McIDAS, ldm-mcidas, Unidata-Wisconsin, Collaborations, and Cooperating Community Server Activities
Winter 2004/2005

Tom Yoksas
March 28, 2005

Vision

Efforts referenced within this report are based on five of the six endeavors articulated in the Unidata 2008 Proposal:

• Endeavor 1: Responding to a broader and more diverse community
• Endeavor 2: Comprehensive Support Services
• Endeavor 4: Software to analyze and visualize geoscience data
• Endeavor 5: Distributed, organized collections of digital material
• Endeavor 6: Improved data access infrastructure

Unidata McIDAS-X, -XCD

• Version 2004 released on July 21 (earliest release of Unidata McIDAS-X). As of March 22, 2005 86 unique sites (out of 201 access records on the Unidata web portal) have downloaded Unidata McIDAS 2004. For comparison, 105 sites have downloaded version 2003.

• three addenda have been released for v2004. The most recent release upgraded the HDF package bundled with McIDAS-X to the latest NCSA release to take advantage of support under 64-bit versions of Linux. The updated included several other changes needed to support builds under Fedora Core 3 64-bit Linux.

• Highlights of the v2004 release include:
  • McIDAS is now fullly supported on the MacOS-X (Darwin) operating system. McIDAS-XCD requires some entry point name changes (MacOS-X treats entry point names case insensitively).
  • Unidata now supports McIDAS on Windows XP (using Microsoft Services for Unix)
  • McIDAS now has the ability to use gzip compression during transfers of data from ADDE remote servers to McIDAS-X client workstations. Remote server workstations must have port 112 open to allow clients running McIDAS-X 2004 to access their data. Likewise, ports 500 and 503 must also be open to allow clients running McIDAS-X 2003 to access their data.
  • the type of data transfer can now be specified on a per-application basis by specifying the MCC= keyword on the command line.
  • McIDAS can now produce GeoTIFF format output
  • there are new ADDE servers for AIRS (Aqua satellite) data
  • there are numerous enhancements to the SSEC GUI
  • support for building with gcc/f2c/mcfc was dropped. Sites now use the gcc/g77 compiler combination instead.
  • Unidata McIDAS is now supported on RedHat Fedora Core 1 & 2 Linux. SSEC supports McIDAS on RedHat Enterprise WS 3.0 Linux.

• continuing support/bug fixes for Unidata and SSEC McIDAS-X, -XCD

• training workshop conducted on 26-30 October 2004.

ldm-mcidas, Unidata-Wisconsin datastream, and NOAAPORT and GOES ingest

• ldm-mcidas: v2004 released on October 15, 2004

  v2004 contains a bugfix for decoding Unidata-Wisconsin imagery using McIDAS routing table naming facilities. The code was not truncating images that were being overwritten. The effect of the bug was the file sizes decoded using McIDAS routing table naming facilities were larger than those not using the routing table naming facilities.

• Unidata-Wisconsin: We continue to send all imager channels in the IDD UNIWISC stream.

  Transition to auto selection of floater locations is to be discussed separately in the User Committee Meeting agenda.

• NOAAPORT: We developed a NOAAPORT ingest system based on the DVB-S technology that the NWS will move to at the beginning of February, 2005. We will be creating a web page describing our DVB-S setup so that universities can build their own NOAAPORT ingest systems if they so choose. (Chiswell, Schmidt, Yoksas)

• installed a Unidata DVB-S NOAAPORT ingest system at the Southern Region Climate Center (SRCC) at Louisiana State University (LSU). This system was put together from software developed at the UPC (Chiswell) on a low-powered (450 Mhz PIII with 384 MB RAM) system running Fedora Core 3 32-bit Linux.

  SSEC has adopted the Unidata DVB-S NOAAPORT ingest system for licensed users of McIDAS-XCD.

  The SSEC-developed NOAAPORT desktop ingest system (SDI) that had been used by the SRCC is being repurposed at the UPC into a GOES ingester. The SRCC SDI will be coupled with an SDI already in the UPC's possession to provide remote ADDE access to full GOES imager and sounder data for the Unidata community. SDI cards excessed by the Weather Underground will be used as spare parts for this effort. A twin to this system has been in operation at the SSEC for over a year, but announcement of its existence has been delayed until this needed redundancy is in place.

• NOAAPORT ingest system installed at the Universidad de Costa Rica in San Jose, Costa Rica stopped functioning after failure of the satellite dish's LNB. After the LNB gets replaced, the ingest will be transitioned to use of the now-operational DVB-S broadcast.

  The UCR system was put together from excessed computer equipment at UCAR, monies awarded to UCR PI Vilma Castro through a WMO VCP proposal (funded by the US and Canadian National Weather Services), and existing equipment at the UCR (7 meter satellite dish and associated electronics and cabling). This NOAAPORT reception system installation is a fairly high profile undertaking at the UCR, so its success remains important for Unidata and MeteoForum.

Collaborations

Collaboration activities remain mostly unchanged since the May 2003 report. Details can be found in May 1, 2003 Policy Committee Report.

Collaborations that are most active include:

• NWS NEXRAD Level II Data Relay. This is described in more detail in the LDM/IDD Status Report.

• MeteoForum. This collaboration has resulted in the creation in a South American extension of the IDD. This effort, called the IDD-Brazil, has captured the interest in the highest levels in Brazilian meteorological circles. More information on the IDD-Brazil can be found in the MeteoForum status report.

User Support

• continuing support of over 150 sites

• continuing participation by foreign universities (GEMPAK, IDV, McIDAS-X, LDM): Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, China (Hong Kong), Costa Rica, France, Jamaica, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom.

• additional information on Unidata User Support activities can be found in a separate report

Cooperating Community Data Servers - Prelude to THREDDS

Texas A&M joined the cooperating community server effort by opening access to a machine that keeps 30 days of both Level II and Level III NEXRAD data online. The list of cooperating community servers and the datasets that they make available can be seen in Publically Accessible McIDAS ADDE servers.

by Tom Yoksas.