Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer
Version: 4.1 (August 02, 2013)
The Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) from Unidata is a Java™-based software
framework for analyzing and visualizing geoscience data. This IDV release
includes a software library and a reference application made from that software.
It uses the VisAD (http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/visad.html) and netCDF-Java
(http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf-java) libraries and other Javabased utility packages.
The IDV is developed at the Unidata Program Center (UPC), part of the
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), Boulder, Colorado,
which is funded by the National Science Foundation. The software is freely
available under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License.
The IDV "reference application" is a geoscience display and analysis software
system with many of the standard data displays that other Unidata software (e.g.
GEMPAK and McIDAS) provide. It brings together the ability to display and work
with satellite imagery, gridded data (for example, numerical weather prediction
model output), surface observations, balloon soundings, NWS WSR-88D Level II
and Level III RADAR data, and NOAA National Profiler Network data, all within a
unified interface. It also provides 3-D views of the earth system and allows users
to interactively slice, dice, and probe the data, creating cross-sections, profiles,
animations and value read-outs of multi-dimensional data sets. The IDV can
display any Earth-located data if it is provided in a known format (see Data
Sources).
Overview:
The Man computer Interactive Data Access System (McIDAS) is a suite of
applications for analyzing and displaying meteorological data for research and
education. McIDAS has been in use and under continual development by the
University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC)
since 1972. The Unidata McIDAS software (a superset of SSEC McIDAS) has
been under development since 1985 and in distribution since 1988. The software
can be used with conventional observational, satellite, and grid-point data.
Unidata distributes a version of McIDAS (McIDAS-X) for a variety of platforms
running Unix, Linux, and MacOS-X (see platform information).
Unidata McIDAS-X software can use data included in a data stream that is
generated by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Space Science and
Engineering Center and subsidized by the National Science Foundation through
the Unidata Program. This datastream has for years provided the only source of
fully navigated satellite data generally accessible to the university community in
near-realtime (this is changing, however, with the growing availability of GINI
imagery in NOAAPORT). Unidata IDD Data Streams Containing Imagery
presents information on the products currently available to Unidata IDD users
including those in the Unidata-Wisconsin datastream.
Unidata's Internet Data Distribution (IDD) system provides access to an even
greater range of data. Sites using the McIDAS-X software can make use of this
data by installation of an add-on package of decoders called McIDAS-XCD.
Unidata bundles McIDAS-XCD with its releases of McIDAS. McIDAS-XCD allows
sites to decode all Family of Services/NOAAPORT and High-Resolution data
service data for display with the McIDAS.
Features:
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Multiple data types. McIDAS may be used to analyze the full range of
meteorological data: conventional observations, FSL wind profiler,
NLDN lightning, gridded numerical forecast, NEXRAD radar, satellite
data, etc.
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Access to satellite imagery. The McIDAS software can be used to
analyze any of the major satellite data sets: GOES, POES, METEOSAT,
GMS, MODIS, FY-2, etc. McIDAS allows the user to:
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view a time sequence of real-time satellite images
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track cloud motions
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color enhance displayed images
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combine satellite imagery in a variety of ways to create products
Standard meteorological analysis programs. The software can perform
standard meteorological analyses for conventional observation and gridpoint data. McIDAS allows the user to:
o
overlay surface and upper air contoured analyses on satellite
imagery
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calculate derived parameters
o
display thermodynamic diagrams
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Fully navigated displays. All earth-depicting displays produced by
McIDAS are fully navigated; earth positioning is available for every point
on the screen.
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Multiple visualizations. Observational data can be analyzed into gridpoint data, and grid-point data can be transformed into image
visualizations.
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Multiple graphic overlays.
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Remapping of images into other coordinate projections.
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Multiple frames and windows. McIDAS has multiple frames for image
and graphic displays and multiple windows for text; the number of
frames is defined by the user and limited only by workstation resources.
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Image and graphic storage. McIDAS can store images and graphics in
internal memory for quick redisplay and for combining displays into an
animation.
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Scheduled operations. McIDAS includes a scheduler facility that allows
sites to create analyses at user-specified times.
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Tools for site-specific software development
 What is GEMPAK?
 What is the gembud mailing list, and how can I subscribe?
 GEMPAK Information.
GEMPAK, the GEneral Meteorology PAcKage, is an analysis, display, and
product generation package for meteorological data. It is developed by NCEP (the
National Centers for Environmental Prediction) for use by the National Centers
(Storm Prediction Center (SPC), Tropical Prediction Center (TPC), Aviation
Weather Center (AWC), Hydrologic Prediction Center (HPC), Marine Prediction
Center (MPC), Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), etc.) in producing
operational forecast and analysis products such as those distributed as Redbook
Graphics and others displayed on the NWS web pages and utilized internally
within the centers. Graphical User Interfaces provide convenient access to
interactive data manipulation. A comprehensive set of decoders enables
integration of real-time and archive data, products, and bulletins. The GEMPAK
distribution consists of a suite of application programs, Graphical User Interfaces
(GUIs), meteorologic computation libraries, graphic display interfaces, and device
drivers for the decoding, analysis, display and diagnosis of geo-referenced and
meteorological data.
The Unidata Program Center distributes and provides support for GEMPAK to
our member sites. Membership in Unidata is open to U.S. colleges and
universities, and is free of charge. GEMPAK is also available as unsupported
software without charge to organizations which do not participate in Unidata
through the limitations specified in the Unidata participation policy. The Unidata
program center release of GEMPAK/NAWIPS incorporates several additions
developed both locally and at other locations to enhance the use of real-time data
aquired through the Unidata IDD, and through instructional case studies such as
those developed at COMET.
GEMPAK provides a powerful interactive user environment for research and
education in addition to operational forecasting. Many sites also utilize
GEMPAK's text interface programs for classroom and web product generation as
well as research and operational/real-time displays through scripts and product
generation files. An example of GEMPAK utility within the Unidata community
is the IDD data stream delivering facsimile replacement products (eg, the DIFAX
feed) generated at the University of Wisconsin. GEMPAK is also being used to
generate radar mosaics for the Unidata IDD FNEXRAD data stream by
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compositing individual NIDS products into a common projection and data set.
These products are available to Unidata sites both in the form of images, as well
as numerical grids which can be used in diagnostic calculations with other gridded
data sets to produce additional value added data.
For more information, see Examples of GEMPAK analysis and display
capabilities and the online tutorial.
AWIPS II Overview
What is AWIPS II?
AWIPS II is a weather forecasting, display and analysis package currently being
developed by the National Weather Service. AWIPS II is a Java application
designed to eventually run on multiple platforms, and it incorporates many open
source technologies such as Apache Qpid, Postgres and PyPIES.
The two major components of AWIPS II are the CAVE Client: a set of
"perspectives" (view-modes) for visualizing data; and the EDEX Server: the dataprocessing backend with request services running. Thus a CAVE Client may
connect to any properly configured EDEX Server to request and display data.
When will AWIPS II be Released?
Unidata will release AWIPS II when all software components are supported on 32
and 64-bit RHEL6 platforms. AWIPS II is operational forecasting software, and
much of the current support of AWIPS II is for operational environments. The
software will be ready for release to research and academic organizations when
the following criteria are met: 1) RHEL6 support, 2) stable 64-bit standalone
EDEX servers, 3) stable, fully-capable Linux and Windows clients, 4) GEMPAK
command line program integration is complete.
How far along are we on these goals?
1.
2.
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4.
RHEL6 Support - Expected late 2013
64-bit EDEX Data Server - Expected early 2014
Stable Clients - 2014
GEMPAK Integration - 2014