Summary of the 3 visualization/analysis packages in question: strengths and weaknesses.

1.) GEMPAK

Includes a GUI known as GARP, that is widely used, also NMAP2 is used quite a lot.  Also includes a nifty sounding analysis package NSHARP.  Collectively, these packages are known as NAWIPS:

Strengths:  

• Most widely used visualization software package supported by Unidata  
• Resource *unintensive* can run easily even on old workstations   GARP is great for weather briefings, easy saving of images, overlay of imagery/data of all types  
• NMAP2 allows users to draw contours, accomplish manual map analyses that can be digitized   NMAP2 is heavily used at TPC, SPC, and perhaps elsewhere  
• GEMPAK is a well-tested research package, with abundant diagnostic capabilities  
• Publication quality graphics  
• Versatile, can overlay satellite, radar, observational data, model data, etc.  
• Benefit of NCEP/TPC/SPC development

Weaknesses:  

• Not supported for Windows  
• GARP is a bit outdated  
• In future, will no longer be able to leverage NCEP/NWS development  
• No 3D capability  
• Only plots local data, so more disk space required

Community view:  

• There is a very large contingent of users who require these types of capabilities

2.)  Integrated Data Viewer (IDV)

Strengths:  

• Allows 3D visualization  
• Versatile and can overlay many different data types from a variety of sources  
• Has gained a foothold in the university classroom, and students like it for visualization  
• Reads native WRFOUT files, and GEMPAK files, grib, NetCDF, etc.  
• Excellent user support and creative support features  
• The "wave of the future" in terms of visualization  
• A disk space saver, since it can plot data from remote servers  
• Runs on Windows, Mac, Linux

Weaknesses:  

• Resource intensive
• still requires lots of RAM for visualization, and very slow for large datasets  
• Many users in the surveys say that they don't yet have adequate computers to run it  
• Publication quality graphics not yet available (but on the way)  
• Not all diagnostic capabilities yet available, so not a full research tool

Community view:  

• There is a growing user base, and increasing acceptance of this package, but it is more for visualization than research at this point, and it is too resource intensive for some labs still.

3.) AWIPS-II

From what we know about this so far, it will combine the functionality of GEMPAK, the current NWS AWIPS, NMAP, and more. It will unify the NWS field offices (currently using AWIPS) with the National Centers (currently using N-AWIPS, which is not compatible with AWIPS) It would be great if the university community could use this because:

• It would benefit the NWS by "training" users with the software while still in college.
• Unidata could leverage development activities of the NWS/NOAA
• It will have all the existing capabilities but in a newer package with added functionality
• It would help prepare our students for the professional job market in some sectors

Unknowns at this stage

• The license agreement for the software to the Unidata community is still being hammered out
• The final hardware requirements to run the software are not known