After launching PSTC, you’ll need to connect to a GRX program. Be sure to launch a GRX window FIRST, otherwise PSTC will close. Select the program use wish to use (GR2A, GRL3, GRL2, GRE) from the radio buttons and then using the site drop down to connect to a specific site. Press connect to use the selected site. You can use refresh to search for additional windows launched after PSTC that are not shown. Once connected PSTC Basic and PSTC Advanced button will become enabled.
To use PSTC Basic, press the Basic button on the main window. Once launched, the program will automatically start polling lat/lon coordinates from GRX and will be indicated on the GRX window by the “Drag me to storm marker” as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Setting current position, “Move Me to Storm” marker.
The position can be locked by pressing Alt+Z. After locking a position, move the mouse to the position of the storm 15 minutes prior to calculate an SMV. A Storm track and polygon will automatically be displayed as shown Figure 2, the SMV can be locked by pressing Alt+X.
Figure 2: Setting SMV from previous position, “Move Me to 15 min ago” marker, and auto storm track and polygon.
Once set, the pathcast dialog will show, select yes to proceed with calculations or no to dismiss. Once a pathcast has been processed, the output window will be displayed as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Pathcast output window