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20000713: IDD issues, and balloon support functions at NSBF



>From: weather <address@hidden>
>Organization: NMSU/NSBF
>Keywords: 200007072059.e67KxST11221 archive data project platforms

Robert,

>First a question about thelma.  Is it going to be replaced?  It is a
>top tier machine but it has a latency of 13.9 minutes right now.

Yes.  IDD services are going to be moved from thelma to motherlode.
motherlode is on the UCAR gigabit network, so access in and out of
it should remain fast.  We won't move IDD relay services to motherlode
until the network (IP) change has been made.

>I have three possible feeds and they all feed from thelma, so by the
>time it gets to me it is at about the 3600 secs mark and I lose data.
>The folks who happen to feed from thelma who are at the end of the world
>start out in the hole.  I rewrote our web page to use GEMPAK when there
>was a problem with McIDAS decoding the AVN..so I guess I need to go back
>and make a backup using McIDAS so I can take advantage of adde.ucar.edu
>when this happens.

We are making every effort to make delivery of IDD data more efficient/
robust/reliable.  Installation of systems like motherlode is one of
the things we are doing.  Please hang in there...

>The new goal in ballooning is called ULDB *Ultra Long Duration Ballooning".
>This will give balloon flights durations approaching that of satellites.

I have been aware of several flights that other sites are involved in
(mainly U. Nevada/DRI).

>The cosmic ray/gammy ray guys love this.

A long time ago, I was a student in the Department of Physics at the
University of New Hampshire.  My major professor was Ed Chupp.  Is he
still one of the active gamma ray guys you are referring to (I see from
the Dept. of Physics/UNH web page that he is still on the faculty)?

>If you saw the recent issue
>of Science magazine you saw a project called Boomerang on the front cover.

Yes!

>There is a picture of their payload about to be launched by us in Antarctica.
>That flight lasted 12 days and they found data that revolutionizes 
>cosmological thought, or so I understand.  My plan is to make arrangements
>with MSFC to ftp over their Meteosat and GMS imagery (in McIDAS format)
>and the use McIDAS to produce a current satellite image zoomed in
>appropriately from the current position.  I already sort of do that here
>with our conventional ballooning (shorter duration).

You may want to talk to Anthony Guillory of MSFC
(address@hidden) about getting ADDE access to their
data holdings.  Gilbert Sebenste of NIU is currently getting imagery
from them, so I can't imagine that you would not be allowed the same
sort of access.  As an aside, I have been trying to get the National
Met. Service of Spain to give Unidata sites ADDE access to their
METEOSAT data.  So far, it is not going well, however :-(

>I can pull current position from our GPS
>logs and then use that data in McIDAS.  I also plan on doing the same 
>with surface and upperair data using GEMPAK..simply making a lat/lon
>box based on the current position and then displaying the current obs
>under the balloon.  This data will be required by engineers and
>one of the science groups that we will launch from Australia in January.
>These flights will only be test flights and will probably do only
>one circumnavigation.

Sounds very cool!

>Doing this hinges on getting another machine.  I am maxed out on
>CPU and disk space and we need these other two machines to serve
>as servers for the guy in the field to produce his brieifing images.
>Actuually with our unreliable network the machine in New Mexico
>is merely a mirror backup for the one here.  

Well, if it was up to me, you'd get the machine(s) you need.  After all,
we are not talking about much money at all.

Later...

Tom

>From address@hidden Thu Jul 13 12:47:24 2000
>Subject: Re: 20000712: ADDE server change for RTGINI imagery 

Well I guess thelma really isn't a problem..looking at the
FOS topology page..the IDD just seems to be overwhelmed..
a lot of 60 minute latencies.

>From address@hidden Fri Jul 14 09:30:07 2000
>Subject: Re: 20000713: IDD issues, and balloon support functions at NSBF

Ed chupp is not currently in ballooning.  Most of the guys heavily
into ballooning are from U. of Chicago, GSFC, and UCalifornia (various
branches).  

I will contaact Anthony..that would make things so much simpler.

I am having trouble getting a CPU upgrade for a 100Mhz Pentium
right nwo ($120) so we'll see about getting the machine.  Fortunately
the machine will come from the ULDB pot of money.  I will probably
use some of the e-mail correspondence I received about the Sun machines.

I also hope to be able to get NSI to upgrade our single T1.

Thanks,
Robert