METO
617 Project: Development of the Weather/Climate Map Automatic Printing
System (MAPS)
Team
Members
Takemasa Miyoshi
Bin Guan
Abstract
As a class project of METO 617, the map board in the second
floor atrium of the CSS Building was revitalized. This project was
conducted with the following three major achievements: (1) a
department-wide survey that collected opinions concerning the map board,
(2) a Unix shell script that automated the whole process of downloading,
processing and printing weather/climate maps, and (3) a web-based
graphical user interface that enabled easy configuration and operation
of the script. Achievements (2) and (3) combine to form the so-named
Weather/Climate Map Automatic Printing System (the MAPS software). The
results of the department-wide online survey indicated that the majority
of the department desired more frequent update of the maps, including
daily weather charts. In view of the survey results, choices of maps and
their arrangements on the map board were refined. The MAPS software was
developed with three basic concepts: convenience, adjustability and
portability. By convenience, we mean the new software should be easy to
set up, to learn, and to use. By adjustability, we want the software to
be highly configurable. By portability, we want it to be compatible with
most of the common Unix platforms, meanwhile not requiring additional
software to run properly. Based on these basic concepts, we developed
the engine of the MAPS software with Unix B-shell script, and the
graphical user interface with PHP web page. As a conclusion to the
project, both User's Manual and Developer's Manual were prepared along
with the release of the MAPS software.
Documents
Final Report
Final Presentation
Downloads
The
MAPS Software (Screenshots: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7)