CMA Viewer

The CMA Viewer

What is the CMA Viewer?

The CMA Viewer is a Windows program to visualise the CMA (China Meteorological Administration) data sent over EUMETCast.

What data does the view display?

As the program is still in development, the range of data is still expanding, but at the moment the program can display the following data types sent over EUMETCast:

CLT - Cloud Type Analysis
CTA - Cloud Total Amount
HPF - Relative humidity?
OLR - Outgoing Long-wave Radiation
PRE - Precipitation Estimate
TBB - Black-Body temperature
TPW - Total Precipitable Water-Vapour

There is no need to decompress the data from the Z-zipped format used for transmission.

The program has command-line facilities to process on or more files and produce image results. It can also accept user-defined palettes for the OLR and TBB data.

You can also get some data directly over the Internet from the Satellite data site (in Chinese), in English, but this appears to be the HDF5 format image data, and not the meteorological products for which the CMA Viewer is designed. You can read that image data with my GeoSatSignal program.

Modes of operation

No parameters. Interactive mode, open a file with the menu
One parameter which is a file name. Action: open the file named in the parameter. This allows the program to be associated with .AWX files and open them with a double-click.
One parameter which is a directory. Action: open all the .AWX files in the directory and write the decoded image back to that directory. Once all the files are processed, the program exits.
Two parameters - both parameters must point to directories, the first of which contains the source data files, and the second of which defines where the output images are to be written. Once all the files are processed, the program exits.

In addition to the one-parameter and two-parameter modes, you can add a third parameter "-MIN" which will make the program run off-screen and minimised, thus providing minimal visual distraction during automated operation.

Can I register and what do I get?

The program as downloaded provides a 30-day trial licence period to allow you to evaluate its function. After the 30-day period, you will need to register to continue running the program. Registration also entitles you to technical support. Register the CMA Viewer here.

Download the CMA Viewer

V1.0.0	First released version.
V1.1.0	Add support for OLR data, add palette support for TBB data, add support for TPW data, add support for TSG data, add support for PRE data.
V1.1.1	Beta version - accept -MIN parameter to run off-screen and minimised.
V1.2.0	Accept compressed files on input, support more pressure levels in HPF data, better interpretation of PRE data (mm/hour), display both compressed an no-compressed file in File\|Open dialog.
V1.3.0	Compile with Delphi 2009.
V2.0.0	Remove hardware lock. Please note: a version 2 licence is required for this software. If you don't already have a 2 licence, existing users only can upgrade the CMA Data Viewer licence here.
V2.1.0	Accept .GZ files as well as .Z files. Faster start-up. Please note: You may need to enter your licence again without using Run as Administrator. You may need a licence update.

Download the CMA Viewer V2.1.0 (1,602,982 bytes, 2023-Mar-10)
MD5 checksum: 703D8C2ED0C58C078C7E6AA61F70E976
Join the SatSignal self-help group to discuss this software with other users

Unless you have access to the data, I suggest not downloading or installing the CMA Viewer, as you will trigger the 30-day trial timer as soon as you run the program.

Screenshots

CTA - Cloud Type Analysis

CTA - Cloud Total Amount

OLR - Outgoing Long-wave Radiation

TBB - Black-Body temperature

TPW - Total Precipitable Water-Vapour