In addition to the technical and scientific presentations, we urge you to attend the presentation of the 2006 Russell L. DeSouza Award at 8:15 Wednesday February 1 in Room A412. This year's recipient is known and admired throughout our community, and while we're keeping the name to ourselves at this time, we think you will be delighted with the Users Committee selection for 2006.

We also call your attention to the CONDUIT-CRAFT meeting (find the agenda here) scheduled for Tuesday the 31st of January from 2:00-4:00 PM Room RM A-408 Convention Center.

Plan to stop by the UCAR Office of Programs' booth spaces, numbers 113, 115, and 117 to bring yourself up to date on the UOP, Unidata, and new or continuing activities. Staff from all UOP programs will be in the booth at different times to meet you and to answer your questions. On Monday evening, Tuesday afternoon,Wednesday evening, and Thursday morning, Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) developers will be on hand in the UOP booth to provide demos and answers to questions about the software.

We invite you to browse the schedule of Unidata staff and other Unidata-related presentations as well as the compilation of the abstracts, and we look forward to seeing you in Atlanta.

Providing data, tools, and community leadership to enhance Earth-system education and research is Unidata's mission; but more broadly, how community members use Unidata systems and services not only in research and education, but also in disseminating their research results about important geoscientific issues of our time is of much interest to Unidata. To facilitate the dialog, the E-letter will launch a new series of articles. Gene Takle, who's a member both of our community and of Unidata's Policy Committee thought this would be an interesting series and describes his vision for it below.

Users of Unidata products typically are on the front line of interaction with students at universities, four-year colleges, community colleges, and a few other institutions. This provides a unique and valuable opportunity to be a first source of science information, particularly about weather, climate, air pollution, and other atmospheric related topics. Many federal, state, and local programs are in place to enhance understanding of science in our schools and by the general public, but informal learning also is an effective way to build awareness on topics of current interest. We would like to explore the use of the Unidata CommunitE-Letter as a means of providing Unidata users with both snapshots of current research in the atmospheric sciences and examples of innovative uses of weather data and technologies. These might include interesting current research in progress at NCAR, UCAR, and the UCAR member universities in addition to weather-related innovations of the Unidata community, government collaborators, and those being served by our data. In the next few issues we will invite guest authors to write brief notes summarizing, in laymans' language, their recent results that are of high interest to the general public and decision-makers. We hope you as readers will take time to read these articles so that we can work together to convey to students and the general public the excitement and importance of our science. These articles will be very short, approximately the length of this note, and will provide links for burrowing deeper for those who are interested. We all benefit from better understanding of science by the general public, and users of Unidata products can play a key role in providing interesting and authoritative information to the public dialog. We hope you will join us in that effort by reading these snapshots and suggesting additional topics.

Unidata tools and data sometimes turn up in unexpected places. A recently-uncovered example is measuring ash dispersion from the Mt. Augustine volcano in Alaska. The report below, by Ann Reiser from NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), explains how NOAA's Volcanic Ash Coordination Tool (VACT), used in the measurement process, acquires data via Unidata's LDM. ESRL also uses the LDM to transfer data internally to acquire high resolution model data to help in forecasting volcanic ash dispersionNetCDF is the internal data storage format used by the VACT system. We at Unidata are pleased to be a part of this important activity.

ESRL's VACT Used to Evaluate Augustine Volcano Eruptions

by Ann Reiser, NOAA/ESRL/Global Systems Division

This story entered on 18th Jan, 2006 06:55:09 AM PST

Mt. Augustine on Augustine Island, located approximately 180 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska has erupted a total of eight times over the past week. The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) reported explosive activity twice on January 11, five times on January 13, and most recently on the morning of January 17. The Volcanic Ash Coordination Tool (VACT) developed by ESRL's Global Systems Division (GSD) was used in real time to evaluate location, areal extent, and movement of ash. This new technology provides a baseline set of meteorological displays, forecaster productivity tools, and graphical and text collaboration capabilities. The VACT made it possible to facilitate timely and coordinated responses to various agencies during these recent events. A Significant Meteorological Advisory, Marine and Public Ashfall Advisories, and a Graphical Meteorological Impact Statement were issued. As Mt. Augustine is still active and explosive, activity is expected over the next several days or weeks, GSD's Greg Pratt has been asked to train staff at the Alaska Aviation Weather Unit, the Anchorage Center Weather Service Unit, and the AVO. He will also monitor how the VACT is being implemented during a live event--which he in fact experienced at approximately 8:00 a.m. Alaska Standard Time on January 17.

For more information on the VACT project:
Contact: Greg Pratt
303 497-7237

Spring 2006 AGU Joint Assembly Session A session titled "Earth and Space Science Cyberinfrastructures: Data, Tools, Distribution, and Forecast Systems" will be held at the at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Spring Assembly that will be held in Baltimore, Maryland, USA on 23-26 May 2006. The session, jointly convened by Dr. Elen Cutrim (Western Michigan University) and Tom Yoksas, (UCAR/Unidata), is intended to foster development of international research and education collaborations focused on Earth and Space Science Informatics in the Americas, and to set the stage for future interactions, especially those at the AGU 2007 Joint Assembly that will be held in Mexico. More information is available at this link.

2006 Users Committee Workshop Here's a heads up: the Unidata Users Committee triannual workshop is scheduled this year for July 10-17 in Boulder. The Users Committee has assembled an impressive roster of invited speakers for the event whose theme is "Expanding the Use of Models as Educational Tools in the Atmospheric and Related Sciences." Kelvin Droegemeier will deliver the keynote on Monday the 10th. The workshop will feature a mix of hands-on labs with informative presentations as well as a few social events designed to allow participants to converse and get to know one another. Watch the web portal space for registration information to be posted during the week of February 6.

2006 Equipment Awards The Call for Proposals for Unidata's 2006 Equipment Award funds was posted January 6. As the RFP states, "special consideration will be given to proposals submitted by investigators in new disciplines and departments outside of those traditionally active in the Unidata community (e.g., meteorology). The primary purpose of this focus is to give the broader Unidata community access to new tools and datasets that could be relevant to their teaching and research." For more information view the entire RFP. The deadline for submitting proposals is March 24, 2006. Notification of award status will be made in early May, 2006. A total of $100,000, including UCAR overhead, is available for awards this year.