Hi GEMPAK users,
I want to pass along the latest AWIPS II project status update for our
User and Strategic Advisory Committees. I should mention up front that
the beta program is only open to US-based universities at this time. If
you are interested in joining, please email
support-awips@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with the name of your institution to
discuss participation and hardware requirements.
Let me know if you have any questions about the project or would like
more information about anything mentioned below.
Michael James
Unidata
--
Given current progress, the expected release date for the Unidata AWIPS
II beta is July 2014. An announcement will be made on this list and
elsewhere prior to that date; documentation will also be published
prior to the release date and shared here and elsewhere.
The development baseline AWIPS II source code is maintained in a git
repository on National Weather Service servers. Unidata has been allowed
access to this repository thanks to our partnership with NCEP. The NCEP
14.2.1 source code branch is the baseline for the upcoming Unidata AWIPS
II beta release.
Going forward, the supported operating system for AWIPS II is 64-bit
Linux (Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora Core). I encourage everyone to upgrade
any machines designated for CAVE or EDEX to 64-bit RHEL/CentOS 6.
Fedora Core is being evaluated and the only version I can support is
fc12 x86_64. I'll be evaluating more recent fc releases in the coming
weeks. NWS is not building RPMs for 32-bit Linux anymore, and I will
follow suit unless there is a need in the Unidata community for 32-bit
binaries.
Release Check-list
* connect to AWIPS II development baseline git repository and gerrit
(done)
* branch remotes/origin/ncep_14.2.1 to upc for next beta release (done)
* CAVE UI updates, map and menu reconfiguration. (in progress)
* database updates for new grid, radar, scatterometer products (done)
* mute alertviz and prevent from adding to startup scripts for all
users on install
* GEMPAK 7 should be able to read from remote HDF5/PyPIES, Postgres
* build RPMs for all components (in progress)
* test test test built RPMs for install and runtime errors on
various Linux systems.
* release Unidata AWIPS II 14.2.1 beta to the .edu community.
Differences between Unidata CAVE NCP and NCEP CAVE NCP
The National Centers Perspective (NCP) will be the primary GUI offered
and supported by Unidata, with the user having the ability to switch
into different perspectives (D2D, Hydro, GFE, etc.), but the extent of
UPC support for the function of these other perspectives is still
uncertain.
NCEP CAVE NCP is designed to run continuously on a forecaster's
workstation, and as delivered in the NCEP 14.2.1 branch, takes a
significantly long time to load, freezing the splash screen as it loads,
finally alerting the user with a large red error message immediately on
startup. This is operational software that spends a significant amount
of time building data set inventories in the client at startup, and we
need to deliver it to a student / research environment where
click-to-load does not take 30 seconds (even 10 seconds loading is an
extremely long time for desktop software).
UI updates:
* A number of NCEP-required geographic areas, which require slow
pre-rendering, have been removed from startup, shortening the load
time of CAVE by half. The geographic projections offered in the
default suite of Area in the CAVE GUI offer enough.
* The D2D progressive-disclosure default base maps, which
dynamically load county outlines based on zoom level, have
replaced the static world and state base map used in the NCP.
* The Data Resource Legend was moved from bottom-right to top-left
to better work as a kind of "loaded inventory" for map-maker end
users
* Use of the Font Awesome bootstrap icon set to replace the two-tone
NMAP2 icons.
EDEX Data Server Engineering
Our standalone EDEX data throughput is approximately 120 GB/day,
including the global 0.5 degree resolution GFS and GEFS (via CONDUIT)
and the full nationwide suite of level 3 NEXRAD products. The default
NWS configuration for EDEX can not support such data throughput in
standalone mode. I found a way that requires a solid state hard drive
and increased parallel decoder threads for grib and radar products. The
LDM is installed with the EDEX server package, and the entirety of data
ingested into the server will be from the Unidata IDD. 1 km national
NEXRAD composites for DHR, DVL, HHC and EET are supported in Unidata
AWIPS II as McIDAS Area files (should support nexrcomp GINI files as
well). Fixed-domain WRF-NMM output in grib2 has also been added, and
support for floating-domain WRF grids is being investigated.
