UNIDATA USER COMMITTEE 1993 SURVEY 137 Surveys Mailed Out, 65 Returned 47% return rate Revised 2/03/94 SUBJECT AREAS IN YOUR DEPARTMENT: Fields of Study (e.g.,Earth Science, Meteorology, Geography) Earth Science: 10 Meteorology: 44 Geography: 13 Other: 44 CHECK ONE (Applicable To Your Department): 2 Year College 1 B.S. Program 15 B.S./M.S. Programs 9 B.S./M.S./Ph.D. Programs 23 Other (Please Specify) 16 B.A. M.S./Ph.D. (8 responses) Ph.D. Program National Research Institute Within Cooperative Extension and Agricultural Experiment Station Non-degree Program Unknown (no response) Research Center/Supports NSF Programs 1. DATA FOR USE IN UNIDATA SYSTEMS: a. Which services do you subscribe to under UNIDATA? 39 Domestic Data Service+ (DDS+) 2 FAA - 604 1 Public Products Service (PPS) 45 DIFAX 9 International Data Service (IDS 47 UNIDATA/WISCONSIN (UNI/WIS) 13 High-Resolution Data Service (HDS, formerly NPS) 9 Other (List Services) Oklahoma Mesonetwork Goestap (3 responses) Goes Channel & Dial-up Radar Goes 1 Satellite Imagery Unidata Systems FSL/maps feed WSI Purchase DD+, 604 Difax separately b.Assess the importance of each service to your program (1 = very important, 2 = important, 3 = expendable) and the reliability of the service ( 1 = reliable, 2 = somewhat reliable, 3 = undependable) Importance Reliability 1 2 3 1 2 3 DDS+ 38 3 0 29 10 0 PPS 1 1 7 2 0 0 IDS 3 8 4 7 2 0 HDS 13 3 3 6 7 1 FAA-604 2 2 7 4 0 0 DIFAX 38 11 1 36 8 2 UNIDATA/WIS 39 12 0 23 20 5 Other 5 3 1 7 2 0 c. What other data sources do you use? 13 LDM/Internet Testing (List Products) DD+ (3 responses) WISC DDS HDS (2 responses) McIDAS (3 responses) DDS+ INTNL LDM4 beta Involved in testing, but products too unreliable to use 45 FTP/Internet (List Sources) SSEC McIDAS Archive unirec.ssec.wisc.edu SSEC backup data for Unidata feed SSEC (2 responses) ssec.wisc.edu Univ. of WI (2 responses) CDIAC (2 responses) NOHRSC CaDWR USGS cumulos.met.ed.ac.ok for Meteosat rainbow.physics.utoronto.ca for NOAA Univ. of IL (7 responses) Purdue (2 responses) NCAR (3 responses) NCAR archives (2 responses) Michigan Univ. of MI weather underground (2 responses) um weather Unidata (3 responses) Collaborators' archives wx.atmos.uiuc.edu NASA (3 responses) Univ. of R.I. Gopher NMC (3 responses) Experimental NMC data Unix crons Large variety (2 responses) Albany NCDC (4 responses) CAC SCAQMD CA. Dept. of Forestry Wetnet nic.fb4.noaa.gov explorer.arc.nasa.gov Oklahoma Mesonetwork satellite picts from Stanford unirec Occasional satellite imagery from various anonymous FTP sites wx-talk lists 28 Compact Disks (List Sources) NCAR (3 responses) UCAR Washington Several dozen from numerous sources U. Washington (Climate CD and N. America 1987CD) Earth Info (5 responses) NMC Gridded Data (8 responses) NASA (5 responses) Global Upper Air (ECMWF) Guaca CD TOMS ERICA (2 responses) Hydrosphere Hydro-Climate Data Network National Climate Information Disk International Station Meteorological Climate Summary Storm-fest (4 responses) Stormfest ZEB Dish World Weather Disk (5 responses) GALE NCDC (6 responses) NOAA Gedex U. Washington CDIAC NODC USGS (2 responses) Climo data 9 Other Means of Transport (Describe) Exabyte tapes of gridded data Mag tape: NCAR, NCDC, NCAC, CaDWR GEODET Lightning data (satellite dish) AFOS tap WSI Products - lightning, radar, satellite 8mm tape World-wide-web (using NCSA Mosaic) Gopher Servers Difax (honofax line) GOESTAP (phone line) Data from private research efforts Private companies Accu Wather Direct satellite links (Zephyr) Modem (NODDS, NMC, AES) NOAA Nexrad OSF Kavouras d. Please rank the need you have in a resource constrained environment for the following data currently unavailable from UNIDATA, where 1 = very important, 2 = important, 3 = somewhat important, and 4 = not important. 1 2 3 4 COMET Case Studies 14 15 11 12 Lightning Data 10 22 15 9 NEXRAD DATA (NIDS) 35 14 5 3 Environmental Data 4 5 7 13 TOMS Data 7 12 13 15 FSL Experimental Data 6 13 11 15 Climate Data 17 20 17 5 NMC Experimental Data 10 12 17 11 Other Needs (Describe) 5 1 0 1 Other alphanumeric data such as forecast discussions (FP3s), etc. Int. WX & climate data (S. America) half-hourly satellite images (visual & IR) NMC GECMWF gridded data Middle atmos. winds (NMC Climate Analysis Center) Eastern Atlantic imagery during hurricane season e. Have you acquired the NCAR CD-ROM gridded data for 1 January - 30 June 1991? 58 No 4 Yes If yes, please rate the usefulness of the CD-ROM using the ranking in (d) for: 4,2 teaching 3,2 research. f. Do you have a need for finer resolution (GOES) satellite imagery? 