Summary of IDV Steering Committee telecon of 7/30/2009

Steve Decker, Rutgers University
Kevin Tyle, University of Albany
Unidata (Don & Jeff & Yuan)
Dave Dempsey, San Francisco State
Rich Signell, USGS (hosted telecon via WebEx -- thanks!!)
Donna Tucker, University of Kansas
Bill Fingerhut, Lyndon State (retired)
Mark Laufersweiler, University of Oklahoma
John Lanicci, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Tom Whittaker, University of Wisconsin-Madison

1. demo by Unidata on new things
   • parallel processing -- Thread Count
     • talked about diminishing returns
     • talked about requirements of multiple threads
   • first guess on Barnes analysis
   • export as netCDF file
   • hodographs -- what about changing values in table?
     • save modified data
2. RAMADDA demo
   • overview
   • walk through use and discuss the utility
   • demo of loading from RAMADDA
   • demo up-loading...aka "publishing" into RAMADDA using Plug-in (Misc->Publisher) (under File, then, a Publish item appears after restart)
   • discussion of TomCat server configuration
     • MarkL says it's easy to set up a server...
   • what about color tables or plug-in? can upload it, but no auto-load by clicking on it in the R chooser -- could just copy web link, and then use "from URL" to get plug-in.
   • Anonymous uploads -- anyone can do it, but owner gets email that it has happened, and no one can see it until it is blessed....like for class (bundle required, but other students should not see it).
3. GEMPAK functionality
   • Don gave background info (GEMPAK, NAWIPS, AWIPS-II)
   • GEMPAK diagnostic functions?
   • Please follow Steve's lead and send to list
   • somethings are going to be harder than others....

General Discussion

• Steve Decker
  • PostScript output/save files: issues with quality, layout, etc. He will send details.
• Kevin Tyle
  • skew-t -- model forecast soundings? Demo'd how to do this
  • needs to read BUFR format data (forecast soundings)
  • what are the top items on to-do list? ans: no ordering (except reading GEMPAK point data from remote servers; reading soundings; remote access to point data not thru ADDE)
  • nothing added to nightly build for next few weeks...
  • how do we find out what has changed in the nightly builds?
• Mark Laufersweiler
  • can sounding chart be automatically eject from dashboard?
    • not a general default...
  • lots of thermodynamic stuff from GEMPAK
  • units: "preferred unit" as a default?
    • (also could use Display Settings -> save)
    • [brief tutorial on Display Settings....thanks Jeff!]
  • RAMADDA in web browser -- view in IDV, uses WebStart so person settings are not accessible
• Dave Dempsey
  • no comments at this time (he is in Boulder and has been already talking with Don & Jeff -- will send notes around later).
• Rich Signell
  • staggered grids....still. Could one use logic to fix this issue? Since u-/v- grids are one more row/column than "central" values?
  • RAMADDA story...how people take it and run....
• Donna Tucker
  • lightning data? on list as working thru list with netcdf group....
  • GDVint
  • note that in new coordinate system, you have a new set of variables
    • can these be "created" on the fly?
• Bill Fingerhut
  • lots of point data with layout model -- cannot map an image to one of the variables in the layout model (just like symbols) -- using drawing control now (but is two steps)
  • problem with grid-grid arithmetic, because coordinates (lon,lat) vs (lat,lon)....Don will look into this, but figures that he will have to use "add(), sub(), etc." functions
  • BUFKIT "overview" window....better formatting?
• John Lanicci
  • mainly nmap and garp user now, but wants to migrate
  • needs to set up bundles, etc., to use IDV in class...
  • (discuss federation of data on R servers)
• Unidata
  • if you have questions or problems -- don't stew!! Write support!!!