News Items

News items that appeared on the Unidata home page between 2007 and 2001 are collected here.

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January, 2011

2011 Unidata Equipment Awards

Under sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, the Unidata Program Center (UPC) announces the 2011 Unidata Community Equipment Awards solicitation. A total of $100,000, including UCAR overhead, is available for awards this year. Proposals for amounts up to $20,000 will be considered. The deadline date for submitting proposals is March 18, 2011. Notification of award status will be made by May 2011.

If the answer is yes to any of the questions below, the Unidata Equipment Awards Program will be of interest to you. We are now soliciting proposals for computer equipment purchases from academic institutions engaged in teaching and research in the geosciences. See solicitation.

Follow this link to see the focus of the 2011 awards.

November 16, 2010

The Unidata Training Workshop
The Unidata Software Training Workshop sessions for 2010 will be from October 25th - November 9th. The costs to participants are for travel, food, and lodging in addition to a $50 dollar registration fee for each individual session. For more details see Training Workshop 2010.

October 25 - 27 GEMPAK GEMPAK homepage
October 28 netCDF - Basic netCDF homepage
October 29 netCDF - Advanced netCDF homepage
November 1 - 2 LDM LDM homepage
November 3 - 5 IDV IDV homepage
November 8 - 9 TDS THREDDS homepage

Posted: May 13, 2010

June 11, 2010

Equipment Award recipients for 2010
Unidata is happy to announce the Equipment Award recipients for 2010. Eight institutions received funding this year: They are: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Albany - SUNY, University of North Carolina - Asheville, Louisiana State University, Iowa State University, Pennsylvania State University, Millersville University, and Central Michigan University. The focus for this year's RFP was: Plan to install either the THREDDS Data Server or RAMADDA at their institutions to share data relevant to furthering Unidata's mission or foster research and education at the boundary between our core meteorology community and other communities, including societal impacts as well as other geoscience disciplines. Here's the RFP.

We received a total of 11 responses to the 2010 RFP and, as noted, funded eight of them, partially or fully. That success rate is sufficiently high that it should encourage those of you who may have hesitated to apply in the past.

We invite you to provide suggestions for the focus for future Equipment Award RFPs and to keep your eyes open for the 2011 announcement, which will likely appear in the month of January. Maybe you'll find a nice fit for your own program's needs for equipment upgrades. To give you an idea of the wide range of recipient institutions for the last eight years and for more information on this year's recipients open this link.

May 4, 2010
Farewell to Worthy Colleagues

Mohan Ramamurthy, Director, Unidata Program Center

It is with deep regret that I inform you that Jeff McWhirter and Don Murray will be leaving Unidata in May. Jeff has accepted a position with UNAVCO beginning 10 May. Don will be working at NOAA/ESRL/Physical Sciences Division in the Climate Analysis Branch, particularly in the Climate Attribution group, starting 1 June.

Jeff worked at the UPC for over eight years, during which time he provided truly outstanding service to the Unidata program and our community. He contributed mightily to the advancement of the IDV,single-handedly spearheaded the development of RAMADDA, and provided rapid, excellent support. It goes without saying that the IDV and RAMADDA wouldn't be what they are without Jeff's brilliant work and dedication.

Don will be leaving the program after 15 years with Unidata. Don and his team deserve extraordinary credit for building the IDV to be what it is today—Unidata's flagship analysis and display tool that is used worldwide by thousands of users in almost every discipline in the geosciences. His diligence and dedication also contributed significantly to Unidata's success in many other areas, including McIDAS and GEMPAK.

Both Jeff and Don are extremely talented individuals with tremendous passion for service to the Unidata community. They plan to continue their interactions with Unidata and their involvement with the IDV and RAMADDA, although their absence will be clearly felt.

Since both departures are occurring in the same area of the program and on the heels of one another, I am sure many of you have concerns about the future of the IDV and RAMADDA. Please be assured that we will continue their excellent work and that we are fully committed to continuing the development, enhancement, and support for both IDV and RAMADDA. To make the staff transition as smooth as possible, at least in the near term, Jeff and Don will continue to help out as their time permits. They also expect to remain active users of the IDV and RAMADDA and to contribute to these applications in the true spirit of Unidata community involvement.Yuan Ho, the third member of the IDV group, will now become the focal point for the IDV and he will continue to develop the IDV and provide support for it.

We have now posted the job announcement for Jeff's position, and we would very much appreciate it if you can bring it to the attention of others who would be interested in the job.

Please join me in wishing both Don and Jeff the very best in their new endeavors. Both of them will be truly missed.

January 29, 2010
2010 Unidata Equipment Awards

Under sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, the Unidata Program Center (UPC) announces the 2010 Unidata Community Equipment Awards solicitation. A total of $100,000, including UCAR overhead, is available for awards this year. Proposals for amounts up to $20,000 will be considered. The deadline date for submitting proposals is April 2, 2010. Notification of award status will be made by June 2010.

If the answer is yes to any of the questions below, the Unidata Equipment Awards Program will be of interest to you. We are now soliciting proposals for computer equipment purchases from academic institutions engaged in teaching and research in the geosciences. See solicitation.

Follow this link to see the focus of the 2010 awards.

January 10, 2010
European Geosciences Union General Assembly

Springtime in Wien means many things not the least of which is the annual European Geosciences Union General Assembly scheduled for May 2-7, 2010.


The Earth & Space Science Informatics Session was accepted as a Division of EGU in 2008. There was instant interest in the various sessions available for presenters to discuss and display their research and technologies to EGU participants, because of the constant advances associated with ESSI activities. We'd like to continue the momentum!

