Shortly after 0 UTC (18:00 MDT) on Saturday, March 21, 2014, the contents of the Internet Data Distribution FNEXRAD (NEXRAD Level III national composites) and UNIWISC (aka McIDAS Satellite Imagery Sectors) datastreams were updated with new products. Prior to the update, the FNEXRAD products were created on motherlode.ucar.edu and the UNIWISC products were created on unidata2.ssec.wisc.edu. Both datastreams are now being created in a 64-bit CentOS 6.5 Virtual Machine in the Amazon EC2 cloud.

Read on for a brief overview of the contents of each datastream with special emphasis on new or altered products.

The majority of data streams made available via the Internet Data Distribution (IDD) system currently remain available to Unidata community members despite the closing of US government facilities. As a UCAR facilitiy, the Unidata Program Center itself has not been directly affected by the shutdown, although if the budget impasse continues for more than a few weeks there could be reductions in staff time.

As of 2 October 2013, only one data stream normally available via the IDD is affected; a portion of the Suominet data that flows through NOAA servers (part of the CORS network) will be unavailable until the servers are restarted.

Currently, the CONDUIT data streams from NCEP are still functioning. We have not been notified about whether they will continue to operate.

UPC staff are currently unaffected and available for support questions and all normal activities.

GOES-South image
(click to enlarge)

The Unidata Program Center has received notification that NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite GOES-12 (currently in the GOES-South position, formerly covering the GOES-East position) will be decommissioned on August 16, 2013.

Vaisala's National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) began operation in 1983 as a regional network run by the State University of New York at Albany. Since then, the network has expanded to monitor cloud-to-ground lightning activity across the continental United States, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Unidata's Data Hallway

The Unidata Program Center is pleased to announce the completion today of its newest community service facility in Boulder, Colorado. The Unidata Data Hallway provides modern, efficient, 24/7 data services to the university community -- while also making a stylish interior design statement.

"It's great to have such a lavish facility for our 'big iron'," says Unidata Program Center systems administrator Mike Schmidt. "We were excited to be able to showcase our data-delivery infrastructure like this -- it really helps the public understand the level of technical sophistication involved in what we're doing here at Unidata."