Proplab-Pro Version 3, Build 1003 has been released.
Important: This build contains numerous bug fixes, including a critical bug in the 3D ray-tracing engine. We strongly recommend that all owners of Proplab-Pro Version 3 upgrade to Build 1003. For more information, please visit:
http://www.spacew.com/proplab/upgrade.htmlA few of the bug fixes and enhancements that have been incorporated into this build include:
- Critical bug fix for the 3D ray-tracing engine. It improperly computed electron density gradients under some circumstances and may have resulted in incorrectly traced rays (sometimes seriously deviating from reality).
- Corrected a bug that caused the system to crash and hang when bad x-ray data was downloaded into the system.
- Increased the resolution of broadcast coverage maps from 1 square degree to as little as 0.1 square degrees. To minimize memory usage (which would have exhausted resources on some home computers), the computational table is swapped to the hard-disk. This prolongs computations somewhat, but reduces resource requirements.
- Incorrect geomagnetic pole locations were given in the model. The current coordinates are valid and use the geomagnetic poles determined from the IGRF model (International Geomagnetic Reference Field). Proplab-Pro 3 MUST use a dipole-equivalent determination of the magnetic poles (NOT the true poles) because the model requires antipodal poles and the true magnetic poles are not antipodal.
- Sometimes, improper ground-bounce information was recorded in 3D mode.
- Added a "Local" elevation angle statistic to the 3D ray-tracing window that shows the current local elevation angle of the wave as it is being refracted. It is useful for determining precisely when reflection occurs.
- The Ap index erroneously reported negative values if internet communications to obtain the data fails.
- The Ap13 option has been made editable. That is, it is no longer grayed out and can be user-specified. It is only used when the Storm-Time model is engaged.
- A new export utility has been included ("Convert.exe") which will allow the ground-based results to be exported into a text file (comma or tab delimited) for use in external spreadsheet (or other) software.
- Very short-path MUF computations caused Proplab to hang. This problem cannot be easily rectified using the current approach due to the stepping rates employed in the code. As a result, the software displays a notice in the status bar (bottom of the Proplab screen) if it is unable to resolve the MUF at any point.
- The hint on the main map screen suggested +=west when in fact it should have read - = west.
- The ground gyrofrequency units in the 3D options section was improperly labeled as "Hz". It now correctly reads "MHz."
- Printing of most of the screens produced by Proplab now print using all but 5% of the margin space on the page. In other words, print-outs are bigger.
- Time and date information has been included on the global ionospheric maps. Note that global maps still have a contouring problem when little or no data is available to contour (as when displaying spread-F probabilities). This problem has persisted through the current version and will be rectified as soon as our 3rd party code for the contouring algorithm corrects the problem (they haven't yet). This bug does not affect the accuracy of the software in any way.
- The manual has been updated.