Executive Summary: COMET Case Study Data on the CODIAC System

Executive Summary:
COMET Case Study Data on the CODIAC System

April 25, 1997

Executive Summary Outline

(Web location: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/casestudies/execSummary/199704/)

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

This update on the COMET Case Study Data Project using the CODIAC System, with COMET/Unidata/JOSS, will highlight several key activities and future plans for the project. The use of CODIAC has provided a convenient Web interface to access the COMET case studies, complemented by the large collection of field project data sets collected by JOSS. Two cases are now loaded for searching, browsing, subsetting, and downloading individual data sets. Six case studies can be ordered via 8 mm magnetic tapes. Each of the six case studies has satellite and/or radar images available for on-line browsing. Quality control software was written to ensure that all of the appropriate data for each case was included. CODIAC capabilities developed for this project include the ability to plot GEMPAK surface files and to translate raw GRIB data to GEMPAK format, allowing users to choose between raw or processed data.

NWS versus University Users
While the number of university users is currently higher than the number of NWS users, both groups are growing. A detailed look at the usage (including tape orders, data downloaded, and visits to Web pages) is provided in the detailed statistics hyperlink.

Case Studies used in COMET
The COMET case studies are used extensively within COMET for training and education. COMET has commissioned a Web team that is committed to structuring its own uses of case study data around the CODIAC system.

NWS/SOOs
The National Weather Service SOOs have become more active in their use of the CODIAC cases. As the SOOs become more familiar with their SOO/SAC computers , they will learn how to better use the case study data. In the past, SOOs have asked for individual data sets that required time consuming human interaction to deliver. Upon receiving the tapes, the SOO had to wade through volumes of data to find the data of interest. Using the CODIAC system, SOOs can enjoy a more timely response to their needs, allowing COMET case study meteorologists to focus on developing the case studies of interest for the broader SOOs/university community.
Flexibility has been a key factor in using the CODIAC Web interface. As a WWW accessible system, CODIAC allows the user to retrieve data at his/her convenience. Futhermore, the system is platform independent, allowing access from virtually any computer in the office or home.

University Usage
To a greater extent than NWS SOOs, the university community is already taking significant advantage of case study data for their classrooms and research projects. Although most of the early usage has been through ordering of the 8mm tapes, the universities will likely take advantage of the case data that CODIAC offers. Through this means, the instructor can tailor the case study to the needs of the class or laboratory expeditiously. This will save computer resources and allow the user to develop course materials.

Contributed Data
Data has been collected from numerous sources by the COMET case study meteorologist in creating each case study. Occasionally, community members have additional data or information to add to a case. Examples of contributions are:
- 3 out of 6 cases contain contributed data,
  - GEMPAK model data provided by North Carolina State University
  - satellite imagery provided by CIMMS
  - WSR-88D data provided by NWSFO/DVN
All six cases contain contributed information which helped in the creation of the case summaries.

COMMUNITY BUILDING ACTIVITIES

Our main avenue for keeping in touch with our current users is the casestudies@unidata.ucar.edu e-mail list, which was created in January, 1997.

The casestudies email list now has:

23 from educational organizations
10 from NOAA
8 other

Major announcements are sent to a broader set of emails lists which include SOO/SAC, Unidata, et al. Cross linking with several Web pages, including the SOO/SAC home page, NWS/OM, COMET, JOSS and Unidata is being accomplished.

The 1997 AMS Annual Meeting held in Long Beach, CA was the first large forum where we could publicize the availability of the COMET case study data on the Web. A co-authored publication was presented on the case study project.

USAGE STATISTICS INTERPRETATION

Although the statistics hyperlink provides usage information, it is important to note that four of the first six cases had already been made available (on tape only) to the community, and over 150 tapes had previously been sent out, prior to this project.

75 to SOOs
75 to university faculty

Those recipients are less likely to take advantage of CODIAC for those particular cases. However, it is envisioned that they will become users of the CODIAC Web interface as more case studies are added and the community becomes aware of the convenient user interface and the time efficient features that the system offers. New case studies made available on the CODIAC system will reduce reliance on magnetic tapes with 1-3 Gigabytes of data. The users of the magnetic tapes are being added to various email lists to encourage their participation and use of the CODIAC system.

FUTURE

More case studies are already being developed for release and loading into the CODIAC system. Because the CODIAC development team is involved in the NOAAServer project, many of the advances being developed for NOAAServer will be integrated into the CODIAC system. This will mean improved ease-of-use for the users with a more friendly interface written in Java. This transition will be transparent to the user community.

Other capabilities will be added to CODIAC specifically for/by the COMET case studies project. Additional graphical capabilities will be added for several data formats.

Articles will be submitted to the Unidata Newsletter, NWS's "Critical Path" newsletter, the UCAR Quarterly, and NOAA's "Earth System Monitor" newsletter.

Although it is early in the project and meaningful usage patterns may be difficult to discern, we are developing a survey to assess the use and needs of the community.

The next (July 1997) Executive Summary.

Ethan Davis--edavis@unidata.ucar.edu,
Linda Miller--lmiller@unidata.ucar.edu,
Julie Adolphson--adolphson@comet.ucar.edu

Questions or comments can be sent to edavis@unidata.ucar.edu,
lmiller@unidata.ucar.edu
adolphson@comet.ucar.edu

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