Enhance gen_vx_mask to support a new local solar time masking region option

[JohnHalleyGotway]

Describe the Enhancement

The gen_vx_mask tool already supports solar altitude (solar_alt) and solar azimuth (solar_azi) masking by computing the solar altitude and azimuth values at each grid point for the time defined by the mask_file setting. mask_file may either be set to an explicit time string in YYYYMMDD[_HH[MMSS]] format or to a gridded data file. If set to a gridded data file, the -mask_field command line option specifies the field of data whose valid time should be used. If the -thresh command line option is not used, the raw solar altitude or azimuth value for each grid point will be written to the output. If it is used, the resulting binary mask field will be written. This option is useful when defining a day/night mask.

This issue will enhance gen_vx_mask to support a new option -type solar_time and provide a way to define the beginning/ending solar time to be included in the mask.

Time Estimate

2 days?

Sub-Issues

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None needed.

Relevant Deadlines

Note that the SWPC 2770493 funding is scheduled to end on September 30, 2024. However an extension has been requested. Assuming the extension is received, recommend completing this work during the first development cycle for the 12.1.0 release.

Funding Source

SWPC 2770493

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Define Related Issue(s)

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• METplus, MET, METdataio, METviewer, METexpress, METcalcpy, METplotpy
• Enhance GenVxMask wrapper to compute time-varying masks using Local Solar Time METplus#2586

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