The Man computer Interactive Data Access System (McIDAS) is a research quality suite of applications used for decoding, analyzing, and displaying meteorological data developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC). Unidata distributes a version of SSEC McIDAS (McIDAS-X) for a variety of platforms running Unix, Linux, and MacOS-X.
Unidata's McIDAS can be used for visualization and manipulation of geophysical data in a wide variety of formats.
Perform Meteorological Analyses for conventional observation and grid-point data
McIDAS may be used for real-time access to and display of Radar Data such as NEXRAD
McIDAS can be used to analyze any major Satellite Data Sets: GOES, POES, METEOSAT, etc.
Unidata McIDAS v2016 Released
McIDAS-X Addendum v2009n / SSEC McIDAS v2013.1
McIDAS-X Addendum v2009k / v2012.1 
Register to gain access
View the McIDAS release notes for bug fixes, advisories, etc.
Download the current McIDAS
Read the Installation Guide to
Attend the annual McIDAS training workshop at the UPC
A learning guide teaches the basic concepts needed to use McIDAS
View the tutorial from the latest McIDAS training workshop The user guide is the primary documentation for McIDAS
A list of public McIDAS ADDE servers for data access
McIDAS examples show what is possible for data analysis
Verify the SSEC/Unidata version number of your McIDAS upgrade
Review the upgrade instructions when upgrading McIDASDidn't find a solution in the McIDAS documentation? Try the following:
Attend the annual McIDAS training workshop at the UPC A learning guide teaches the basic concepts needed to use McIDAS View the tutorial from the latest McIDAS training workshop
View SSEC's McIDAS
AREA file format informationUnidata embarks on new projects to help make its data and tools available to a broader, more diverse audience. The following are a list of McIDAS-related projects between the Unidata Program Center and external collaborators.
McIDAS-V is a free, open source, visualization and data analysis software package built in collaboration between the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) and Unidata. The new McIDAS, dubbed McIDAS-V, is based on the SSEC-developed VisAD software and the Unidata Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) reference application and library. This Java-based system includes the capabilities and output products of the current McIDAS-X and the new powerful processing, analysis and display capabilities of the VisAD and IDV libraries.