Contents

• Software and Support Updates
• IDV
• LDM
• IDV for Field Project Data
• Meet the New Governing Committee Members
• News Briefs
  • Desouza Award
  • Training Workshop
  • SOARS students

Software Updates

IDV: Release of version 1.2 took place August 12. It contains some outstanding new features. Among them are: User Interface: New Display Window Configurations and Favorite Bundles Management. Display changes: New Drawing Control, Background Image/WMS display, World Wind location and Access to Web Cam data. Data Source Changes include: GRIB and GRIB2 files can now be read in directly. In addition, v1.2 provides better support for netCDF Aircraft Tracks. Click here to read the release notes.

LDM: Version 6.4.1 is now available. The most significant new feature in the release is >automatic switching between primary and alternate transfer-mode by downstream LDM-s making failovers a thing of the past; but there are others. Read more.

Contact: support@unidata.ucar.edu for assistance with your software questions or to subscribe to an e-mail list to learn more about the software packages that you use or those you would like to learn more about.

IDV for Field Project Data (Don Murray, IDV Developer)

As an early proponent of Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer (IDV), Steve Aulenbach (NCAR/CGD) welcomed the release of Version 1.2. New features in this release that make it suitable for use with data collected during field campaigns are making it much easier for Steve, Teresa Campos (EOL/ACD) and Stephan De Wekker (ASP) to assess the quality of data from the ACME (Airborne Carbon in the Mountains Experiment). The ACME team also value the built-in collaborative analysis capabilities as they use the IDV to visually place airborn CO2 observations within their geospatial context.

Work to develop these enhancements began in fall 2004 in support of the Rain In Cumulus over the Ocean (RICO). This work was funded under a joint proposal between EOL, JOSS, and Unidata for the Real-Time Display and Coordination Center (RDCC) for that project. Some of the new developments include displays of aircraft tracks and SPOL radar imagery in real time. The IDV was used in the RDCC in St. John's, Antigua to help support daily flights and analyze some of the collected data. To read the entire article, click here.

The image above shows a C130 flight track from ACME displayed in IDV. To enlarge the image, click on it and you will see a larger version that includes the IDV display showing time synchronized flight track, downward looking camera, and chat log.

Join the Program Center in Welcoming our New Governing Committee Members

As we do each year at this time we wish to welcome new members of our governing committees. The Users Committee, meeting 13-14 October in Boulder, will welcome Leigh Orf (Central Michigan University) to the committee. Anton Kruger (University of Iowa) accepted a new three-year appointment. Chris Herbster ( Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Univ.) replaced Tom Mote (University of Georgia) earlier in the year. Our thanks to Tom for excellent service to the committee. The UPC and the Users Committee extend their thanks to Donna Tucker (University of Kansas) and Chuck Graves (St. Louis University) who have ably served the committee.

The Policy Committee will welcome new member Gene Takle (Iowa State University) at its fall meeting at NSF headquarters in Arlington, Virginia 22-23 September; Roger Wakimoto, who is the new NCAR Earth Observing Lab Director, joins the committee as the NCAR representative. Mike Biggerstaff (University of Oklahoma) will bid the group farewell after serving two three-year terms.

Unidata's governing committees facilitate consensus building for future directions for the program and establish standards of involvement for the community. An e-mailed request for nominations to committee membership goes out to the entire Unidata community from the Policy Committee chair in mid- to late-June. Self-nominations are welcomed as are nominations by other community members. The committees strive for geographic, disciplinary and institutional balance between small and large universities. Here you will find the complete list of Users Committee members while the Policy Committee members are here.

News Briefs

Russell DeSouza Award: You still have time to submit a nomination for Unidata's Users Committee DeSouza Award. The closing date of September 30 will be here before we know it though.If there's someone in the community you would like to nominate who meets the award's criteria of an individual "whose energy, expertise, and active involvement enable the Unidata Program to better serve geoscience. Honorees personify Unidata's ideal of a community that shares data, software, and ideas through computing and networking technologies " Please provide a brief perspective/description of the nominee's contributions to the Unidata community and send your nomination to: nominations@unidata.ucar.edu before 30 September 2005. Presentation of the award will take place at the AMS Annual Meeting next January in Atlanta. .

2005 Training Workshops:

SOARS Students: We said goodbye to Alisha Fernandez and Shanna-Shaye Forbes after their final presentations during the SOARS colloquium. Their Unidata science mentors were Jennifer Oxelson and Anne Wilson (respectively).

Unidata is sponsored by the National Science Foundation