26 No 34 Yes If yes, specify needs: Better water vapor resolution if possible Floater is nice, but often in wrong location For Great Lake effect snow band resolution Need to detect ship-produced clouds in marine stratus layers Case studies and aquarium public displays Same resolution as old Unifax pics Teaching/research Would like to produce composite total cloud cover product and ability to use enhancement curves for temps. <32¡F Mesoscale analysis Global 1km Better resolution mesoscale events Full resolution (2 responses) For instructional/research applications; floater request is reasonable option Mesoscale studies for research and education Mountain Lee Wave Studies (1 km resolution) Better snow/fog/fire/flood verification Better resolution for better analysis Zoom capabilities for studying storms Mesoscale Meteorology Visible 1 km for sea breeze studies Max. resolution possible in R/T digital form "especially from new GOES platform schedule for 1994 The finer the resolution, the more useful the images would be 1km Visible 1km Severe weather forecasting Finer resolution visible (especially) for instruction in mesoscale and convective processes High resolution visible imagery for severe weather and hurricanes Need to resolve sea-breeze fronts, and local convection 1 km VIS fro 2-3 episodes of severe convertive weather per season - 5 min. scans would be nice Classroom presentations, case studies Occasionally to meet needs of researcher flying the payload for post flight analysis of conditions encountered For teaching about mesoscale initiation of convection and convective structure To incorporate into synoptic program g. Do you have a need for extended spatial coverage of satellite imagery? (e.g., GMS, METEOSAT, NOAA, DMSP Satellite Imagery) 27 No 34 Yes If yes, specify needs: Need METEOSAT for hurricane forecasting exercises Imagery at tropical cyclones Educational long-range forecasting Would like polar orbiter data Everything Worldwide meteorology METEOSAT Arctic ice extent Entire globe for climate, GIS studies Particularly for tropical disturbances in Atlantic, Pacific e.g. Hawaii not covered Full globe Global 1km or better Temperature/water vapor sounding data (TEC/RES) Tropical coverage for tropical storms/hurricanes/Pacific typhoons The entire North Pacific Ocean NOAA Ch 1 and Ch 3 for ship-provided cloud studies Only archived data use in research Imagery over Europe and Asia Central Pacific GOES NOAA Atlantic sectors; less frequently, Pacific More GMS and DMSD imagery to study typhoons in W. Pacific Only on special occasions Access to archived imagery is critical GMS, DMSP Would be useful to do El Nino Study, see Meteosat/GMS imagery, etc. for courses Farther south on GOES AVHRR Routinely in summer: Northern Canada, Austrailia GMS Coverage for South America (Meteosat-3, or GOES-West) and Tibetan Plateau Hurricanes in Eastern Pacific Basin (GOES or GMS?) For teaching about the global nature of the atmosphere N&S hermisphers to show coriolis differences and storm tract differences and earth's tilt by showing the terminator line. To support atmos chem/physics studies 2. UNIDATA SYSTEMS: McIDAS, GEMPAK, WXP, YNOT, netCDF, LDM a. Please describe the McIDAS-OS/2 hardware configurations at your site using the following table (degree of satisfaction: 1 = very satisfied, 2 = satisfied, 3 = not satisfied): Brand Model Degree of No. of (e.g., 386/33, 486/66) Satisfaction Units IBM PS/2 486/25 1 1 IBM 486/33 1 3 IBM Mod 77 486 1 3 IBM PS/2 Model 95 486/33 1 1 IBM PS2 Model 70 2 1 IBM Med. 555X 386 3 1 IBM Mod 70 386 3 1 IBM 386/25 2 1 IBM PS/2 386/16 1 1 IBM PS/2 Model 60 286/10 *3 2 IBM PS/2 Model 70 386/16 *2 2 IBM PS/2 70/386 2 1 IBM PS/2 Model 80 386/20 3 1 IBM PS/2 8386/16 2 2 IBM PS/2 386/20 2 4 IBM PS2 Model 70/386 2 6 IBM PS 2 Model 80/386 2 1 IBM PS 2-70 386/25 2 1 IBM PS/2 Model 80 386/16 mHz 2 1 IBM PS/2 Model 70 386/20 mHz 2 2 IBM Model 80 (386) 1 2 IBM 386/33 (Model 70) 3 1 IBM 386/20 2 7 IBM PS II 386/33 1 1 IBM PS/2 386/20 3 3 IBM 386/25 3 1 IBM PS/2 70 3 (slow) 1 IBM 70 386/25 1 1 IBM P70 3886/20 2 1 IBM PS/2 80 2 1 IBM PS/2 386-20 2 3 IBM PS/2-60 286 Poor 2 IBM PS/2-70 386 Fair 1 IBM 386/20 2 1 IBM 386/20 2 2 IBM PS/2 386/20 2 1 IBM 386/16 2 3 Gateway 2000 486/66 1 2 Gateway 2000 486/66 1 3 Gateway 2000 486/66 1 3 Gateway 486/66 1 1 Gateway 486/66 1 1 Gateway 486/66 1 1 Gateway 486/66 1 1 Gateway 486/66 & 33 1 3 Gateway 486/33 & 66 1 4 Gateway 2000 486/33 1 1 Gateway 2000 486/33v 1 1 Gateway 486/33 2 1 Gateway 486/33 1 2 Gateway 2000 486/33 1 1 Gateway 486/50 1 1 Gateway 2000 486/50 1 2 Gateway 2000 486 Good/Excel 3 DTK 486/33 2 7 AST 486/33 1 1 AST 386/36 2 4 Sun Sparc IPC Sun OS 4.1.3 2 3 "clone" 486/33 1 1 local clone 486/33 1 1 Various clones 386 2 12 Clone 486/33 1 1 Clone 486/50 1 1 Austin 486/33 2 2 Mech 486/33 3 1 PC Gear 486/33 1 1 Northgate 386/33 2 1 Zenith 386/25 2 1 Logix 486/33 1 1 Total # of McIDAS-OS/2 systems: 132 *Hardware satisfactory, machines are slow b. Which UNIDATA software package(s) do you run on your UNIX workstations? 25 McIDAS-X 22 GEMPAK 31 LDM 31 WXP 5 YNOT 21 netCDF 2 Other (describe) weather Univ. Illinois (WXMAP) Univ. Michigan (Weather Underground) c. Describe the UNIX workstations that run the above UNIDATA software (degree of satisfaction: 1 = very satisfied, 2 = satisfied, 3 = not satisfied): Brand Model Oper. Sys. Degree of # Units Satisfaction Sun IPX 4.1.3 1 1 Sun SPARC LX, 10 Solaris 1 9 Sun IPC/X, Sparc 10 Sun OS 2 approx. 