WindNinja 2.1 Beta Released for Testing

Hello everyone. WindNinja 2.1.0 beta is up for testing. I am sure there are a few issues left but we are definitely getting close.

Here are a few of the improvements:

1. Coarse weather model initialization: This feature lets you automatically download National Weather Service weather model output for your DEM area and do WindNinja runs to "down scale". Currently, there are 4 different models to chose from. You can also optionally write output files from the "raw" weather model outputs (in addition to the usual output files from WindNinja).
2. Point Initialization: This new feature lets you define location(s) of known wind speed and direction to initialize a WindNinja run. WindNinja will use this information and produce a simulation that matches your inputs at the defined location(s). Note that you can only do one simulation at a time, and that a simulation takes a bit longer than other WindNinja simulations because internally there are several simulations being run. Right now, to do a point initialization run, you have to write a text file that identifies the locations, the speeds and directions, etc. The locations can either be in lat/lon or x/y coordinates in the DEMs projection. As an example for now, there is one of these files for the Mackay example dem in the example files folder called "mackay_wx_stations.csv".
3. Clip output files: This new functionality just lets you optionally clip off a buffer around your output files. You specify how much to clip by entering a percent of the domain average total north-south and east-west extents. So 10% would clip off a 10% "doughnut" from all the output files. This could be used to prevent people from seeing or using (in FARSITE for example) the outer portions of your simulations since these areas might be less accurate due to boundary effects.
4. Write atm files: This option just writes an atm file for your simulation. For "normal" runs (input speed and direction), an atm file is written for each run. For weather model initialized runs, one atm file is written with multiple lines (ie. each time that was simulated).
5. Better time zone support: Internally, we have switched to a more advanced representation of time (daylight savings, leap year, etc.). For the user, this just means that you chose the timezone based on the location of the simulation, and WindNinja determines if it is daylight savings or not (based on the date), the UTC offset, etc.

There are some fairly obvious issues you may find and some things that aren't quite as intuitive as it should be. Jot all this stuff down and let us know. A few things you should know: If you want to do a weather or point initialization, you must load a DEM with projection information first. Also, I am not sure the cancel button works on the progress bar. To select a forecast, navigate through the directory structure and select a file. I assume you have an internet connection for the weather model stuff. We are working on the tutorials and hopefully will have those out it about a week.

You can find the installer at: http://www.firemodels.org/index.php/windninja-software/windninja-downloads

If you have any questions, email us using Help->Email Us.

We also plan to have a fully functional command line interface for this release, but it isn't in this beta for windows.

Thanks in advance for any testing and feedback you can provide us!
Jason and Kyle