Please browse the Session Programme and submit to your sessions of interest. You may specify your preference for either a poster or oral presentation.

General meeting information is available at http://meetings.copernicus.org/egu2010/

Follow the Call for Papers and the links to Earth and Space Science Informatics to submit your abstract. http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2010/sessionprogramme/ESSI

December 18, 2009
Unidata 2008 Final Report

The Unidata Program Center is pleased to share with you the final report for the Unidata 2008 core-funding award, which funded the Unidata program during 2003-2009. The report, submitted to NSF, summarizes the activities, accomplishments, and contributions of the Unidata Program.

We wish to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has made all of this possible: governing committees, many community members, collaborators, and NSF, our primary sponsor, for supporting and guiding the program.

November 17, 2009
Another update: GEMPAK to AWIPS II Migration
Progress continues as Unidata collaborates with NWS and NCEP on the N-AWIPS migration to AWIPS II. An updated draft white paper, originally presented to the joint Unidata Policy Committee and Users Committee last month, provides in depth information, along with the latest schedules for the project.

Be sure to watch for continued updates in the Unidata News section on Unidata's home page, GEMPAK/NAWIPS FAQs, and occasional e-letter articles pertaining to the effort.

October 21, 2009
"Celebrate the Past, Focus on the Present, and Dream about the Future"
Fill in the blanks: Unidata's 25th anniversary event was __? Well, it was many things. It was a stroll down memory lane with reminiscences from founding fathers and early program center employees; it was light hearted and fun. Some speakers flattered while others challenged. Most of all the event was collegial and warm hearted with old friends greeting one another, newcomers meeting, greeting, and becoming acquainted, staff overseeing it all while participating in all of the activity. It was a delightful event.

Information about the event is available and active. It has been updated with links to all presentations. In addition, we webcast the event from start to finish, and we invite you to browse them as interest and time permit.

We thank each of you who took time from retirement activities or busy professional duties and commitments to celebrate this milestone with us, and we hope that many of you will be sticking around for the spirit and adventure of the next twenty-five.

To view the archived web cast of this event please visit the Webcast URLS for Unidata 25 Year Anniversary page.

September, 2009
Unidata is celebrating its 25th Anniversary!
We've marked the year with a series of small events, but October will see a day and a half program with a series of speakers some of whom will share their memories of the early days, others who will talk about today's activities, and still others who will look down the road a bit to speculate on the future. October 15-16 are the dates, and the location is UCAR's Center Green Campus, Building 1.

In March we announced the creation of a 25 anniversary logo: Unidata unveils its 25-year anniversary logo, and the August CommunitE-letter included additional information about the October program.

Please share your thoughts and memories of Unidata on our comment page.

For additional information, we invite you to browse the information page that's been created. We are especially proud of the list of distinguished speakers who will honor us not only with their presence, but with their memories and future projections as well.

August 19, 2009
NAWIPS to AWIPS-II Migration Update
Unidata continues to monitor the NAWIPS migration to AWIPS-II schedules and information from NWS and NCEP related to this important project. We have requested NWS to provide periodic updates in order to keep the Unidata community apprised of these ongoing efforts.

During the October joint Unidata Policy Committee/Users Committee, a white paper that is currently under development by Unidata will be presented and discussed. This paper will be posted in the UnidataNews section on Unidata's home page and added to the NAWIPS migration page. Other resources such as email, GEMPAK/NAWIPS FAQs, etc., will also be used to keep the community informed of updates.

For the latest information from J.C. Duh, Chief, Programs and Plans Division, Office of Science and Technology, NOAA/NWS pertaining to AWIPS II software release, please see this link: AWIPS II Software Release

August 7, 2009
Update: AWIPS II Software Release
I understand there is high interest in the users community in receiving the AWIPS II software that is currently under development. The participation and inclusion of the Academic and Unidata communities will be critical to the continued growth of AWIPS II and NAWIPS capabilities. However, it is premature to release the AWIPS II software to the broader community at this time based on the following rationale:

The currently planned completion date of the AWIPS II development is March 15, 2010, and after the development is completed, NWS will start the system Operational Test & Evaluation (OT&E) of the AWIPS II software. I believe the development completion date, currently planned to be March 15, 2010, is a more appropriate date for releasing the AWIPS II software to the broader community, and I believe the additional 7 months will be worth the wait.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

V/R
JC

-- 
J. C. Duh; Ph.D.
Chief, Programs and Plans Division
Office of Science and Technology
NOAA/National Weather Service
jc.duh@noaa.gov

June 4, 2009
Unidata Users Workshop, Using Operational and Experimental Observations in Education
There is near universal agreement that the recently-completed Unidata Users Workshop, Using Operational and Experimental Observations in Education, was a great success. Presentations and hands-on labs by a distinguished roster of scientists, some fun events, and two outstanding demos: a balloon launch on Wednesday and a "weather in a tank" later in the week, all of this contributed to the workshop's success.

It would be impossible to express our gratitude to each of the presenters individually in this small space, but we can safely say that each presentation and lab was thoughtfully prepared and presented, and that each event was enthusiastically received.

In comments made several days after the workshop's close, the Unidata Users Committee chair, Gary Lackmann, wrote:

At the workshop, it struck me how Unidata really provides a unique nexus for hands-on, education-oriented but technically advanced workshops of this type. There are few other opportunities for this kind of blend of science, visualization, and teaching.

That pretty much says it all.