60 Sun SLC, ELC, 1, 1+ 4.1.3 1 54 IPC, IPX, 2, LX, 10/30, 10/40, Solaris 2.3 2 8 12/41, Server 1000 Sun SSI, IPC, S10, SunOS, 1 11 Classic Solaris 2.3 Sun 2,IPX, etc. SunOS4.1.3 2 6 Sparc10 4.1.3 1 1 Sun SunOS 2 1 Sun Sparc 2 SunOS 2 1 Sun Sparc 10/30 SunOS 4.1.3 1 1 Sun Sparclassic Solaris 2.2 2 1 Sun Sparc 2 Sun 4.1.0 3 2 Sun Sparc 2 Solaris Unk. Unk. Sun Sparc 2 Solaris haven't used Sun IPX Solaris 2 1 Sun IPC SOS 2 2 Sun Sparc Server Solaris 1 1 Sun Sparc II Open Windows 3 2 2 Sun Sparc 2 Sun OS 1 1 Sun IPX SunOS 1 1 Sun Sparc 2 4.1.3 2 1 Sun Sparc 1+ SunOS 4.1.3 1 1 Sun IPX SunOS 4.1.3 1 2 Sun Sparc IPC 4.1.3 2 3 Sun Sparc 1+ WS Unix 1 1 Sun LX Solaris 2.2 1 1 Sun LC Solaris 2.2 1 1 Sun 1+ SunOS 4.1.2 1 1 Sun 1 SunOS 4.1.2 1 5 Sun IPC SunOS 1 2 Sun Sparc 2 4.1.3 2 1 Sun LX 5.2 1 1 Sun Sparc-10 SunOS 1 1 Sun Sparc-2 SunOS 1 1 Sun IPC SunOS 1 2 Sun SunOS 1 1 Sun SPARC SunOS 1 12(approx) Sun IPX Sun 4.3 2 1 Sun Sparc 1 SunOS 4.1.3 2 2 Sun IPX SunOS 4.1.3 1 2 Sun 4/110 4.1.1 1 1 Sun Sparc 10 Solaris 2.3 1 2 Sun SPARCstation 10 SunOS4.1.3 3 1 DEC DECstation 3100 & 5000 Ultrix 4.3 1 11 DEC AXP 300 & 400 OSFl 1.3 1 6 DEC 5000/240 3 2 DEC 5000/240 Ultrix 1 20 DEC 5000/133 Ultrix 1 6 DEC Alpha OSF 1 4 DEC 5000/200 Ultrix 2 DEC 3100 Ultrix 4 DEC 5000/133 Ultrix 4.3 2 1 DEC 200, 3100, 120 Ultrix 4.3 1 15 DEC Alpha OSF/1 1.3 2 20(approx) DEC 3100 Ultrix 1 2 DEC 5000/xxx Ultrix 1 12(approx) DEC 500 1 1 HP 730 HP/UX8 1 1 HP 715 HP/UX9 1 1 HP720 HPVX8.07 1 1 HP710 HPVX9.0 1 1 HP 735 HPUnix 2 1 HP 720, 735 HP-UX 2 2 IBM RISC 6000 AIX 1 6 IBM 320 AIX 3.2 1 4 IBM 370 AIX3.2 1 3 IBM RS/6000 320 AIX 2 2 IBM 550 AIX 3.2 1 1 IBM 580 AIX 3.2 1 1 IBM RS/6000-520 AIX 2 1 IBM Risc 6000-340 AIX 1 IBM 560 AIX 3.2 1 1 IBM RT AIX2.0 2 1 IBM RS 6000 AIX 3.0 1 1 IBM 6000 AIX 1 1 IBM R/6000 520 AIX 2 1 IBM RS6000 320H AIX 3.2 2 1 IBM Risc 6000-320 Unix (AIX) 1 1 IBM Risc 6000-220W Unix (AIX) 1 1 AT&T 6386 AT&T SVS V.3 2 15 SGI Indigo2 Extreme IRIX 1 1 SGI Indigo 2 IRIX 1 4 SGI Irix 4.0.5 1 2 SGI Indigo 5 IRIX 1 4 Textronix 4319 UteK 3 3(old) Dell 425E Dell Unix 3 1 Apollo Various Domain OS 2 22 d. For which of the following do you use McIDAS, GEMPAK, WXP, or YNOT (Check those that apply.) GEMPAK McIDAS WXP Ynot Synoptic Instruction (Lab) 12 40 13 1 Mesoscale Instruction 9 33 12 0 Climate Instruction 2 12 4 0 Environmental Instruction 2 10 4 0 General Map Discussions 11 43 19 0 Non-Major Intro Courses 3 27 12 0 Graduate Courses 11 21 12 0 Graduate Research 12 23 13 3 Undergraduate Courses 10 35 19 0 Undergraduate Research 10 27 13 0 CWD Graphics 3 18 17 0 Outreach Projects (K-12) 1 17 9 0 Student Assignments 9 30 13 0 Support for Field 8 22 10 0 Public Service 4 32 14 0 Alumni Relations 1 9 6 0 e. How many faculty are in your division/department? # of Faculty # of Responses 1-5 21 6-10 15 11-15 11 16-20 4 21-25 5 26-30 0 31-35 1 36+ 1 f. How many faculty in your department use McIDAS / GEMPAK / WXP / YNOT in their: research classroom. Research: # of Faculty # of Responses 1-5 42 (1 = 16) (2 = 14) (3 = 5) (4 = 5) (5 = 2) 6-10 5 Classroom: # of Faculty # of Responses 1-5 49 (1 = 16) (2 = 11) (3 = 11) (4 = 8) (5 = 3) 6-10 3 g. How many students (undergraduate or graduate) use UNIDATA software hands-on per year? # of Students # of Responses 1-49 36 50-99 7 100+ 10 h. How many students (undergraduate or graduate) are influenced by UNIDATA software per year? # of Students # of Responses 1-50 25 51-100 6 101-150 10 151-200 2 201-250 1 301-350 2 351-400 1 451-500 3 1500 1 25,000+ 1 i. How many credit-hours (per year) involve some type of UNIDATA software? # of Credit Hours # of Responses 1-3 2 4-6 5 7-9 8 10-12 6 13-20 11 21+ 15 j. Do you use McIDAS / GEMPAK / WXP / YNOT displays in a large classroom setting? 33 No 24 Yes If yes, how? 5 Use NTSC converter and tape on VCR 12 Use portable computer and show screen with overhead LCD panels 1 Use large screen monitor with portable PC 8 Use large screen projection system with computer 10 Other (please explain) Make transparencies (2 responses) We want to use it - but technology is expensive! We are submitting an equipment grant to procure such equipment Take slides of display Paper copies of graphs NTSC direct to screen Paper to overhead projector Workstations and x-terminals Just acquired tape with camcorder, replay on VCR (poor quality) Large screen with computer (not portable) "Capture" mode for all 13 Sunis in a room for 40 k. Based on your experience and that of your colleagues, can you suggest the brand-name and model of the technology that best allows one to display UNIDATA products in a large classroom? 46 No 6 Yes If yes, please describe the system: N-view LCD overhead panel w/high intensity overhead projection bulb (overhead) projector We borrow a large screen projector from Sun since the cost is approx. $18,000! Having used a NTSC convertor of poor quality would recommend sharp LCD panel LCD panel, Mac with ethernet I have used SHARP projector with limited success. I've liked (??) better. Best advice is to buy Quadra 660 AV with (??) Sharp LCD panel, Mitsubishi 37" monitor Electrohome projection system Sharp 1150 color LCD projection panel for PC projection We use a 37" Mitsubishi monitor But would like to know. Plus cost But we'd like to know! Tell us! I would like to find it though! Send me this info 3. LOCAL SYSTEM MAINTENANCE a. Who performs the hardware/software maintenance on your systems? 35 Faculty member in "spare" time. 17 Staff member in part-time. 13 Staff member in full-time. 12 Graduate students, part-time. 6 Undergraduate students, part-time. b. Do you have hardware maintenance contracts on any of your systems? 