IDV Development Status Report

Don Murray
March 1, 2004

This report updates the status of Unidata's IDV development efforts since the last report.

Objectives

During the 1998-2003 Unidata proposal period, the MetApps project goals were:

Deliver turn-key platform-independent applications for the analysis and visualization of meteorological data. These applications must provide and extend the most important capabilities of currently-available applications such as GEMPAK, GARP, and McIDAS. Use of these applications should require no knowledge of Java or component architectures.
Deliver easily installed executables, user documentation, and test cases for the turn-key applications.
Identify or create a component-oriented framework that supports construction of custom applications from components used to build the turn-key applications. This framework should be useful to create new combinations of components that provide subsets of the capabilities of the turn-key applications, connect them in unanticipated ways, or provide tailored mini-applications for embedding in educational materials. Use of these components may require knowledge of component architectures or Java.
Deliver full source code, class documentation, and test cases for the MetApps components.
Enlist other developers in enhancing components and developing new components for the framework by providing an archive, mailing list, developers' forums, documentation, web site, and support for the components.

The Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) was released in June 2003 and is the culmination of this effort. The IDV reference application embodies goals #1 and #2 listed above. The IDV framework supports the development of custom applications as specified in #3 such as the specialized IDV based visualization tool in the Visual Geophysical Exploration Environment (VGEE). Source code, documentation and example applications are provided with the IDV release. Other developers are starting to provide enhancements to the IDV framework (VGEE and EPA) and many of the items in #5 are already in place. The UPC is currently investigating ways to make it easier for developers to contribute to all software projects and the IDV development will benefit from such a system.

We feel that we have met the goals of the MetApps project in the timeframe specified and are now moving on to the next phase of IDV development.

In the Unidata 2008 proposal, IDV development will continue under the proposed Endeavor 4 "Software to Analyze and Visualize Geoscience Data". Under this endeavor, the following goals are outlined:

Supporting analysis and visualization of local modeling efforts (e.g., WRF and MM5 output)
Incorporating new datasets and data types
Exploring new approaches to visualizing and interacting with Earth system data, focusing on novel 3-D techniques that fuse data from multiple sources
Expanding IDV capabilities to support the creation of exploration based, interactive, pedagogic materials and integration with digital libraries.
Developing collaborative tools to make effective use of shared visualizations
Developing a framework that allows end-user assembly and integration of IDV components
Adapting to GIS frameworks (OpenGIS and ISO standards), content-based data mining, and other evolving technologies

Progress since last report

In November 2003, a new release (1.1 beta 2) was made available to the Unidata community. The IDV can be downloaded at http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv/.
Features added after the 1.0 release in June:
- new displays of Level II radar data including data probes, isosurface, pseudo RHIs, 3D sweeps, volume displays
- collaboration facility to share state among geographically separated IDV users.
- Data transect control for display of values along a transect line.
- Support for USGS and ArcInfo ASCIIGRID DEM datasets.
- Improved Omni control that allows display of non-geolocated datasets.
- various and sundry bug fixes.

The first IDV training workshop was held November 3-4, and was attended by 15 participants from a variety of academic institutions, organizations and countries. All training materials are available online:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv/docs/workshop
During preparation of the workshop materials, Jeff McWhirter developed a framework for providing a common look and feel for all workshop materials. This framework was used in the LDM workshop and is being considered for the next McIDAS workshop.

The IDV is one of the visualization tools being considered for the LEAD project.

Tom Whittaker has replaced Charlie Murphy as the chair of the IDV Steering Committee. The goals of the committee are:
- prioritize the development efforts based on the perceived needs of the Unidata community and other interested parties and input from the IDV developers on feasibility and cost.
- Considers and recommends large focused development efforts in the range of 3-6 months. These would include:
  - types of data to support
  - new types of displays to implement
  - new means of use (publishing, collaboration)
  - organizational collaborations
  - educational content
- test implementations and provide feedback. Releases to the committee will occur on a 1-2 month time frame.
This group will report to the Unidata User's Committee as the MetApps Task Force that proceeded it.
To date, the following members have accepted the invitation to be on the committee:
- Tom Whittaker (University of Wisconsin - Madison) - Chair
- Charlie Murphy (Kean University)
- Bill Fingerhut (Lyndon State College)
- Chris Herbster (Embry Riddle Aeronautical University)
- Dan Bramer (University of Illinois)
- Tony Rockwood (Metropolitan State College of Denver)
- Alex DeCaria (Millersville University)

A preliminary meeting between Tom and the IDV developers was held at the AMS meeting in Seattle to plot a strategy for how steering committee interactions could take place and when the first meeting will be. We decided to use a variety of web based tools and collaboration features of the IDV for the interaction. The first meeting will be a teleconference sometime in April. Tom has contacted each of the committee members to give them a heads up on the startup of the committee tasks and the impending release of IDV 1.1 beta 3.

Stu Wier left Unidata on January 2. The IDV development group now consists of Don Murray and Jeff McWhirter. No decision has been made on whether Stu's position will remain as an IDV developer position. Don and Jeff have split Stu's responsibilities for the present time.

Presentations on the IDV capabilities have been made at the following venues:
- Don Murray presented a talk on the IDV at the AAG East Lakes/West Lakes Regional meeting in Kalamazoo, MI (October 16-18).
- The following IDV related posters/presentations were made at the AMS meeting in Seattle, January 11-16, 2004:
  - Displaying and Analyzing Level II Data with the Unidata Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) (Don Murray, poster)
  - Working outside the box: communication and collaboration with Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer (Jeff McWhirter, presentation)
  - Integrating GIS Data with geoscience data using Unidata's IDV (Don Murray, presentation)
  - Linking Interactive Concept Models into the Visual Geophysical Exploration Environment (VGEE) (Dan Bramer, presentation)
  - Integrating meteorological tools and data into digital libraries: A strategy used in the Visual Geophysical Exploration Environment (Rajul Pandya, presentation)
  - The IDV was used during the Wednesday morning daily weather briefing
  - The IDV was demonstrated daily in the Unidata exhibit booth.
- Don Murray will present a paper on IDV at the AAG Annual meeting in Philadelphia on April 17, 2004

New development

Testing of IDV 1.1 beta3 is currently underway and this version will be released on March 9, 2004. New features include:

Continued enhancement of displays of Level II Archive Format in the IDV. Features may include:
- Arbitrary cross sections
- Time/Height displays
- Better performance