Look for a more detailed report in the July CommunitE-letter. To view all of the workshop pictures see RAMADDA link.

June 4, 2009
Transition to AWIPS-II
Unidata continues to work collaboratively with NOAA/NWS and NOAA/NCEP in coordinating the transition from GEMPAK/NAWIPS to AWIPS II, ensuring NAWIPS functionality. Read about the most recent steps in the letter below:

In an effort to keep the Unidata community informed about developments surrounding GEMPAK/NAWIPS transition to AWIPS II, we are pleased to inform you that the National Weather Service (NWS) has notified us that Unidata is free to distribute AWIPS II software, including migrated NAWIPS functionality, to its community. As you know from our previous messages, Unidata has been in ongoing discussions with NWS to make AWIPS II software available under an open source licensing arrangement. As Don Berchoff, Director, Office of Science and Technology states in his letter "One of our primary objectives as we move forward is to strengthen our partnership with the university community to enable faster and more effective infusion of new science from research to operations in AWIPS. We look forward to our continued partnership with Unidata to meet this objective." The AWIPS II software, including source code and binaries, will be made available to the public. Current AWIPS and NAWIPS development schedules show that the AWIPS II software will be available at the start of FY 2011. We believe this is an important step forward for the Unidata community.

Read the entire document at http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/newsletter/2009jun/AWIPSII.html.

May 1, 2009
Farewell to a dear friend
It is with the deepest sadness that we let our community know that Prof. Elen Maria Camara Cutrim died on 15 April, peacefully and surrounded by her family and friends.

Prof. Cutrim taught in the Department of Geography at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She was a long time member of the Unidata community as well as an active participant in our Users Committee since 2003.

In losing Elen we have lost not only a dear friend but an inspiration. She will be remembered for her collegiality, cheerful demeanor, and always-positive outlook. Elen made significant contributions to furthering Unidata's goals by helping to broaden the user base to other disciplines and countries by being a strong promoter of Unidata technologies and a truly outstanding ambassador for Unidata in national and international venues. For her efforts that reflect the goals and ideals of the Unidata program, Elen received the 2009 Russell L. DeSouza Award.

Although she will be dearly missed, her positive influence on all of us and the Unidata program will persist for years to come. We will continue to carryout our work with the same enthusiasm, energy, and openness that Elen exhibited throughout her life.

Memorial contributions may be made to: Department of Geography, College of Arts and Sciences, Western Michigan University, 3219 Wood Hall, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008. Make checks payable to Western Michigan University with Elen Cutrim Memorial Fund on the the memo line.

May 10, 2009
The 2009 Unidata Training Workshop
The Unidata Software Training Workshop sessions for 2009 will be from July 29 - August 15. The costs to participants are for travel, food, and lodging in addition to a $50 dollar registration fee for each individual session. For more details see the announcement. Sign up now, Registration closes on June 22nd!
March 31, 2009
Users Workshop
Unidata's triennial users workshop is scheduled this year for 8-12 June 2009 in Boulder. The theme is Using Operational and Experimental Observations in Geoscience Education. Six focus areas have been identified: Remote Sensing, Data Assimilation, Instrumentation, Climate Observations, Field Experiments, and Research and Operational Networks.The workshop will feature a mix of hands-on labs with informative presentations as well as a few social events designed to allow participants to converse and get to know one another. For more information see the Workshop Homepage. New this year, a poster session!
March 20, 2009
Unidata unveils its 25-year anniversary logo
Unidata unveils its 25-year anniversary logo as the program celebrates this significant milestone with a series of planned events throughout the year.

In 1983, a group of atmospheric scientists met in Madison, Wisconsin to develop a plan that became the basis for the Unidata program. That plan became a proposal that was funded by the National Science Foundation in 1984. In the fall of that year, UCAR established the Unidata Project Office and appointed David Fulker as its first director.

While Unidata's roots originated in a modest project that was designed, among other things, to provide real-time weather data to synoptic meteorologists in U.S. universities, its mission and vision have evolved, and our community has grown since then.

We are proud of the work we do here at Unidata, and we acknowledge with gratitude our partners throughout the community.

March 13, 2009
TDS version 4.0.06 is ready for alpha testing
TDS version 4.0.06 is ready for alpha testing. We expect to rapidly promote it to be our stable release. It has many bug fixes and improvements "under the covers" that are not in the 3.17 release. Besides using the netcdf-java 4.0 library, the main new feature is the addition of an OGC WMS service, thanks to our collaborators Jon Blower (Univ. Reading UK) and Pauline Mak (Australian Research Collaboration Service) who did the hard work.

February 26, 2009
Stable release netcdf-java 4.0
Version 4.0 is now the stable release for the Netcdf-Java library. Version 4.0 continues to evolve with new features. However, a stable release means that we will keep future changes to the API backwards compatible to the public API.

Version 2.2 is on "maintenence only" mode. We encourage you to switch to 4.0 to take advantage of many significant improvements and bug fixes.

February 18, 2009
2009 Russell L. DeSouza Award Winner
Professor Elen Cutrim
Western Michigan University
For dedication, enthusiasm, and inspiration that truly reflect the goals and ideals of the Unidata program, we present Professor Cutrim the 2009 Russell L. DeSouza Award. 

Elen has been a member of the Unidata Users Committee since 2003, and has been actively engaged in the Unidata triennial workshops.  Elen has been an inspiration and a source of strength for her colleagues on the Users Committee, as well as the Unidata staff, always projecting her enthusiasm, radiant smile, unrivaled optimism, and incredible kindness.