33 Yes 30 No c. Do you have software maintenance contracts on any of your systems? 24 Yes 37 No d. Do you feel that your institution supports your hardware/software (maintenance or upgrades) adequately? 27 Yes 33 No If no: 26 Can you ask for support? 17 Does your institution support another vendor's hardware/software? 4. IF YOU RECEIVE DIFAX: a. How do you receive the DIFAX signal (e.g., Alden, Contel, etc.)? 48 Alden 2 Contel b. Do you use Alden's Digital Printer Interface-D100 (Black Box)? 44 Yes 5 No c. Do you use Alden's computer software to display products? 10 Yes 36 No d. Do you use a printer to print maps? If so, what kind of printer do you use? 6 Laser Printer 9 C-ITOH 37 Okidata 1 Wet-paper e. Do you use the hard copies in meteorological instruction? 44 Yes 2 No f. Do you use DIFAX charts for: 46 synoptic lab? 36 research? 40 introductory course for non-majors? g. Are the maps stored on a disk? 11 Yes 35 No h. Are the maps available on the network? 5 Yes 41 No i. Do you archive paper copies of these maps? 37 Yes 10 No If so, for how long? 16 less than 2 years 3 two years 3 three years 2 four years 4 five years 6 six-plus years j. Do you archive maps digitally? 4 Yes 42 No If so, How? We just bought an optical disk map archive system, and are working on getting it going. Some McIDAS osv tape 8mm tape Digitally (4mm DAT) Some are scanned on Mac's for specific project k. On a typical day, how many maps do you print? Number of Maps Number of Responses 1-25 8 26-50 13 51-75 10 76-100 11 101-125 2 126-150 2 176-200 2 l. Which option do you favor for the future? 23 Keep DIFAX separate from UNIDATA systems (status quo--retain satellite reception capabilities). 25 Create DIFAX-like charts using NPS, DDS+, and other data. 12 Other option (please describe) Computerize the entire operation with option to print oversize maps on demand. Additional Models not on DIFAX eq. aviation, ETA. Add DIFAX to Internet data distribution. Broadcast compressed data over Internet, and plot locally and print with provided software. Create as many as possible with existing data and digitally transmitted hand drawn charts over Internet. Unidata should archive DIFAX on optical disks. I don't have a strong opinion about this. However, if the maps are created using NPS and DDS+, they should retain the level of information that currently exists on the DIFAX charts. If software can create maps as good as DIFAX, use the other sources (NPS...). Create a database of GIF files which have all the DIFAX charts and make them available through FTP. The charts we receive are the extended (3-5 day), 30 and 90 day charts. Until such products can be generated from WXP, we will need DIFAX. If we can't achieve (1), then we would like to see Unidata Internet distribution of those charts we can't "create". I'm not sure - it would take a lot of CPU for us to create all of our charts - it seems silly for everyone to do this. Why not distribute the maps via the network? Or is this too much data? Retain satellite reception. We ingest DIFAX in our system. m. Are there any critical DIFAX products that you cannot generate any other way? 8 No 33 Yes If yes, please list in order of importance. Any Northern hemisphere products, - moisture panels - not sure how many others - almost all the DIFAX products. All progs, any charts for Pacific, lifted indices. Manual forecasts and analysis: 6 & 18 hr. prog. 36 & 48 prog. 3-5 days prog. Great Lakes ice analysis. NGM prods (partly), ETA prods, spectral 500mb prods, and 6-10 day prods. Currently we are very limited to what Unidata/Wisconsin may also generate. Most critical: constant pressure analysis, NMC prog. Most DIFAX products are the "offical" NMC products and cannot be adequately regenerated by other means, as such. We don't get the HDS presently - and GEMPAK maps often don't have the same quality as the DIFAX maps. For example, MRF products due to lack of NPS. NMC surface analysis SST Generation of all maps would require software development so we wouldn't be able to do it without lots of effort. In principle, it's possible. 30 and 90 day outlooks, sea ice and snow cover maps. A couple of hand drawn charts Analyses, certain forecast fields. Just about everything. Need progs and grids - do not have HDS. Hand drawn surface analyses and prog. charts. Atoll Trajectory/MOS temps & POPS/Tropical analysis/hand drawns MRF forecast Forecast discussions. SFC analyses, outlooks and similar products. Maximum, minimum temperatures, precipitation, spectral model. Moisture/stability index chart, ETA model NWP, NMC fest progs, SELS fests, HPB fests, 5 day outlook etc. The charts we receive are the extended (3-5 day), 30 and 90 day charts. Until such products can be generated from WXP, we will need DIFAX. Basic RADB data with actual stations (Unidata has stations missing.) NGM 4-panel (since we don't have NPS). Have not really investigated this - we do some forensic research and the standard Difax maps are acceptable proof of weather conditions - maps generated in another way may not be. I need contour vorticity samples. They could be created with overlays and printed, but it's lots of work. SST maps, herispheric charts, outlook charts. Crop moisture index. Surface analysis (especially over ocean). Some data on upper level charts. 