Equipment Award Serves Weather
Data and Images to a Broad Spectrum of Users, Perhaps Even You! (continued from home page)
Christopher G. Herbster, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University, Daytona Beach, Florida
While the SPARC server is
our transaction interface for Internet services, there are a number of other
systems that we have added to create a distributed infrastructure that
leverages the strengths of specific hardware to minimize historical bottle
necks with a minimum number of components to the array. Behind the scene is a
cluster of four AMD based Sun 4200 servers to generate web images and a quad
core 48 disk, 20 TB disk server with four network adapters that provides common
disk space for data and users directories. The disks are available to our 100+
classroom, laboratory and faculty computers for predominantly NMAP, GARP, and
NSHARP applications.
 |
At 1015 UTC on August 21, the terminator passes across hurricane Bill, with the western edge of the storm still under the IR sector of the image. The contrast in detail from the visible to IR channel is clearly visible in the northwest quadrant of the storm. |
The additional transaction
cycles of our new server is allowing us to begin the dissemination of some
derived satellite-based products that are under production here at ERAU-DB
using the McIDAS software package. Using the McIDAS environment 10-bit GOES
data from GOES East and GOES West are retrieved from the Unidata ADDE server.
These data are merged and projected for viewing over the continental US
(CONUS). The types of new products that are available to the Unidata community
include: 1) A 1km brightness normalized visible product merged with a night time fog
product (using channel differencing) to make a day/night low cloud monitoring
product; 2) A 4 km brightness normalized IR mosaic; 3) A 4 km brightness normalized water vapor mosaic.
 |
As night approaches the day-night image shows how the same display is useful around the clock. Overlays are the NHC forecast points for Bill and AIRMETS valid at the time of the image. |
Real-time images of these
products can be found at http://wx.erau.edu/erau_sat/ (click on “U.S.” in the CONUS image to see the image domain) and, using an ADDE
client like the IDV, at wxdata.db.erau.edu,
with a Dataset name of ERAU. Additionally, the
new satellite products are available from our LDM wxldm.db.erau.edu, yet
another zone within the SPARC server. Registration for this data set is
available on our site (http://wx.erau.edu/faculty/herbster/demo/erau_sat/), with
restrictions, similar to other data sets available to our community, that
prohibit unauthorized redistribution of the raw data or the use of the data for
commercial activities.
Coming later this fall, now
that we have a robust disk storage system, is a THREDDS server, to be bound to
the wxdata.db.erau.edu name. On this server we expect to provide both
real-time and archived data. The delivery of the disk array was delayed until
the beginning of the summer, so the pieces are all just falling into place
now. Down the road we plan to provide a more GIS oriented portal
using the University of Minnesota’s mapserver library. That’s where the image
creation cluster really becomes a player. This resource is still under early
development and won’t be available to the community before next year, but our
early prototype has a radar mosaic that can be an overlay to the FAA’s
sectional chart for our own aircraft practice area. Over all, we are thrilled
to have been able to build this new infrastructure and could not have done it
without the funds provided by the Unidata.
Visit any of ERAU's resources and you too can benefit
from these funds!