Elen has made significant contributions to broadening the Unidata community.  She has expanded the user base to geography with Unidata technologies such as the Integrated Data Viewer.  She has been a strong promoter and ambassador for Unidata in national and international venues conveying the importance of community leadership and participation.  Her efforts have broadened the Unidata community in the U.S. and beyond, and these efforts include serving as a co-organizer of many sessions at the AGU and EGU on issues important to Unidata. 

She has been tirelessly devoted to her students and her classes, with great concern and dedication, setting the scale high for being a community role model for all of us to follow. She graciously takes on responsibility with no expectation of gratitude in return, but merely because she thinks it’s the right thing to do.

According to Perry Samson, “Her energy is infectious, and her attitude is ALWAYS positive and inspirational. In many ways she exactly reminds me of Russ DeSouza, with whom I had the honor of sharing Users Committee membership long ago.”

January 23, 2009

New THREDDS Data Server (TDS), Version 3.17
A new, stable release of the THREDDS Data Server (3.17) is now available. This release includes enhancements that give TDS more layers of security, developed in close consultation with NOAA security experts. January 23, 2009
GEMPAK Transition
We call your attention to a letter sent today, 2 December 2008, to the GEMBUD e-mail list. The purpose of the GEMBUD note is to update the GEMPAK community on the transition of that package. The letter details all of the steps taken by Unidata to ensure that the process is orderly and least disruptive to GEMPAK users. You may wish to consult the web page that contains information about many aspects of the GEMPAK migration as well as a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section that provides answers to many of your questions. If you have any feedback on or input to the GEMPAK transition process, please send your comments to nawipsmigration@unidata.ucar.edu.

Mohan Ramamurthy, UPC Director (mohan@ucar.edu)
Steven Businger, Chair, Unidata Policy Committee (businger@hawaii.edu)
Gary Lackmann, Chair, Unidata Users Committee (gary@ncsu.edu)

January 23, 2009
Successful Review of the Five-year Proposal to Continue Funding of Unidata
Earlier this year, the Unidata Program Center (UPC) submitted a five year proposal "Unidata 2013: A Transformative Community Facility for the Atmospheric and Related Sciences" to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue and enhance Unidata's role as a foundational facility for the atmospheric and related sciences.

The core-funding proposal offered a bold vision and a realistic plan to extend a successful national facility that enables transformative advances in geoscience education, research, and outreach. The plan for achieving the vision was provided through six overarching themes that were shaped by pertinent scientific and education drivers, consistent with community trends and needs, and aligned with the NSF priorities:

  1. Broadening participation and expanding community services
  2. Advancing data services
  3. Developing and deploying useful tools
  4. Enhancing user support services
  5. Providing leadership in cyberinfrastructure
  6. Promoting diversity by expanding opportunities

The proposal builds on the successes of the present program, its capabilities and core competencies, and its unique niche in providing robust, reliable, and comprehensive data services and tools to geoscience users. While Unidata embarks on this plan to meet the evolving needs of a broad community, the program remains firmly committed to meeting its responsibilities to the core community of researchers, educators, and students in the atmospheric sciences. The quality of services that the core community has come to expect will be both sustained as well as enhanced by the new activities, partnerships, and the resulting synergies.

Following a successful review of the proposal, the UPC is now engaged in discussions with the NSF on the terms of the five-year award. As always, we will keep the community informed on the progress of our plans and activities as the program begins a new chapter in its successful history.

January 7, 2009

2009 Unidata Equipment Awards
Under sponsorship from the National Science Foundation, the Unidata Program Center (UPC) announces the 2009 Unidata Community Equipment Awards solicitation. A total of $100,000, including UCAR overhead, is available for awards this year. Proposals for amounts up to $20,000 will be considered. The deadline date for submitting proposals is March 16, 2009. Notification of award status will be made by mid May, 2009.



If the answer is yes to any of the above questions, the Unidata Equipment Awards Program will be of interest to you. We are now soliciting proposals for computer equipment purchases from academic institutions engaged in teaching and research in the geosciences. See solicitation.

November 4, 2008

USPLN lightning data
Upon completion of GEMPAK and McIDAS decoders, USPLN lightning data will be available to the community for research and education. We anticipate that we will be able to announce the availability within the month.

Be watching the Unidata home page for a news announcement providing information on the data stream with conditions of use, which will be similar to those governing the use of NLDN lightning data.

November 4, 2008
Unidata Training Workshop for 2008
As many of you know, each year Unidata holds an annual training workshop that is made up of several different sessions. This year is no exception, and the workshop is in full swing here in the first days of November. Registrants have travelled to Boulder from points east and west. Forty-eight of the group members are from the U.S., while 14 others represent nine countries that include China, the Netherlands, Spain, Finland, Germany, Iran, South Korea, and Mexico.

The workshop includes training sessions in the Integrated Data Viewer (IDV)--two separate sessions--the THREDDS Data Server, netCDF for developers, and the LDM, Local Data Manager.

All Unidata staff members are pleased to welcome this year's workshop participants.

September 10, 2008
GEMPAK NAWIPS Functionality
Note: Additional information about this topic is available in the news archive.

Below is information that the Unidata Users Committee has compiled about functionalities not currently available in IDV, but desirable to add to it. GEMPAK will remain available for the indeterminate future, but at some point, sites will have to migrate from GEMPAK to another package. It is important that the community identify critical functionalities of the current GEMPAK software that must be retained (or enhanced) in future incarnations of AWIPS-II, IDV, or other packages. Which capabilities could be handled by IDV, and which would not make sense to roll into IDV? Which functionalities are most critical to the user community?