5. FUTURE PLANS a. Are you planning to purchase new equipment for use with UNIDATA systems in the next 1-2 years? 17 No 42 Yes If yes, what platform do you prefer? 23 SUN 2 HP 9 SGI 7 IBM 8 DEC 3 Other UNIX (Specify) 3 Other Non-UNIX (Specify) Mac Power PC X-Terminals Gateway IBM-OS/2 b. Are you planning to purchase new equipment in the next one to two years to display McIDAS/GEMPAK/WXP/YNOT products in a large classroom? 28 No 27 Yes If yes, how? 4 Use NTSC converter and tape on VCR. 12 Use portable computer and show screen with overhead LCD panels. 3 Use large screen monitor with portable PC. 6 Use large screen projection system with computer. 4 Other (please explain) Workstations, X Terminals Amiga w/X11R6 and SVideo (SVHS) Encoder Classroom building to be connected to campus fiber optics. We are unsure of their final configuration. Undecided - we need to do this but are not sure how to proceed. Can Unidata provide guidance? c. How are you going to finance this purchase? 12 NSF UNIDATA Grant 11 NSF ILI Grant 31 University Funds 6 NSF Research Grant 9 Donations/grants from private industry 11 Other (describe) Alumni grants in lieu of an NSF ILI grant. We'll try any and everything FAA funding for research. State bond issue or/and merger with another dept. Institute funds. Facility development grant for acquarium-type display area. Weather will be ancillary. NSF EPSCOR. Alumni. State Grant NASA Funds d. What UNIDATA applications software will be used on these new systems? (Check all that apply.) 26 GEMPAK 30 WXP 5 YNOT 37 MclDAS 28 LDM 6. INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL NETWORKING a. Is your university connected to INTERNET? 57 Yes 0 No b. Is your site connected to INTERNET? 52 Yes 13 No c. If you are not connected to INTERNET, do you have e-mail capability? 0 No 11 Yes If yes, how? Unix email sendmail elm via university mainframe fiber optics but not on Internet d. Approximately what percentage of your UNIDATA platforms are networked? Percentage # Responses 100% 48 80% 1 50% 1 20% 1 e. What networks do you use? 56 Ethernet 11 Fiber Optic (FDDI) 2 Other (please describe): IBM token ring (2 responses) f. How many of your UNIDATA systems are connected to INTERNET? 7 None 8 Some 42 All g. If you are not connected to INTERNET, when will you get connected? 4 6 months or less 4 Within a year 3 > 1 year h. Are you prepared to use INTERNET as the primary means of data delivery? 4 No 38 Yes 18 Yes, with some reservations (please describe) If Internet is proven equal/better reliability than satellite delivery. Once fiber optic line connected. As soon as the local connection is purchased it will be more feasible. Unsure about capacity of my univ. connection to I-net. Still unsure about backup procedures. Not sure whether we are configured to be a distribution node or only a reception point. May need to increase capacity. We have a weak outside link plus a need for FAA 604 in Av. tech. Internet not 100% reliable. Software was just delivered today. Need faster link (only 56K at present). Assuming data delivery is reliable, and adequate fall back methods available. Will need time. In the future. It isn't clear yet what this might entail. If network were down, you might get no access to Internet. We rely heavily on weather maps printed on reg. paper. Dependent on funding for additional equipment and Internet wiring. Sadly, 57kb line in path Need time to get everything connected. McIDAS data will be harder to link Anxiously awaiting. Have to clarify data flow demands on existing Internet connection and upgrade if necessary. Only 1 student maintains network and will graduate this summer - no replacement is currently available. i. Do you feel that UNIDATA should offer networking support to phase in the INTERNET Data Delivery (IDD) program? 9 No 41 Yes If yes, what type of support should be offered? Support to handle the questions above in "h" Software; technical advice/support Workshops, support How about a basic workshop on ethernet DNS/NIS, NFS, Mail, Unidata data distribution - how to set up (not maintain) a basic machine for 1st timers. Similar to support of Unidata software Use Unidata limited resources on developing software! Moral. But I'm not sure I know what "networking" support means. Setup. Solaris 2.X and/or 02/22.1 using PC/TCP. Last option. Same day phone support. Same level as currently available for software. Prototype files for setting up network links. Minimal support. We don't need it. Basic help. Hand holding, for the most part. What do you mean by "networking support"? Software Low level tech. questions answered. Not sure. Buddy system and guidance on software/hardware. To support upgrade to faster data links and/or equipment recommend actions. Only as directly related to LDM data distribution. Assistance - training. BBS Technical support should be available by phone or email. 