Making a weather map
1) Open WXtoIMG and go to the menu "Options" and select "Ground Station Location".
2) Note the geographic coordinates of your station.
3) Go back to the menu "Options" and click on "Projection Options...".
4) Enter the latitude and longitude reference depending on your coordinates then push the other parameters as illustrated below:
5) Then make the acquisition of two consecutive images.
6) Go to the "Options" menu and select "Disable Map Overlay" so WXtoImg does not draw the boundaries on the map. Indeed, once imported into Digital Atmosphere, this software will trace the boundaries and allow us to verify that both maps are properly adjusted.
7) Then generate a composite image with an orthographic projection and save this image to a location of your choice with the "Composite Image to ..." option from the "File" menu.
8) Run Digital Atmosphere.
10) Open the "File" menu and select "Preferences".
11) Go to the "Maps" tab and select only "International boundaries" and "Islands" in the parameters on the right. Then check the box "Save as default preferences".
12) Go to the "Styles" tab and modify the values like the pictures below :
13) Go to the "Map" menu and select "Generate base map...".
14) Enter the same latitude and longitude reference as used in WXtoImg followed by the other parameters as illustrated below :
15) If your settings are correct, you should get the following map :
16) Go to the "Map" menu and select "Import map from file...".
17) In the next window, just click on "OK" to continue.
18) Then select the composite image you saved with WXtoImg and click "Open."
19) Your picture is now imported in Digital Atmosphere :
20) Go to the "Map" menu then "Add Overlay" and select "Basemap".
21) If all settings are correct, the drawn boundaries of the map must match perfectly with the image imported as illustrated below:
22) Go to the "Map" menu and select "Copy markings onto basemap." This allows to keep in memory the imported image and the drawn boundaries. Thus, whatever the elements that will be superimposed on the map, if you click on the eraser icon in the toolbar, only the overlapping elements will be removed without it neither affects the imported image or the drawn boundaries.
23) Got to the "Data" menu and select "Retrieve data..." to start the recovery of the meteorological data via Internet.
24) Select the "Fleetcode" sources in the list by checking the appropriates box like the picture bellow then click on the "Retrieve" button.
25) In the "Data" menu, go to "Fleetcode (FM 45-V IAC)" and select "All annotations" to add all weather data on the card. You can also select the layout elements (fronts, isobar and highs/lows) individually.
26) You should get a real weather map with the representation of warm and cold fronts, isobaric curves for atmospheric pressures plus the highs and lows.
27) To export the picture, just go to the "Map" menu and select "Export chart..." then save it to the place of your choice/
28) The final composition is an image of 1719 x 1416 pixels composed of a satellite photo on which are superimposed the weather elements useful for predictions.