The following features are available in the Unidata NAWIPS suite. It includes a set of programs that use data in GEMPAK format, and in most cases, use GEMPAK programs to manipulate and display data. These programs include NMAP2, NSHARP, GARP, and GEMPAK.

See a list is of functionalities requested by users thus far. It is not prioritized. If you have thoughts on how to prioritize it, or you have items you’d like to add, please share them in the NAWIPS Migration forum: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=21

July 2, 2008
Historic event: netCDF-4 released
This project was designed to provide an enhanced netCDF data model and library by using HDF5 for a storage layer. Version 4.0 is compatible with existing netCDF programs and data, additional data modeling abstractions, and features for use in high performance computing, such as parallel I/O. Support for an enhanced data model is made possible by including the capability to use HDF5 as the data storage layer for the netCDF API. New features made available include user defined types, multiple unlimited dimensions, and per-variable data compression.

For a comprehensive list of features, please see the release notes.

June 25, 2008
Software Training Workshop for 2008: The cutoff date for registration is August 29th, so register soon!

The Unidata Software Training Workshop sessions for 2008 will be from October 27 - November 13. The six consecutive sessions in order are: GEMPAK, LDM, IDV (Introductory and Advanced) THREDDS Data Server Administration, netCDF for Developers, and McIDAS. For more details see the announcement.

June 12, 2008
Announcing a Latin American Data Workshop to be held August 21-23, 2008
In collaboration with the University of Sao Paulo, and the Brazilian Meteorological Society (SBMET), Unidata is conducting a three-day Data Workshop on the campus of the University of Sao Paulo.

The three day Data Workshop will be a combination of plenary, breakout, and hands-on/demonstration sessions that focus on:

Here is the detailed announcement. (pdf)

May 19, 2008
Attention Unidata GEMPAK/N-AWIPS users
At the recent meetings of the Unidata Users Committee and Policy Committee, discussions were held on how the Unidata Program Center (UPC) should proceed with support for N-AWIPS/GEMPAK and evaluation of AWIPS II (see background information).

The UPC is keenly aware that changes envisioned will have a significant impact on our community and that many of you have concerns. Be assured that we are fully committed to supporting university GEMPAK users for as long as feasible, even as we work with our users in providing a smooth and orderly migration to other long term solutions.

The UPC is most interested in your thoughts on this matter and invites community input. Please send your comments, concerns, or suggestions to nawipsmigration@unidata.ucar.edu. To facilitate discussion on this topic, the UPC has also set up an online forum.

For more information, please see:

May 8 ,2008
Unidata 2013: A Transformative Community Facility for the Atmospheric and Related Sciences
Last month, the Unidata Program Center submitted a five year proposal “Unidata 2013: A Transformative Community Facility for the Atmospheric and Related Sciences” to the National Science Foundation, its primary sponsor, to continue and enhance Unidata’s role as a foundational facility by providing comprehensive data services and related tools to enable the community to address important scientific and societal challenges and advance discovery and learning at the frontiers of atmospheric and related sciences. To see the Project Summary open this link.
April 24, 2008
Unidata Program Center: Opening for a User Support Software Engineer
he Unidata Program Center has an opening for a User Support Software Engineer. This person will be primarily responsible for supporting the NAWIPS/GEMPAK software and take a lead role in our data management activities. Details of the position description can be found by visiting the UCAR job listings. Applications will be accepted until June 13, 2008.
April 14,2008
Mark J. Laufersweiler Awarded the Desouza Award
Dr. Mark J. Laufersweiler (University of Oklahoma) is the recipient of the 2008 Russell L. DeSouza Award. Dr. Laufersweiler was rewarded for his advocacy on behalf of Unidata tools and data and his entrainment of dozens of students through that advocacy have provided a robust cadre of new Unidata community members. He has worked tirelessly to promote the use of computing technology both in and out of the classroom. Mark served on the Unidata Users Committee for three years (2001-2004) and has encouraged students to attend Unidata users and training workshops. Mark co-chaired the 2003 Unidata Users workshop, Expanding Horizons: Using Environmental Data for Education, Research, and Decision Making. He helped organize a regional workshop on the Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) at the University of Oklahoma in September 2007.
April 4, 2008
Unidata Regional Workshop at Plymouth State University

A Unidata Regional Workshop will take place at Plymouth State University on May 18-20, 2008. Space is limited and with the registration cutoff date coming up in two and a half weeks, it's probably time to make your reservation if you think you might like to attend. Reserve your spot now, there are only 5 seats left!

The workshop's theme is Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer. The 2? day workshop will allow for hands on instruction with Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) software. Representatives from Unidata will be onsite to provide tutorials on IDV and to discuss other Unidata projects and initiatives. Participants will be a mixture of university faculty and students, research scientists, K-12 teachers, and other interested individuals from across the New England region.

On behalf of Plymouth State workshop organizers we invite you to view additional information and the agenda.