1st Buddy system, 2nd answer questions similar to support on LDM. Funding for Internet networking or information on where to obtain it. Clearer instruction on setup/operation. j. If you are on INTERNET, what peak rate of data transfer can your network connection support? 2 9.6 kbits/s 9 56 kbits/s 24 1.544 Mbits/s (T-l) 5 45 Mbits/s (T-3) 17 Do not know 0 Other (describe) k. Are you willing to be a "good" neighbor and pass data on to other UNIDATA sites in real time? 39 Yes 0 No 23 Unsure 1. Are you willing to let other UNIDATA sites access your data base occasionally to recover missed data (via anonymous FTP)? 44 Yes 3 No 13 Unsure m. Have you ever accessed archived data (e.g., surface data, upper air data, satellite imagery) over the INTERNET (e.g., data from SSEC/Wisconsin)? 43 yes 19 No If yes, how often? 21 1-6 times/year 3 6-12 times/year 19 >12 times/year 7. UTILIZING UNIDATA SOFTWARE SYSTEMS a. Please assign a ranking for each software package's characteristics from 1-3, where grades are: 1 = excellent, 2 = good, and 3 = fair. Ease of Ease of Correct- Quality of Docu- Unidata Overall instal use ness of graphical menta- support useful- lation algorithms output tion ness GEMPAK Rank 1 5 4 11 12 4 15 12 2 9 14 5 9 11 6 8 3 5 5 0 1 4 0 1 LDM Rank 1 7 9 7 0 5 18 21 2 19 16 5 3 13 7 4 3 3 3 0 0 6 2 1 McIDAS-X Rank 1 6 4 3 8 7 14 9 2 7 8 8 8 4 4 9 3 4 8 1 2 9 0 0 Ynot Rank 1 5 1 1 3 1 3 1 2 1 3 2 1 3 1 3 3 0 4 0 0 0 0 4 WXP Rank 1 9 10 11 14 11 20 17 2 17 16 7 13 12 3 9 3 0 2 2 2 2 3 1 McIDAS-OS/2 Rank 1 25 19 14 16 22 32 25 2 11 17 14 18 12 5 12 3 3 4 4 7 6 2 2 b. If UNIDATA finds it necessary to decrease support efforts, it may be necessary to decrease our resource commitment. UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES please place a check mark by the suggested level of resource commitment for the following software systems from UNIDATA: ZERO = remove from UNIDATA disks, MINIMAL = place in "Community Supported" category, providing only disk space for contributed code and mailing lists to encourage user interaction, MODERATE = distribute and support changes contributed by the author only, SIGNIFICANT = encourage user contributions and enhance the software using UNIDATA Program Center (UPC) resources, and AGGRESSIVE = actively develop new capabilities using UPC resources: Zero Minimal Moderate Significant Aggressive GEMPAK 1 3 14 18 7 LDM 1 0 2 10 31 McIDAS-X 1 1 9 16 20 netCDF 1 7 16 12 4 YNOT 6 14 11 4 0 WXP 3 4 16 13 8 McIDAS-OS/2 6 6 23 9 15 c. Rank the following items from 1-3, where 1 = very important, 2 = somewhat important, and 3 = not very important. RANK 1 2 3 a) Unify the GEMPAK, WXP, YNOT and LDM software packages. 10 21 24 b) Have all software run on net-CDF data. 23 16 15 c) Develop uniform graphical user interfaces (GUI) for all 20 21 16 software packages. d) Have UNIDATA support packages on more platforms. 6 23 28 e. Have UNIDATA distribute, but not support, PC-software 18 25 16 from NWS. f. Improve tutorials for all software systems. 32 23 2 g. Provide common parameters/syntax for software systems. 17 33 7 h. Make data conveyed by UNIDATA accessible in retro- 20 21 8 spective mode as now done with UNIDATA/Wisconsin channel. For what period of time (e.g., 1 week, 1 month) 1 week (9 responses) 1 week, older data by request 2 weeks (2 responses) at least 1 month 1 month (13 responses) 1 month to forever 3 months (2 responses) 1 year (2 responses) Past 2 weeks at all times, 3 12 weeks data available in 2 week blocks, 1 day at a time, in rotation. 1 month on disk and archive on CD i. Suggestions of other items (please describe). 3 3 0 Make climate data available on Unidata McIDAS Some kind of semi-standardized (PC based?) software we can distribute to local K-12 (K-14?) schools who have access to our data. Unify GEMPAK and McIDAS-X Make last 30-60 days available on line (FTP) - older data by request (sort of like now) Expand area of satellite (GOES/GMS) coverage to include Hawaii. Organize/centralize station tables/lists (everyone has their own lists). Make/assemble catalogs of products available on WMO broadcasts. Document meteorological functions (e.g. div, advection) concerning grid files used and units of derived fields. Make available good data catalogs describing data headers and product type, contents, format. d. In the following table, potential improvements are identified for each of UNIDATA's most widely used software packages. If a function is already available for a package, then an X is placed in that cell. Please indicate with a number ranking those functions/improvements that you believe are needed for each software system, where 1 = very important, 2 = somewhat important and, 3 = not very important. (Note: GD = gridded data.) GEMPAK McIDAS WXP Menu for Basic Obs./Derived Quantity Rank 1 11 X X 2 5 3 7 Intuitive GUI Rank 1 15 19 14 2 6 13 8 3 4 4 3 Improved Tutorial Rank 1 11 20 8 2 9 16 14 3 2 2 4 Hodograph from Profiler Data Rank 1 X 10 6 2 14 9 3 8 7 Hodograph from GD Rank 1 3 7 4 2 12 13 8 3 7 14 10 Cross Sections from GD Rank 1 X X 12 2 6 3 4 Time Cross Sections of GD Rank 1 11 14 8 2 11 18 8 3 3 5 7 Cross Sections of Dir./lnd. Thermal Circ. from GD Rank 1 X X 6 2 6 3 8 3-D Visualization of GD Rank 1 7 18 6 2 13 15 9 3 3 6 8 Calculate Conditional Symmetric Instability Rank 1 7 