[OpenMadrigal-developers] Issues with Madrigal

[William Rideout]

John,

Frank mentioned to me that you and he had some problems using Madrigal.  In 
particular, Frank said that you were looking to access some geophysical data, so 
you selected "Access Data" -> "Database Inventory Form".  You then selected 
"Geophysical Indicies" and modified the date range to select some limited amount 
of data.  You then got a no data returned message.  (Let me know if I'm off here).

Madrigal is geared around experiments, and this page is called "Madrigal 
Experiment Selector".  We organize geophysical parameters into one experiment 
that started in 1950 and continues up until the last time we updated the data. 
By choosing a limited date range, you effectively eliminated that experiment. 
You would have seen the experiment if you had left the default dates.

However, I think what you did was something other reasonable users might do, and 
so I changed the logic of that search.  Now the search returns a list of 
experiments that overlap the selected time range, rather than are included in 
the selected date range. That is, it now returns a superset of what it used to 
return.  This is also a reaction to Larisa's point that we should try to avoid 
"No data found" messages as much as possible, and help users to avoid them.

So please try again your approach, and let me know if you think this is 
reasonable solution, or if you have a better suggestion.

Some other points about geophysical parameters:

If you select any other instrument in the Madrigal database, and choose isprint 
as the way to view the data, you'll see that geophysical parameters, magnetic 
field, IMF, MSIS, etc parameters are always listed as though they were recorded 
in the data.  This is done through Madrigal's derivation engine.

If you want parameter data independently of any experiment in the Madrigal 
database, go to "Run Models" -> "Calculate any Madrigal Parameter".

Please let me know if you have any other problems with Madrigal, because 
feedback from first-time users is extremely valuable.

Bill


-- 
Bill Rideout
MIT Haystack Observatory
Email: brideout at haystack.mit.edu
Phone: 781 981-5624