Transition to NOAAPORT

• NWS will continue Family of Services (FOS) until there are no direct subscribers
• Unidata will subscribe to FOS through a commercial data provider until internal testing proves that access to NOAAPORT streams works reliably with LDM technology.

• Community NOAAPORT systems
• Options for facilitating university installation and participation
• Possible NSF MRI funds (see below)

• IDD in the NOAAPORT era
• Coordination of community activities
• Dealing with topology, vBNS, NGI & LDM - Unidata role
• Distributed backups - community role?

Characteristics of NOAAPORT Data

• Four NOAAPORT channels currently exist (denoted in chart above)
• Data
• Satellite data is remapped to Lambert Conformal to meet NWS requirements
• Unidata to continue the Unidata-Wisconsin data stream
• GRIB and BUFR formats to continue; Redbook Graphics for manually generated non model data will probably disappear
• Continue WMO Header nomenclature (syntax)
  All NOAAPORT products have an identifying two-line header describing:
• What kind of product it is
• Who created the product (what country)
• When the product was created (time in UTC )
• What geographic area the product covers
• How long the product is valid
• Where the product is distributed (global, regional, etc.)
• There is no product schedule, products are weather driven
• Continue monitoring NOAAPORT development through the NWS NOAAPORT home page and NWS contacts
• Unidata will provide updates in the "Information on Data and Data Streams" located as a link from the Unidata home page. Just go to  "Detailed Data Information" and link to the NWS

UCAR Community Activities

Currently, the projected date for installation of the downlink is October, 1998. The downlink will be placed between UCAR's FL2 and FL3. Susan Jesuroga, COMET, is involving Unidata and other UCAR groups in this project. Unidata is working with NOAA's Forecast System Lab (FSL) and the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to ensure LDM compatibility.

An update on data volume on NOAAPORT was provided by FSL on 10 March 1998. They received an average of 260 Mb/hr which works out to be about 6.1 Gb/day of data. The peak volume hour during the past few days was 20z, 3/7/98 during which they received 426 Mb. Note that during severe weather times of the year, these numbers can increase substantially due to additional satellite products being distributed.

Community Coordination

Coordination will be done within the university community to provide the NOAAPORT service to all. During a discussion at the Unidata Policy Committee in early February, 1998, the idea of using the NSF/Major Research Infrastructure funds was mentioned as a possible mechanism for funding of NOAAPORT systems for some universities. This would be based on community sharing of the NOAAPORT data with other Unidata university sites, using the LDM/IDD technology. If this is viewed as an appropriate use of the MRI funds, information will be forthcoming on how to proceed.

NOAAPORT Systems

Currently, there are NOAAPORT solutions available from a variety of sources at prices starting at approximately $15,000 depending upon options.

Testing & Evaluation

Unidata and SSEC have been testing and evaluating the NOAAPORT system operating at SSEC using the IDD/LDM protocol. Products have been flowing since February 13, 1998. Robb Kambic, Unidata, and Chad Johnson, SSEC, have cited incompatibilities between the NOAAPORT and Alden's FOS. These are currently being addressed by the NWS.
 

 
 

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