March 6, 2008
Meet Director Emeritus Fulker
Former Unidata director, Dave Fulker, has been appointed Unidata Director Emeritus, with approval from the UCAR Board of Trustees. Emeritus status is bestowed on people who have provided sustained leadership and impact on the UCAR organization. It clearly fits Dave who has served in various capacities within UCAR for over 38 years, including 18 years as the founding director of Unidata. Dave retired in 2005 and has continued to offer his time unselfishly to UCAR.
March 3, 2008
DeSouza Award nominations due 10 March 2008
The Unidata Users Committee invites you to submit nominations for the Russell L. DeSouza Award for Outstanding Community Service. This Community Service Award honors individuals whose energy, expertise, and active involvement enable the Unidata Program to better serve the geosciences. Honorees personify Unidata's ideal of a community that shares data, software, and ideas through computing and networking technologies. Nominations should be sent to nominations@unidata.ucar.edu. Please provide a brief perspective/description of the nominee's contributions to the Unidata community. The deadline for receiving nominations is 10 March 2008. The awardee will be selected from the list of nominees by the Unidata Users Committee, and will be invited to Boulder to receive the award at the spring Users Committee Meeting taking place on 10-11 April 2008. The recipient will be invited to give a presentation on use of Unidata data and tools.
February 11, 2008
Invitation to Participate in Spring 2008 AGU Joint Assembly
Unidata is seeking your participation in the Spring 2008 AGU Joint Assembly session titled: "Data, Tools, Distribution and Forecast Systems for International Collaboration" that will be held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on 27-30 May, 2008. The session, jointly convened by Dr. Glenn Rutledge (NOAA/NOMADS), Dr. Elen Cutrim (Western Michigan University) Dr. Luis Farfan (CICESE/Baja Mexico) and Tom Yoksas (UCAR/Unidata), is intended to foster development of international research and education collaborations focused on Earth and Space Science Informatics (ESSI) in the Americas, and to set the stage for future interactions.

February 11, 2008
At AMS: Experience On-Demand, Dynamically Adaptive Interaction with Weather
Rich Clark, Millersville University
LEAD (Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery) is an emerging paradigm shift away from observing and prediction systems that operate in fixed configurations, on fixed schedules largely independent of weather, to one that can change configuration dynamically in response to the evolving weather. LEAD has developed a technology-based infrastructure to allow scientists, students, tools, and sensors to interact with weather.

February 6, 2008
David Fulker Receives the Cleveland Abbe Award
Former Unidata director David Fulker received the Cleveland Abbe Award during the 2008 AMS awards ceremony. The Cleveland Abbe Award for Distinguished Service to Atmospheric Sciences by an Individual is presented on the basis of activities that have materially contributed to the progress of the atmospheric sciences or to the application of atmospheric sciences to general, social, economic, or humanitarian welfare.

January 17, 2008
2008 Unidata Equipment Awards
Under sponsorship from the National Science Foundation, the Unidata Program Center (UPC) announces the 2008 Unidata Community Equipment Awards solicitation, described below, along with the proposal submission requirements. A total of $100,000, including UCAR overhead, is available for awards this year. Proposals for amounts up to $20,000 will be considered. The deadline date for submitting proposals is March 14, 2008. Notification of award status will be made by mid May, 2008.
December 5, 2007
At AMS: Experience On-Demand, Dynamically Adaptive Interaction with Weather
Rich Clark, Millersville University
LEAD (Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery) is an emerging paradigm shift away from observing and prediction systems that operate in fixed configurations, on fixed schedules largely independent of weather, to one that can change configuration dynamically in response to the evolving weather. LEAD has developed a technology-based infrastructure to allow scientists, students, tools, and sensors to interact with weather.
October 10, 2007
Unidata Seminar: Opportunities and Challenges for Meteorology in Africa
The seminar talk will feature Roelof Bruintjes (NCAR/RAL) discussing opportunities and challenges for meteorology in Africa with a focus on West Africa: A Perspective from current ongoing UCAR projects. UCAR and the universities have embarked on an Africa Initiative about a year ago. The primary purpose was to focus some of the work conducted at UCAR and NCAR in Africa in a coordinated manner and to involve the university community and others in the U.S., Europe and Africa in this effort. UCAR has currently several ongoing projects in Africa with most in West Africa. Several pilot projects were launched in the past year. The seminar will provide an overview of these projects and the plans to enhance these projects in the coming year. Several other U.S. institutions (US-AID, U.S. State Department and the National Academies of Sciences) have also recently or are on the process of developing new initiatives in Africa. The seminar will also provide a brief introduction to these initiatives and our potential interaction and participation in these initiatives. The seminar will be held on Monday, October 15, 2007 at 1:30 PM in the Unidata Conference Room (FL4 1318).
September 10, 2007
OGC Interoperability Day at Unidata: Standards-based Web Services Interfaces to Existing Atmospheric/Oceanographic Data System
Discussion will focus on topics relating to the use of standard interfaces (CS-W/ebRIM, WFS, WCS, SOS, GML) for providing access to data currently served via THREDDS, OPeNDAP, netCDF-CF and IDD/LDM technologies. These packages are in widespread use in the community sometimes referred to as Fluid Earth Sciences (FES) and deliver large collections of weather, climate and ocean data. The meeting will take place on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 in Center Green Building 1, South Auditorium.
August 29, 2007
Unidata Regional Workshop
The University of Oklahoma will host a Unidata Regional Workshop, September 10-12, 2007. The purpose of this workshop is to provide training in the use of Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer (IDV). This Java based application is part of a long Unidata tradition of geoscience data analysis and visualization software. The two-and-a-half day workshop will consist of introductory and advance use of the IDV and other Unidata services (data and tools) for use in the classroom and research. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss their specific needs and ideas with the developers of the IDV. An overview of the Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery (LEAD) program will be presented with a session of using IDV for visualization within the LEAD portal. An opportunity to present posters based on participants. use of the IDV or other applications will be available during the .Unidata in the Community. session of the workshop.
August 25, 2007
Announcing Unidata's 2007 Strategic Plan
The Unidata Program Center (UPC) recognizes that a compelling vision, clearly stated goals, and well articulated strategies are critical to its success. To that end, the UPC reviews and updates its strategic plan every five years or so. We have recently completed developing a new strategic plan that provides a vision for the program and we are pleased to present it to you: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/2007stratplan/Unidata.pdf

While the scope and reach of the plan are broad, it is grounded to a well-established set of core values and governing principles that have guided Unidata since its inception. Simply put, this plan is a natural evolution of a successful program built on twenty five years of experience as a national facility committed to providing responsible leadership, data services, tools and support to an ever-expanding community of users.

