Director’s Report

Unidata Policy Committee MeetingUnidata Policy Committee Meeting

24 May 200424 May 2004

Mohan RamamurthyMohan RamamurthyUnidata Program CenterUnidata Program CenterUCAR Office of ProgramsUCAR Office of Programs

Boulder, COBoulder, CO

Community Relations:Community Relations:Regional WorkshopRegional Workshop

Unidata Users Committee will be conducting a regional workshop for June 8-9 at Millersville University.

The workshop is being hosted by Rich Clark, former chair of the Users Committee.

The purpose of the workshop:The purpose of the workshop:• to provide training in the use to provide training in the use

of Unidata's Integrated Data of Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer (IDV), and Viewer (IDV), and

• to present use cases of IDV to present use cases of IDV and other Unidata services and other Unidata services (data and tools) in the (data and tools) in the classroom.classroom.

Monthly NewsletterMonthly Newsletter

Based on recommendations from the Users Based on recommendations from the Users Committee, the UPC launched a new monthly Committee, the UPC launched a new monthly newsletter in April to inform the community.newsletter in April to inform the community.

The newsletter will keep the community informed The newsletter will keep the community informed on new activities, projects, and people within the on new activities, projects, and people within the Program Center and the community;Program Center and the community;

The newsletter is available at: The newsletter is available at: http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/currentNL.htmhttp://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/currentNL.htm

Equipment AwardsEquipment Awards

For the second year in a row, the Equipment Awards were again made to the community;

We received 10 proposals, totaling $182,959 ($242K with UCAR overhead);

5 proposals were funded;• University of Oklahoma• San Jose State University• Valparaiso State University• Central Michigan University• Universidade Federal Do Para

Brazil More details in the

notebook

Improved Performance of Improved Performance of Real-time Data FlowsReal-time Data Flows

• 192 machines in 112 network domains are running LDM-6 and reporting real time statistics.

• As a result of the improved performance of the LDM, 29 sites are now receiving CONDUIT data

• 55 sites are receiving WSR-88D Level II data via CRAFT

• NWS will use LDM-6 to distribute WSR-88D Level II data operationally.

• Some new sites on the IDD:

•Moscow State University

•National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting of Vietnam • NCEP Model Data

reception, via IDD/LDM6, in Vietnam

Internet2 Traffic Internet2 Traffic (Week of May 10, ’04)(Week of May 10, ’04)

ApplicationApplication OctetsOctets OctetsOctets

1)1) IperfIperf 27.33%27.33% 109.2TB109.2TB

2)2) NNTPNNTP 10.04%10.04% 40.16TB40.16TB

3)3) HTTPHTTP 8.46%8.46% 33.81TB33.81TB

4)4) FTPFTP 3.63%3.63% 14.50TB14.50TB

5)5) BitTorrentBitTorrent 5.81%5.81% 23.217TB23.217TB

6)6) ShoutcastShoutcast 3.33%3.33% 13.31TB13.31TB

7)7) Unidata LDMUnidata LDM 2.82%2.82% 11.28TB11.28TB

Unidata IDD/LDM uses more of the Internet2 than any other advanced application;

MeteoForum: MeteoForum: A new community building projectA new community building project

MeteoForum is international pilot project to bring Unidata and COMET capabilities to a network of WMO Regional Meteorological Training Centers (RMTCs) in South America and the Caribbean.

• Funded by UCAR Office of Program (UOP) Director’s STORM (opportunity) funds;

• Principals: Tom Yoksas (UPC) and Tim Spangler (COMET, PI);

• MeteoForum promotes collaboration among RMTCs, universities, and national meteorological services;

• Enables free access to rich data resources, software for data analysis, and training and reference materials;

• Unidata has built a data distribution system in South America that connects several universities (IDD-Brazil), and installed a NOAAport satellite downlink system in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Buenos Aires

Belem

San Jose

Rio de Janeiro

Caracas

Bridgetown

IDD-BrazilIDD-Brazil Connects to Unidata IDD Connects to Unidata IDD

Current Participants• Unidata• University of Miami• Universidade Federal do Rio de