6 6 2 11 18 7 3 4 11 8 Calculate Isentropic Trajectories Rank 1 11 15 6 2 10 17 10 3 3 6 15 Calculate Kinematic Trajectories Rank 1 9 10 4 2 10 20 11 3 4 7 6 Calculate Kinematic Vertical Motion Rank 1 X 12 8 2 20 8 3 6 8 Calculate Helicity from Profiler Data Rank 1 0 7 3 2 17 22 11 3 6 7 7 Calculate Helicity from GD Rank 1 X 5 1 2 18 10 3 11 8 Calculate Helicity from Observed Data Rank 1 2 X 5 2 15 9 3 6 7 Streamline Analyses of GD Rank 1 X X 9 2 8 3 6 e. If there is a function NOT listed above that you would like to see available, please list the function: Plot IPV on cross section. Ability to change time labels on products to local time. Cross sections with vertical vorticity. Ability to overlay cloud reports on satellite. Isontropic surface analysis for an GD or Obs. Moisture convergence, Q-vectors, Laplacian of temp. adv. Forcing terms in Q-G Omega equation. Insert Highs and lows at pressure (etc.) centers of contour maps. McIDAS/OS2 to calculate and grid lifted index/CAPE. Map database with county boundaries (WXP) Thermodynamic analysis (i.e. LI contours) Wind shear maps of tropics between pressure levels. Interpolate GEMPAK grids from pres. coord to G coor. Animation of 3D visualization of GD, CAPE More elaborate station description data and a good way to look at that data from within WXP/GEMPAK. Some historical information (on 1st order stations?) would be nice. 8. DIFFICULTIES WITH UNIDATA USE Rank the following items from 1-3, where 1 = no problems encountered, 2 = some problems encountered, and 3 = major problems encountered. RANK 1 2 3 a. Maintaining hardware 19 34 2 b. Replacing obsolete equipment 18 24 11 c. Coping with slow performance 17 25 12 d. Providing adequate disk storage 15 26 13 e. Maintaining UNIDATA software at current releases 23 28 4 f. Maintaining operating systems at current releases 22 24 10 g. Performing system/network administrative functions 16 28 11 h. Adapting UNIDATA software to unsupported platforms 27 8 5 9. OVERALL ASSESSMENT OF UNIDATA a. Rank the following UNIDATA services from 1-5, where 1 = excellent, 2 = very good, 3 = good, 4 = fair, and 5 = poor. RANK 1 2 3 4 5 Training Courses 28 20 3 0 0 Advice and Consultation 40 11 3 4 0 Printed Documentation and Other Information 13 25 12 7 0 Network-Accessible Information and Software 32 19 7 1 0 Software Innovation and Development 16 29 9 1 1 Software Maintenance and Upgrades 22 25 8 3 1 Site Visits by UNIDATA Staff 6 6 3 5 8 Mailing List Support 25 13 10 4 0 Data Access 14 22 10 5 0 Responsiveness to Community Needs 20 21 7 2 0 Success in Anticipating Community Needs 14 19 10 3 0 Vision of Future Community Needs 17 18 15 1 1 Adequacy of Information Conveyed on UNIDATA Plans 15 19 14 3 1 UNIDATA Gopher Service 21 15 4 1 b. Do you favor a UNIX-only posture for UNIDATA as the operating system of choice? 35 Yes 27 No c. Do you favor object code releases of UNIDATA software (instead of source codei)? 25 Yes 33 No d. Please check any platforms that you think SHOULD NOT be supported in the future by UNIDATA: 4 IBM RS-6000 with AIX 2 Sun with SunOS 1 Sun with Solaris 15 DEC with ULTRIX 8 DEC with OSF-l 15 OS/2 e. Please list the new platforms that you believe SHOULD BE supported in the future by UNIDATA: Several researchers have asked for some Macintosh support. Microsoft NT MS Windows NT OS/2 and Suns OS/2, IBM RS 6000 None Platform with WABI as the O/S. HP (3 responses) Sun with Solaris and/or SunOS HP with HP/UX (2 responses) SGI (7 responses) SGI w/IRIX (3 responses) Silicon Graphics IRIS DEC AXP Guess...HP! HP/IBM/Sun are the top 3 Unix platforms. DEC with OSF/1 (2 responses) We expect to remain with open VMS - if we make any changes it would be to VMS on ALPHA. Sun w/Solaris (2 responses) Unix based platforms Hmmm - maybe UNIX-BSD 386 f. Will you have made the transition to UNIX in 1-2 years? 34 Yes 11 No If no, why not? Not sure: I think we will need more time to have OS/2 systems still available and useable. I hope to find the time to do so. Depending on outcome of grant. Already there. (3 responses) Dependent on funding and institutional support; do not have department computer person. Need money from university and grants. Cost, limited time available to learn new system. Would still maintain OS/2 software. Will try, but no guarantee! Cost plus retraining. depending on available hardware Committed to VMS for all but McIDAS there, could go Unix on a PC (VMS is a hardware/dollar commitment) More like 2-3 years (funding will not be available. We will rely on OS/2 for McIDAS. The questions is "why?" We'll adapt to open systems as the need arises. By this, I mean interoperable. This means interfaces, not UNIX jammed down everyone's throat. Money, lack of understanding of UNIX. Station lists; unify them and update them monthly. Make Alden/Zephyr provide updated header lists for domestic and list of services frequently Insufficient funds I guess I do not understand why we must do this. I don't see any advantage in doing so. We have more university-wide support here for VMS. g. Additional comments or suggestions concerning: 1. most important change needed in UNIDATA software. 2. most important new data source. 