AWIPS II

Status Report September 2014

Michael James

AWIPS II Development

  • Release 14.2.1 beta. Freely available to the world. EDEX Data Server resource load reduced by removing server functionality supporting GFE, Hydro, MPE perspectives. CAVE client load time reduced by removing GFE, Hydro, MPE plugins.
  • Pulling from AWIPS II NWS repository, orphan branched NCEP 14.2.1 to a new Unidata baseline.
  • Turned off default notification GUI presence on desktop.
  • Updated default map layout in NCP to be consistent with D2D maps: county boundaries loaded when zoomed in a certain amount.
  • Added a new class to the NCP resource loader which allows the user to quickly save an NCP bundle from the menu bar.
  • Updated NCP resource loader and perspective feature to allow quick-loading of data in addition to loading / creating a bundle.
  • Determined the changes neccessary to move Resource Stack from bottom-right to top-left by default, but decided for now to keep it consistent with NWS AWIPS II layout.
  • Shortened CAVE NCP load time from ~40 seconds to ~10 seconds by removing a number of unneccessary "preloaded" geographic areas which were being slowly generated every time CAVE was launched.
  • RPMs are being built in-house for the entirety of Unidata AWIPS II. 64-bit Linux RHEL 6 is the only supported operating system. An investigation of a Windows CAVE client build is underway, which uses Eclipse IDE for Linux but also requires a Windows development environment.
  • Raytheon satellite decoder was updated to support FNEXRAD composite GINI images, and UNIWISC AREA file support added for Mercator and native projections, using the McIDAS gini and AREA decoders bundled with AWIPS II LDM.
  • EDEX Cloud Servers demonstrated that a small footprint EDEX server (no NEXRAD level 2 or 3 or high-resolution CONDUIT models) functions well in both Microsoft Azure and Amazon EC-2 cloud server environments. The Azure instance is currently serving data to AWIPS II 14.2.1 beta testers. An EC-2 EDEX data server instance was recently installed at Embry Riddle University.
  • The idea of localization may become a problem if it is left alone. Information such as geographic boundaries and METAR station locations, are dependent on the localization site. Changing the client from OAX to another site will prevent station data from loading, as well as remove radar and NCEP data product menus from D2D.
  • It is my understanding that to change the localization site on the EDEX server you either have to copy/paste/edit from the default OAX localization (hacky), or you have to re-build and re-install the awips2-localization RPM as another WFO ID. So I wonder if it would be easier to abstract it entirely. At the least it could be made to offer radar and NCEP D2D menus for any client-specified WFO ID. You would think.