The plan's development was a great team effort that included the UPC staff, Users and Policy committees, and UCAR colleagues.

As a program built on active community participation, we are much interested in your comments and feedback. Please send your comments to info@unidata.ucar.edu.

Dr. Mohan Ramamurthy
Director, Unidata

August 21, 2007
Automating a Volcanic Ash Forecast System with Improved Visualization Tools for Increasing Public Accessibility
Rorik A. Peterson, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) was formed in 1988 and uses federal, state, and university resources to monitor and study Alaska's hazardous volcanoes to predict and record eruptive activity, and to mitigate volcanic hazards to life and property. AVO is a joint program of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), the US Geological Survey, and the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. Volcanic ash transport and dispersion (VATD) models are instrumental tools used at AVO for predicting ash cloud trajectories and are used to help divert aircraft and prepare population centers for potential ash fallout.
August 14, 2007
2007 AGU Fall Meeting
The AGU Fall Meeting is scheduled for 10-14 December 2007, at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. Linda Miller, Stefano Nativi, and Ben Domenico are convening an Earth and Space Science Informatics (ESSI) session at the meeting. It is entitled Standards-Based Interoperability Among Tools and Data Services in the Earth Sciences. Here is a description of the session: We encourage you to consider submitting a presentation for this session. Abstracts submitted via the online submission form must be received no later than 6 September 2007, 2359 UT (Universal Time).
July 24, 2007
2008 CSTAR program request for applications (RFA)
The 2008 Collaborative Science, Technology, and Applied Research (CSTAR) program request for applications (RFA) was published on July 2 as part of the omnibus announcement of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) competitive grant programs. The announcement will remain open until October 19, 2007, and will support new multi-year projects scheduled to begin in May 2008, contingent upon availability of funds.
July 1, 2007
2007 Training Workshop for Unidata Software
The Unidata Program Center is pleased to announce its 2007 Software Training Workshop. The workshop features our display and analysis packages McIDAS, GEMPAK, and the IDV, data access and management tools, the Local Data Manager (LDM), the Network Common Data Form (netCDF) and netCDF-JAVA, and the THREDDS software for cataloging, browsing, and accessing remote data and metadata. Unidata's training workshops are developed and presented by the software developers and support staff for each package, so you can be sure to get your questions answered. Software training workshop sessions will be held during the period from July 20-August 10, 2007 this year.
July 2, 2007
Web 2.0, Mashups, and the Unidata Community
Rudolph Husar has invited members of the Unidata community to contribute web links related to smoke from the Southern California fires. The web resources will subsequently be used to describe and to quantify this Exceptional Air Quality Event through an open collaborative process. Rudy, Washington University of St. Louis scientist and Unidata Policy Committee member, believes that Unidata's community is positioned to illuminate the meteorological aspects of the smoke event.

Scientists are asked to use one of several web-enabled "social softwares" (listed below) to contribute either text or images (or both). A wiki page serves as the aggregator of all of the web resources. So that contributions can be readily harvested, please use the common tag 0710222SoCalSmoke. You may also send your contributions directly to Dr. Husar by sending him the link or links.

If you prefer, however, you may use these links:

