Community Services

Community Services Status Report

October 2009 -- April 2010

Note: This report combines the activities of Jo Hansen, Linda Miller, and Jeff Weber

The group's work supports each of the funding proposal's six focus areas:

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

Community Outreach and Service

Publication of the monthly e-letter continued in this time period.
- Featured sites in this period have been:
  - North Carolina State University
  - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, CU Boulder
  - Jackson State
  - Florida Institute of Technology
- The data series has continued. This series, initiated in February 2009, highlights specific data streams detailing the contents of each stream and its history. Five have been highlighted so far, and in this period we have featured:
News Items published to the Unidata Home Page:
- 2010 Unidata Equipment Awards
- The EGU abstract deadline is looming! January 18, 2010 is the date.
- Unidata 2008 Final Report
- Celebrate the Past, Focus on the Present, and Dream about the Future
- Another update: GEMPAK to AWIPS II Migration
Unidata Seminar Series.
- Presentation by Gilbert Sebenste, DeSouza Community Award Presenter, Northern Illinois University
  RAMADDA: Content Management for the Earth Sciences, Jeff McWhirter, Unidata
- Unidata seminars are webcast live, and archived for future viewing by community members.
Participated in and/or organized the following meetings:
- The community group organized an orientation for new Users and Policy Committee members. The Unidata staff were involved in providing short briefings on their projects. The orientation took place prior to the combined meeting in October 2009.
- Participating in the UCAR Collaborative Technology Action Group (CTAG) (Linda).
- Members of the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology (OFCM) Metadata Joint Action Group (JAG), and the JAG for Architecture and Data Management
- Attended AGU Fall meeting, San Francisco
- Attended AMS Annual Meeting, Atlanta
  - met with six NOAA people to discuss CONDUIT and GEMPAK/NAWIPS migration
  - two NCEP reps will attend Users Committee meetings-Rebecca Cosgrove and Michelle Mainelli
  - co-chaired and participated in the AMS summer community, August 10-12, 2009 meeting in Norman, OK

Data Access and Distribution

IDD
- CONDUIT coordination underway with NCEP representatives
- High resolution level III data is being broadcast
Support
- Answer IDD, datastream, case study, miscellaneous, and assorted other support requests
Data
- Maintain data pages
- Preparing for Dual-Pol RADAR
Community
- Coordinated meeting agenda, DeSouza Award nominations, Student nominations with UserComm chair
- Coordinating with new NCEP reps-Rebecca Cosgrove (CONDUIT), and Michelle Mainelli (AWIPS-II)
- Interacting with AIHEC (American Indian Higher Education Consortium) to develop a climate change curriculum module for use at 12 of their community colleges. This work is being done in the RAMADDA environment.
- Participated in the AccessData Impacts Workshop. We are exploring ways to deliver the contents of the Earth Exploration Toolkit via RAMADDA.
- Working with CU's CIRES group to make Greenland GC-Net data available via RAMADDA
- Working with CU's Aerospace Engineering group to make data available via RAMADDA. Most of this data is melt extent, and melt pond area of the Arctic.
- Working with NCAR E & O on Project Bud Burst, this will be in the RAMADDA environment.
- Helping coordinate NCAR's 50th anniversary
- Continue to judge local science fairs

Metrics and Survey

Metrics planning and collection have become a major priority.
- Metrics white paper March 2010 was developed
- A synthesis of collecting metrics helped with organization
A Unidata Survey will be conducted by the Users Committee, and Process for the Unidata Survey was created to stimulate discussion during the UserComm meeting last month..