Table of Contents

• Regional Workshops
• New Users Committee Members
• WRF Model
• GEM Data
• 2003 Users Workshop
• Citing Unidata: A Modest Request

Regional Workshops

The Unidata Users survey yielded a not entirely unexpected suggestion: regional workshops are a great idea. While the idea resonates favorably with the Unidata community, history indicates that it is difficult to get a regional workshop off the drawing board and into reality. In fact, only one has been held in Unidata's 20-year history.

June 1993 was the date. The site was SUNY-Brockport, and the workshop was billed as a northeastern regional workshop. Twenty-eight Unidata community members from 16 different universities gathered for two-and-a-half days to learn about Unidata software. Four community members organized the meeting over a several-month period with the bulk of the organization occurring via e-mail and conference call. A primary criterion for site selection was institutional support though hardware availability was important as well. The UPC provided support in the form of footing the travel bill to Brockport for three staff members.

The first day's activities consisted of presentations by selected members of the community on how they were using software; lab sessions followed the presentations, and question-and-answer or tutorials followed the lab sessions. The second day's format was similar with roundtable discussions instead of presentations, and on the third day the workshop's organizers gave participants the opportunity to provide feedback to Unidata in a session entitled "What do you want next from Unidata?"

See any familiar faces here?

Once again the UPC is putting the question to the community: Would you be interested in a regional workshop being held in your part of the country? If the answer to that is "yes," then would you be interested in hosting it or in helping to organize it? What are some topics you'd like to address? Richard Clark (Millersville University) and Charlie Murphy (Kean University) have a repeat northeastern regional workshop in the mill, but maybe you would like to propose one for your own area of the country; or work with Rich and Charlie on developing their's.

One suggested theme might be a follow-up to Unidata's triennial users workshop, "Expanding Horizons Using Environmental Data and Model Output for Education, Prediction, and Decision Making," to explore ideas raised there in greater depth.

You can count on the Program Center to facilitate and assist your effort. If you're interested in the idea send e-mail to jhansen@ucar.edu and we'll get the ball rolling.

Welcome Newly-appointed Users Committee Members

The Unidata Users Committee and the Program Center are pleased to announce the appointment of three new committee members and the term extension of one of its members.

Members new to the committee are:

Chuck Graves, Saint Louis University
Anton Kruger, University of Iowa
Donna Tucker, University of Kansas

The term for the three members is October 2002 to October 2005.

Michael Morgan will serve out the term vacated by Rajul Pandya (who recently relocated to Boulder to work at the DLESE Program Center). Michael is co-chairing the summer workshop: Expanding Horizons Using Environmental Data and Model Output for Education, Prediction, and Decision Making being held in Boulder 22-27 June 2003. His term on the committee is to October 2004.

The Users Committee is the primary mechanism for gaining scientific feed back on the effectiveness of the Unidata Program.

The WRF Model and the Unidata Community

While some members of the Unidata community are following the WRF model's development with interest, others are unaware of its existence; still others fall somewhere in between.

The Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF: pronounced warf), is an advanced mesoscale forecast model and assimilation system being developed collaboratively by a group of researchers and developers from NCAR, NOAA's Forecast Systems Laboratory and National Centers for Environmental Prediction, the Air Force Weather Agency, and the University of Oklahoma's Center for the Analysis and Prediction of Storms. The model's overall goal is to develop a next-generation model and assimilation system that will advance both the understanding and prediction of important mesoscale precipitation systems, and promote closer ties between the research and forecasting communities. The model will improve the forecast accuracy of significant weather features across scales ranging from clouds to the synoptic.

A telephone survey of Unidata site representatives indicated that WRF will be an important ingredient in research and education endeavors at many member institutions.

In classroom settings WRF will serve as an instructional tool on topics ranging from mesoscale meteorology and numerical weather prediction to computational fluid dynamics and high performance computing, according to one community member. Another expects to use the model as a tool in both graduate and undergraduate courses. John Osborne (University of North Dakota) expects that it may take as long as a year to integrate WRF into the curriculum, but he is committed to making it happen.

Jim Steenburgh (University of Utah) plans to use the model in classroom sensitivity studies that will "allow students to test their own hypotheses about the processes controlling a particular phenomena or event." When the GUI front end is developed the model will be even more accessible for classroom use.