June 20, 2007
Joint EOL/Unidata Seminar - Part B: Current Data Formats at EOL
This joint seminar will feature John Caron and Russ Rew of the Unidata Program Center discussing data formats, data models, and data conventions play different roles in capturing the meaning in data and enhancing interoperability. The Unidata Common Data Model, the netCDF-4 format, and developments with the CF data conventions offer opportunities for better data representations, but compatibility with existing programs and services must be a consideration during a transition to use of the new capabilities. This seminar will be held in the Unidata Conference Room - Foothills Lab, Building 4 on Tuesday June 28, 2007, at 1:30PM.
June 15, 2007
Software Training Workshop for 2007
Software training workshop sessions will be held during the period from July 20-August 10, 2007 this year. The eight consecutive sessions in order are: netCDF for Developers, GEMPAK, LDM, THREDDS Data Server Administration, Introductory IDV, Advanced IDV, netCDF Java, and McIDAS. Costs to participants are for travel, food, and lodging in addition to a fifty dollar registration fee for each individual session. For more details see the workshop announcement.
June 13, 2007
Advancing Education and research in meteorology at the University of Northern Colorado using the Unidata Internet Data Distribution by Dr. Paul Nutter
A Unidata Equipment Award was granted to The University of Northern Colorado (UNC) Earth Sciences Program in June 2006. The award enabled the purchase of a Hewlett-Packard ProLiant DL380 Server and ten Dell Optiplex GX620 PCs configured with Redhat Fedora Linux and relevant Unidata Software including the LDM, Gempak, and IDV. The new equipment provides UNC with previously unavailable capability to access Unidata.s IDD.
June 5, 2007
2007 Unidata Equipment Award Awardees
We've had another competitive year of quality proposals with our Unidata Community Equipment Awards. This year special consideration was given to proposals that furthered the use of the Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) in education settings, including upgrades to existing classroom and laboratory equipment or procurement of new computers to run the IDV more efficiently. The awardees of the 2007 awards are: Congratulations to all of the recipients and we thank NSF and the Unidata community for their continued support of the Equipment Awards Program.
May 29, 2007
Unidata Seminar: Data and Services provided by EUMETSAT
The seminar talk will provide an overview of the tasks, duties and services of the European Organisation for Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, EUMETSAT. As an operational agency EUMETSAT is providing data for weather forecasting, climate monitoring and environmental applications. EUMETSAT maintains and develops space based satellite systems like Meteosat and Metop. The seminar will be held on Tuesday June 5, 2007 at 1:30 in the Unidata Conference Room.
May 25, 2007
Joint EOL/Unidata Seminar - Part A: Current Data Formats at EOL
This joint seminar will feature Steve Williams of NCAR-EOL discussing "Current Data Formats at EOL," Chris Webster of NCAR-EOL discussing "Using Databases in Aeros," and Dennis Flanigan of NCAR-EOL discussing "Data Access for Remote Sensing Platforms: FORAY." This seminar will be held in the Unidata Conference Room - Foothills Lab, Building 4 on Tuesday May 29, 2007, from 9:30 to 11:30 A.M.
May 1, 2007
An Assessment of Unidata
Prompted by a recommendation from a review panel and framed by questions posed by the National Science Foundation, the Unidata Program Center (UPC) initiated a comprehensive, independent evaluation of the program in late 2005. NSF asked if Unidata has been a successful investment, and if so, why. Additionally, it asked if Unidata has been transformational in the way community members conduct both teaching and research. An independent consulting group, Nelson Consulting, LLC, a firm experienced in conducting program evaluations and led by Dr. Sarah Nelson, Ed.D. and Dr. Christopher K. Nelson, was commissioned to conduct the study. The year-long and multi-part evaluation process included a detailed community survey (found in the assessment report), focus group sessions, individual interviews of long-time Unidata community members, and a few exemplar case studies. Participation in the study was far and wide: 432 participants in 37 countries took part in the survey that included 57 questions. Several dozen community and governing committee members and UPC staff participated in the focus groups and interviews. The study provided ample opportunity for the consultants to evaluate Unidata's impacts and the organizational activities reflected in its day-to-day operations.
April 10, 2007
Unidata and the UCAR AAAS Africa Initiative travel to Burkina Faso
Unidata is playing an active role in the joint UCAR - AAAS Africa Initiative that was inaugurated in Summer, 2006. As part of this initiative, a workshop was convened in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on April 2-6, 2007. Unidata developer Tom Yoksas attended the conference and provided information in a series of presentations about UCAR's Office of Programs, and signing how those programs could contribute to achieving, not only conference goals, but long term support in data transfer, education, and infrastructure development.
April 1, 2007
Unidata Collaboration and Development: China
IDV developers Don Murray and Yuan Ho travelled to China March 23-31 to discuss the use of the IDV and other Unidata technologies at the GuangZhou Tropical Meteorological Research Center and the National Meteorological Information Center in Beijing. Don and Yuan accepted an invitation from the Guang Dong Meteorology Bureau to demonstrate the IDV and THREDDS to its research division. While there, the developers successfully worked with the Chinese researchers to incorporate their research datasets into the IDV. In the following days, they met with representatives of the National Meteorological Information Center in Beijing where they provided an overview of Unidata tools and services. They met with several people to fix some problems they were encountering while using the LDM to supply data for the TIGGE project.
March 30, 2007
Site Visit to St. Louis University
Unidata developers Steve Chiswell and Jeff McWhirter made a site visit to St. Louis University. In response, to an invitation from Chuck Graves, they examined the use of Unidata tools in the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences department and provided hands on training for faculty and staff at SLU. They tuned up the department.s software and provided demos of Unidata analysis and display packages.
March 17, 2007
Connecting the dots: Earth science partnerships between South and North America
UCAR president Rick Anthes discusses Unidata's partnership with the university community, NOAA, and NSF, to bring South and North American scientists together through the sharing of weather observations and satellite imagery. Access to these data has had profound and transformative impacts on higher education in several South American countries, as well as benefiting students and researchers throughout the hemisphere.
March 16, 2007
Unidata Seminar: The Comprehensive Large Array Stewardship System (CLASS)--Living with a multi-petabyte resource
Eric A. Kihn, NOAA will be giving a seminar titled " The Comprehensive Large Array Stewardship System (CLASS)--Living with a multi-petabyte resource" on Monday, March 19, 1:30 PM in the Unidata Conference Room, FL4, 1318. The CLASS project derives in part from an effort by NOAA to centralize its numerous data systems for environmental data access. The goal of this effort was to eliminate the various "stove-pipe" systems and produce a unified "enterprise" data access system for the major NOAA data holdings.

The CLASS the system is:

  1. The IT component for archive of certain NOAA data.
  2. A secure storage system for other NOAA data.
  3. A portal for some NOAA and non-NOAA data.
  4. A component of the infrastructure necessary for science data stewardship activities.
  5. Interoperable with other systems relating to the NOAA mission.
A new node of the CLASS system will open this year in Boulder at the National Geophysical Data Center and eventually be populated by many petabytes of data including GOES, POES, NPOESS, NEXRAD and many others. This talk will present the impacts and opportunities such an archive allows the environmental data user. It will cover API development, metadata and high-volume data access as well a discussion of the future of CLASS within NOAA.