Community Services Report August 2006

Community Services Status Report

April 2006 - August 2006

Work referenced in this report is based on advocacy, community outreach, and identifying new data sources and distribution trends within the community, associated with "Endeavor 1: Responding to a broader and more diverse community" and "Endeavor 2: Comprehensive Support Services, [Data services, systems, and tools]" from the Unidata 2008 Proposal. There is overlap of external activities in the areas of "Real-time, self-managing data flows" (Endeavor 3), Endeavor 4: Software to analyze and visualize geoscience data", along with "Distributed, organized collections of digital material" (Endeavor 5), and "Improved data access infrastructure" (Endeavor 6).

Note: This report combines the activities of Jo Hansen, Linda Miller and Jeff Weber.

Community Outreach and Service

Publication of monthly online e-letter has continued.
- Since the last report five e-letters have been published
- Community site featured in this period: Washington University (St. Louis), Pennsylvania State University
- Community information features:
Unidata Seminar Series . Seminars during this period were:
- A Virtual Operations Center (VOC) for Field Experiments in the Atmospheric Sciences by Mike Daniels, Earth Observing Laboratory
- Interoperability between Earth Sciences and GIS models: an holistic approach by Stefano Nativi, Italian National Research Council and the University of Florence
- Initial Results and Operational Plans for the six-satellite Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) by Chris Rocken and Doug Hunt, UOP, COSMIC Program
Colorado School of Mines (Teach the Teachers)

Outreach activity coordinated with UCAR E & O
Educators from Colorado attended this one day event

Participated in the following meetings

AGU Joint Assembly Meeting-Baltimore (23-26 May).
- Coordinated a session: Earth and Space Science Cyberinfrastructures: Data, Tools, Distribution, and Forecast Systems for International Collaboration
- Unidata hosted a reception for Latin American participants that was designed to facilitate collaborations. Funding for it was provided through a small grant through ATM and OISE which also funded some travel costs for several international attendees
Invited Presenter at DLESE Data Services Workshop
- http://swiki.dlese.org/2006-dataservicesworkshop/
- Presented on data access and use of the IDV
- Creating a case study (learning module) on storm chasing using the May 3, 1999 OKC F5 tornado case study data

COMET Faculty Workshop

http://www.comet.ucar.edu/class/faculty/Faculty06-1/
Presented the IDV in the context of using multi-media from distributed and disparate sources for use in the classroom

Undergraduate Leadership Workshop
- http://www.ucar.edu/educ_outreach/ulw/
- Presented on Unidata and our community and advocacy to a group of undergraduate leaders in the atmospheric sciences
AGU fall meeting 11-15 December 2006 in San Francisco. Unidata participation will include co-chairing sessions, and providing presentations and posters
Attended the Weather and Climate Enterprise meeting, 26-29 June 2006 in Boulder.
Attended CLASS Users Workshop, 7-8 August 2006
Attended NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory Dedication, 23-24 August 2006

Community members websites featured on our home page during this time were: Bowling Green State University, University of Oklahoma, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Data Access and Distribution

Connections to the EPA are unfolding to make EPA data available through AirNow using the LDM. Unidata has worked toward making the data available since 1999. There finally is some hope that the data will be available. .
CUAHSI-HIS (GIS):
- continued interactions for improved data access and formatting to accommodate the hydrology community
- Animating netCDF
- Complete GIS Hydro 2006 conference proceedings http://www.crwr.utexas.edu/gis/gishydro06/
Data Page
- Continue to enhance data descriptions and facilitate data access using a variety of access protocols.
  - LDM/IDD, THREDDS, OPeNDAP, ADDE, WMS/WCS/WFS
Iowa ITR MapServer
- As part of the NEXRAD-ITR project to generate and distribute metadata of the Level II radar scans, Unidata has installed a MapServer and is doing internal testing prior to making it available to the public. This is being done in concert with the efforts at the University of Iowa.

Miscellaneous

Unidata Users Workshop: The Users workshop, Expanding the Use of Models as Educational Tools in the Atmospheric & Related Sciences, was a great success that resulted in a number of concrete suggestions for consolidating, growing, facilitating, and educating the community of users.
Continue Unidata Metrics and Assessment planning and coordination activities.
Chairing and participating on a Unidata internal Data Working Group.
SOARS: Unidata participated in the program with 4 protege/mentor relations this summer
Leadership Academy
- Actively engaged in learning process
- Group project was related to better interactions with the local community to "sow the seeds of science."