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20040116: Unidata question (cont.)



>From: "millsl" <address@hidden>
>Organization: College of Charleston, Physics
>Keywords: 200401150626.i0F6QRp2011794 Unidata LDM IDD

Hi Laney,

>You are correct that Frysinger had the thing going a couple of years ago.
>Jim is still here but he is very much involved in other work.  My
>understanding is that he worked mainly with McIdas.  For my own part, I'm
>not sure what the difference is.

Jim did spend a good bit of time working with McIDAS, but he also setup
an LDM to receive data off of the IDD.  This was why I mentioned him.

>I talked to Rich at the Academic Affiliates meeting in October.  I just
>started teaching an Atmospheric Physics course based on Wallace and Hobbes
>text.  That book alternates descriptive chapters with hard physics chapters.
>
>My general direction is to involve the class (about 8 students) in using
>unidata in some form to enrich the descriptive chapers, but I don't have any
>clear idea myself about what and how much data would make sense.  In a way I
>can get the 300 mb, the 500 mb, the 800 mb and  the surface analysis charts
>from the Aviation Weather channel and those I know would be of direct use to
>us.

Yes, but you don't interact with the data at all that way.  My
experience is that it is much more rewarding to work directly with the
data and not just look at pregenerated maps.

>Beyond that I don't have any clear idea of what data to ask for.  All I
>know is that the schools that are heavily involved in meteorological traning
>do use unidata heavily so I just figured I should be finding out how I can
>actively involve my school in that usage.

The list of possibilities is long.  You could install the full suite of
Unidata applications and try to integrate them into your teaching, or
you might choose to adopt a more conservative approach.  Which I would
recommend would depend on several big factors, but the top two are what
your ultimate goal is and whant kinds of machines do you have available
to you for this effort.  The third item is how much time to you
have/can you spare for this effrort.

>My impression is that Jim Frysinger did have the system up and running and
>that it got maybe some usage in a  class or two, but not in a way that has
>grown into continuing usage with growing familiarity about the system.

OK.  That tells me a lot.

>Sooooo, I am working from a solid base of lack of experience, lack of
>overview, and lack of knowledge!  Anything comments of suggestions you have
>would be of great help.  Maybe we should start small with some data that's
>directly useful and that we can't get easily elsewhere and then expand as we
>gain experience.

Since you are not yet sure of exactly what you want yet, perhaps it would
make sense to try and connect in a phone call.  I will be available this
coming Tuesday, but not until later in the afternoon.  Monday is a holiday
for us (you too?), but I may make it into the office to work on some
things that need attention.  Please let me know if you would like to chat
about your situation, or if you would like to jump in and start grabbing
data.

>Thanks in advance.

No worries.

>Laney Mills, Professor of Physics
>College of Charleston
>s:    843 953 8072
>h:    843 762 2394
>fax:  843 953 4824

Cheers,

Tom
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