WRF users in the research arena are equally eager to incorporate the model into their activities. A scientist at one major university stated that he is using WRF in hypothesis testing. Another believes that research results will transfer into operations more quickly than is presently the case with other models. While some community members will continue to use the older tried and true models until WRF's stability is assured, many are laying the groundwork for moving into WRF in the near future even though understanding the models ins and outs is an ongoing learning process.

It's worth noting that WRF is being run in at least one very small department as well as in large research departments. In operations, users are convinced that WRF will allow research results to be brought into operations much more quickly than is presently the case with other models. Another notes that without a lot of experience the model's performance is difficult to assess.

The bottom line is that many Unidata sites are actively involved with the WRF model. Some are using, and it others are contributing to its development. One thing is certain: its use will be widespread in our community.

Learn more about WRF at: http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/users/user_main.html

CMC's GEM Regional Model Data Now Available on the Unidata Feed

by Richard Hogue, CMC and Linda Miller, Unidata Program Center

In April 2002 the Canadian Meteorological Center (CMC) and Unidata announced the availability of model forecasts from the operational Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) regional model. The model's regional configuration is integrated twice daily based on data valid at 00Z and 12Z. The data are encoded in the WMO's GRIB format, and fields have been interpolated onto a Polar-Stereographic grid of 135 x 94 points and horizontal resolution equal to 60 km at 60 degrees N, centered over North America.

The data set contains 2 x 432 products per day with total volume of 17 Mb; one field per product except for the x-, y- wind components at a certain level which are grouped together. The feed type is CMC and is normally available in the LDM queue by 04Z (16Z) for the model run based on observations valid at 00Z (12Z) on the same day.

Usage guidelines

The data are provided for educational and research purposes as per the Unidata program's guidelines.

Redistribution of the data, as they are or after processing, for other uses needs to be discussed and coordinated with the CMC. Data users need to be members of the Unidata community and have the LDM software up and running.

Requests to receive this new data feed should be made to support@unidata.ucar.edu who will coordinate with the CMC. Information on the content of this data feed or any general questions can be addressed to:

Richard Hogue
Chief, Implementation and Operational Services Division
Canadian Meteorological Center
Richard.Hogue@ec.gc.ca or by phone at: 514-421-4662

Other information is available the GEM data page on the Unidata Community Portal's web site.

Unidata encourages the use of these datasets by the US and Canadian academic and research communities.

"Expanding Horizons Using Environmental Data and Model Output" Users Workshop

by Unidata Staff

Mark 22-27 June 2003 on your calendars.

Those are the dates for Unidata's triennial Users workshop.

The workshop's full title is: Expanding Horizons Using Enviornmental Data and Model Output

Some events will be similar to those held during past workshops: a reception on Sunday evening, a keynote address on Monday, breakout sessions, labs, a barbeque on Flagstaff mountain. But we promise to introduce a few new wrinkles that we think will make for an exceptional event.

Stay tuned. In the coming months we will post announcements, implement an online registration process, and keep you up to date on all developments.

Our new web presence: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/ will be the venue for these announcements.

Unidata 2003-2008
Two Modest Requests

Modest Request One

The Program Center is well into the process of preparing its five-year funding proposal which will be submitted to the National Science Foundation in late fall this year. The Policy and Users Committees have been helping to define the program's accomplishments and goals, and information gathered from the Users Survey also is helping to form the proposal.

Many of you have been contacted by the UPC's external programs liaison, Linda Miller, who is conducting a phone survey of all sites to glean information to supplement the 2001 Users Survey. Others have responded to an all-community e-mail request for updated bibliographic information: specifically, documents published between 1998 and the present. We thank you for your response. If for any reason you did not respond, we still would be grateful to hear from you. Remember, the request is for documents published from 1998 to the present. Please send them in any form you choose: hard copy, ascii, MS word, a link to an HTML location, or just about any other form of communication.

We believe that using the information collected through these means, we will be able to prepare and submit a proposal that represents our community's wishes--one that will successfully carry the program to 2008.

Modest Request Two

Next, we ask that you cite Unidata in documents or on web sites reflecting work accomplished using Unidata software or data services. This would be particularly appreciated during this proposal year.