speed. This can be useful because the National Weather
Service sometimes sends values that are excessively high.
This ceiling feature prevents your viewers from seeing these
anomalies.
To understand the Max Number of Storms Arrows to Display option, you must understand
how the system decides which storms to display. You also should know the storm priority
formula. According to the current formula, the first attribute by which the system sorts storms is
the presence of a TVS. The next attribute that has priority is mesocyclonic activity, followed by
severe hail, normal hail, hail size, dBZ, and storm speed. The formula sorts storms with TVS and
mesocyclonic activities matched by the probability of severe hail. The process continues until it
sorts all of the storms. After sorting the list, the system takes the maximum number of storms
from the list.
The second part of the StormScan Marquee Setup menu is Hail Filters. This part does not filter
storm arrows from display. It merely flags the system that the marquee for that storm should not
display the value in question if the probability of hail or severe hail for any storm is below a
certain level. For instance, you might set the Min Probability for Severe Hail Storm to 50%. If
you then activate the marquee for a storm whose severe hail probability is less than 50%, the
marquee will not have a line that indicates the storm’s probability of severe hail. Furthermore, the
storm will not be dark blue, which normally indicates hail presence.
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