3. general suggestions on the direction of UNIDATA. 4. comments for NSF on sponsoring UNIDATA. 5. any other concerns? 1. GUI, common data format. 2. NIDS 3. None 4. Excellent payback on investment 5. UNIX administration. 1. WXP/GEMPAK/etc. integration would be nice. 2. Fleet Numerical Oceanographic Center (FNOC) 3. I would be afraid to make any suggestions here. You seem to know where we're going before we do. 4. Unidata is an intelligent use of limited NSF resources. It allows us to accomplish more research with less overhead. As a one person dept. I find myself overwhelmed. Think the Internet data feed is very important. Keep up the good work. Even allowing for the problems and/or limitations, the overall program is a god send; one of best benefits NSF could possible provide for met programs. NEXRAD data New data source: NEXRAD. Data access to others such as HRPT files (from AVHRR NOAA). We need strong NSF support of both the Unidata program center in Boulder as well as the Unidata sites. Technology continues to move forward rapidly and additional equipment and capabilities will be needed. Good program overall. The NIDS data is very important. Need tropical Atlantic data for hurricane season. Unidata needs to be more sensitive to the difficulties university faculty have in getting money for equipment - matching money is not easy to get. More sensitivity to the time involved in software maintenance would also help. We are a rapidly growing deparment in a small, private university. As such, funding is always a first concern and we believe any means possible should be explored to maintain a user-friendly, low-cost data source for undergraduate meteorological instruction and secondarily, research. UNIX pre supposes that a site have considerable computing expertise. Any move which "sunsets" PC's will leave a number of smaller sites out in the cold. Better expanded tutorial(s) for McIDAS. Documentation of meteorological functions. Would not be able to supply WX data to student if not for Unidata services - rate Unidata as one of the best uses of NSF money. New data: NIDS and lightning very important. Most important: Distribution of archival NAS, AAS, DIFAX data on CD-Rom. Unidata needs more money! I am eager for Internet distribution. I don't have much hands-on experience with Ynot and GEMPAK. Difficult to make accurate assessments. WXP should just be managed by Purdue. I don't think Unidata's extra tinkering does much for the software. Minor complaint. Internet transmission of data would help a lot. We, as a VMS shop, have felt a little neglected - although the Unidata support folks do treat us as well as ever. Please recognize that at small shcools at least, UNIX support can be sketchy. Our biggest problem with Unidata has been bootstrapping ourselves on UNIX. Tutorial and installation guides need to be verbose on this matter. Many of us are meteorologists, not system managers! There seems to be too much duplication of effort on the local levels. Couldn't all products be placed at 1 location and then accessed via FTP? Thanks for your great work. Would like to have access to NIDS-type data for IDD. Also would like to have more numerical model output files available. Make all software run on netCDF data. Improve tutorials documentation for all software packages. Address system management issues for small schools migrating to UNIX. NSF is an appropriate sponsoring agency and its support MUST continue. IDD should be a top concern. Also, GUI interface is very important. The most important improvement would be to improve the ease of installation and maintenance of UNIX based systems. That occuppies the greatest amound of time at our site. Better tutorials. I am trying to build a decent synoptic program in a primarily Atmos. Chemistry school. I have very little control over the systems. Get lightning strobe data back. Continue to provide help to new UNIX sites that don't have an administrator or are new to UNIX and hardware platforms. I can't tell you enough how much this has helped XXX in the past 2-4 months - THANKS! Concered about rapid change in support of operating systems and platforms. Some long term stability is needed in order to conserve resources - ours and yours. 4. In the beginning stages of Unidata, there was community-wide support (large workshop in Wisconsin). It is unclear whether this same support support exists today. It is also unclear whether there is community consensus on the services and products that Unidata provides. This survey should help. 10. K-14 OUTREACH (Includes K-12 and 2 year community college outreach.) a. Do you use UNIDATA systems or data for any form of K-14 outreach? 15 Yes 28 No If, no, is such use planned? 16 Yes 10 No b. Dependent upon resource availability, UNIDATA software may be augmented with an "Environmental Information Server" by which the outputs of other UNIDATA svstems can be made generally accessible (on- or off-campus, including K-14) in easy-to-understand forms. Similar in concept to the Campus Weather Display, the new server would be fully supported and use such technologies as Gopher and X-Mosaic. Please indicate whether you favor such a move: 0 Oppose 5 Ambivalent 8 Favor 28 Strongly Favor