Janeiro (UFRJ, IDD-Brazil) • INPE/CPTEC (IDD-Brazil) • Universidade de Sao Paulo

(IDD-Brazil) • Universidade Federal do Para

(IDD-Brazil) • Universidad de Buenos Aires

(IDD-Brazil, imminent)

Infrastructure• Internet2• AMPATH (NSF)• Global Crossing• RNP• ANSP

Software Development and UseSoftware Development and Use

NetCDF-HDF merger: Our goal is to implement an enhanced netCDF interface using HDF5 (a data model, interface, and format from NCSA) for storage. Implementation of netCDF-3 on HDF5 is essentially complete; work in

progress in implementing netCDF-4 on HDF5. IDV: In March, a new release (1.1 beta 3) was made available to

the community. The IDV is now being used at 35 institutions throughout the world.

The IDV will be used in the Rain in Cumulus over the Ocean Experiment (RICO) next January. Project conducted in collaboration with ATD/NCAR and JOSS/UOP The IDV will provide 3-dimensional real-time displays consisting of high

resolution satellite data, S-Pol radar data, aircraft track/state data from the three aircraft and Mobile GLASS soundings.

This will provide a unique and exciting opportunity for future scientists in the atmospheric sciences to interact with the latest analysis software in a field project setting.

GEMPAK: A new release of GEMPAK was made to the community in April. Downloads: 725 unique users for recent releases.

McIDAS Version 2003 Downloads: 103 unique sites

StaffingStaffing

Two Software Engineers, Tom Balzer (top right ) and Doug Lindholm (bottom right), have joined the UPC to participate in the LEAD project.

We have also hired a new Administrative Assistant, Sandra Petrie (left); Sandra will serve as our meetings and travel coordinator. She will also assume the role of coordinator for Unidata's Community Equipment Awards program.

We are taking a cautious approach to filling two other vacancies (one in the IDV group and the other in the Web development area. Some decisions will be made soon.

New Organization Structure

DirectorDirector(Mohan)(Mohan)

Admin(Joanne)

System Admin(Mike)

Community Services(Linda)

Deputy DirectorDeputy Director(Ben)(Ben)

Data Services(Russ))

Data Distribution(Tom)

Data Visualization

(Don)

Community Services and Collaborators

Data Infrastructure &

Collections(John C.)

Integrated Systems

(Ben)

*Based on the recommendation by the Reorganization Task Force, Chair: Ben Domenico

The proposed organizational refinement will focus our talents and resources even more precisely

Will become effective on June 1

Email Support LoadEmail Support Load

The total support load at the UPC remains high.

A Support Task Force, chaired by Tom Yoksas, has been appointed to explore ways to enhance the provision of support to the community, including our support infrastructure.

New Proposal ActivityNew Proposal Activity

Unidata is listed as a collaborator in a new NSF-NMI proposal Unidata is listed as a collaborator in a new NSF-NMI proposal (submitted 10 days ago):(submitted 10 days ago):• VEOLA: A Virtual Earth Observatory and Laboratory• PI: Ian Foster, U. Chicago. (Co-PIs: Ben Domenico and Liping Di)PI: Ian Foster, U. Chicago. (Co-PIs: Ben Domenico and Liping Di)• The project will harness and integrate advanced software and

computational resources to create a national geospatial information integration and processing system.

• The proposed GeoGrid will provide both scientists and students with an unprecedented ability to conduct rapid and productive explorations and analysis of datasets from remote sensing, in-situ observation, and simulation.

• Data will come from NASA EOS, Unidata IDD, USGS EDC, NOAA NCDC, Geospatial-one-stop framework data, and other providers, and will span a wide temporal range from historical archives through the latest processed sensor readings.

• Resources requested at the UPC are modest (0.5 FTE/year for three years)

State of the Program: State of the Program: A SnapshotA Snapshot

Community relationsCommunity relations : : GreenGreen Data FlowsData Flows : : GreenGreen Data sourcesData sources : : Green Green IDDIDD : : GreenGreen Software DevelopmentSoftware Development : : YellowYellow CollaborationsCollaborations :: Green Green StaffingStaffing : : YellowYellow SupportSupport : : GreenGreen SpaceSpace :: Yellow,Yellow, soon to be Greensoon to be Green FinancesFinances : : Green (for FY04)Green (for FY04)