MeteoForum Activities - Winter 2005-2006

Tom Yoksas
March 28, 2006

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

Background

The MeteoForum vision was originally articulated in the 2001 Fulker/Spangler proposal submitted in application for UCAR Director's Opportunity Funding (Jack Fellows):

MeteoForum - An International Network of Meteorological Training Centers for the 21^st Century

"The MeteoForum pilot project will include a small group of educational institutions (some universities and some WMO RMTCs) that are motivated to enhance the contributions of modern meteorology in their regions. Participants will be expected to have relatively fast Internet access, appropriate computers, and suitable personnel. Some of these personnel will be trained to run MeteoForum software on their computers so as to to access real-time data, training materials, and other resources. Where practical, participants in the MeteoForum pilot also will contribute real-time data and educational resources to the effort. By integrating these elements, the pilot project will serve as a model on which to build a full-scale international MeteoForum. Initially, the MeteoForum pilot project will build upon capabilities now offered in the U.S. by the government-sponsored COMET and Unidata programs"

Current UPC-related MeteoForum efforts are best characterized as a natural extension of outreach activities to the international higher education research and education community.

Recent Activities of Note

In conjunction with Dr. Elen Cutrim (Western Michigan University professor and member of the Unidata Users Committee), and under guidance of Ben Domenico, a special session was organized for the AGU 2006 Joint Assembly (JA06) to be held in Baltimore, MD on 23-26 May:
Earth and space science Cyberinfrastructures: Data, Tools, Distribution and Forecast Systems for International Collaboration
The underlying goal of the session (IN05) is to help build a stronger and broader space and Earth science cyberinfrastructure community through international collaboration. We encouraged submission of papers on biogeophysical, meteorological, ecological, remote sensing, and related intelligent and adaptive systems for data collection, processing, and knowledge discovery and classroom dissemination. Special attention was given to presentations on data, tools, and forecast systems that foster collaborations among the research and education communities in the Western Hemisphere.
In order to stimulate JA06 participation by Latin American scientific and higher education organizations, a proposal for travel assistance monies was to the NSF's Division of Atmospheric Sciences (ATM) and Office of International Science & Engineering (OISE). The primary intent of the assistance as to encourage participation that has the potential of leading to collaborations between US and Latin American educators and researchers. This proposal was funded by ATM/OISE for the full amount requested.
Enthusiastic interest in session IN05 resulted in the submission of 22 abstracts that include 4 invited talks, 11 contributed talks, and 7 posters. Session IN05 is the second most popular section of the Earth and Space Science Informatics (IN) program of JA06. The international flavor of the session is demonstrated by abstract submissions by researchers in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Venezuela.
The IDD-Brazil, inaugurated at the end of December, 2003, continues to slowly expand in Brazil.
Current Brazilian participants:
- INPE/CPTEC - top level relay and data injection node (INPE is the Brazilian equivalent of NASA; CPTEC runs models operationally for Brazil in a role that is similar to NCEP's role in the US)
- Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) - top level relay and data injection node
- Universidade de Sao Paulo - leaf node (will evolve into a data injection node)
- Universidade de Santa Catarina - leaf node
- Universidade Federal do Para (UFPA) - leaf node (RMTC) (in progress to return to active status)
- Pontifica Universidade Catolica de Minas Gerais - leaf node
- Laboratorio Nacional de Computaçao Cientifica (LNCC) - leaf node
- CEFET-RJ - Technical school of Meteorology in Rio de Janeiro - leaf node
- INMET - Brazilian National Weather Service - leaf node
Non-Brazilian participants:
- Universidad de Buenos Aires - leaf node (RMTC)
- Universidade de Aveiro (Portugal) - leaf node
Many of these institutions began participating as a result of a Unidata presence at the XIII Congresso Brasileiro de Meteorologia (CBMET, the 13th Brazilian Meteorological Congress) in September 2004.
UFRJ and CPTEC personnel have been actively conducting outreach to Brazilian universities to inform them of the availability of real time data and to see if they have unique data holdings that they would be willing to share.
Sites that are expected to join the IDD-Brazil in the coming months include:
- National Institute for Amazonic Studies (INPA)
In addition to the sites above, an operational organization named FURNAS has also expressed interest in participating in IDD-Brazil data exchange. Their participation will require a quid pro quo arrangement with other IDD-Brazil participants.
As a result of attending the El Nino conference of the Red de Universidades del Pacifico Sur (RUPSUR) in Santiago, Chile in November, 2004 (a NSF-funded trip), the Universidad de Chile began participating in the IDD in September, 2005.
RUPSUR institution(s) scheduled to begin participating in the IDD:
- Universidad de Simon Bolivar, Caracas, Venezuela (in progress)
- FIMCM-ESPOL, Campus Gustavo Galindo V., Guayaquil, Ecuador (in planning)
The next El Nino conference of RUPSUR is scheduled for late November in Cali, Colombia. Notably, Ricardo Mantillo, a Unidata 2005 training workshop attendee from the University of Colorado at Boulder, has been working to get the Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Medellin (University of Colombia at Medellin) connected to the IDD and configured to use GEMPAK and McIDAS.
The Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) in Husbands, St. James Barbados has been receiving real time data feeds of global observational data, GOES-East satellite imagery, and NCEP and UKMT model output pertinent to the Caribbean since the Unidata site visit in November, 2004.
The CIMH, which is also a WMO RMTC, joined the IDD to:
- access real-time meteorological data
- take advantage of meteorological analysis and display capabilities available in Unidata-supported packages
- increase existing Institute capabilities
Since joining the IDD/IDD-Brazil in summer, 2005, the Universidade de Buenos Aires (UBA) has been actively using real time data in the classroom and for research. Even though the full suite of Unidata application packages was installed, the department has concentrated on use of GEMPAK.
Attendance at the European Geophysical Union (EGU) meeting in Vienna, Austria in April, 2005 to report on the international expansion of the IDD has recently resulted in the University of Vienna registering with the Unidata webportal so the LDM can be downloaded and configured for real time data through the IDD.
After experiencing problems for several months, the NOAAPORT installation at the Universidad de Costa Rica has been functioning well.

Additional MeteoForum Information

Background material on MeteoForum can be found in previous User and Policy Committee Meeting reports:

October 2005 User Committee Meeting MeteoForum - Yoksas.