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20010205: MesoWest data via LDM

>From: john horel <address@hidden>
>Organization: University of Utah
>Keywords: 200102051410.f15EApX03484 MesoWest data via LDM

John,

Sorry we couldn't respond to your last email, but we were involved
in a Policy Committee meeting at the end of last week and it pretty
well consumed all of the staff.

re: MesoWest data
>Could someone respond as to which method of delivery and format would be of
>greatest benefit to the Unidata community? We'd like to send out an
>announcement about the availability of the data this week.

First, we are excited about your offer to provide the MesoWest data to
the Unidata community.  I am CCing a number of Unidata folks on this
repl so that they might respond where needed.

Given your comment about the need for a "hefty disclaimer and some
restrictions" it might be advisable to control the distribution by
using point-to-point LDM transfers from your site.  This is the same
mechanism that is used for delivery of other redistribution-restricted
data sets: NLDN from GDS via SUNY Albany, and ACARS from FSL.

If, on the other hand, the redistribution restrictions can be somewhat
more lax, we could setup a fanout delivery from an IDD top-tier node
(like motherlode.ucar.edu) and provide disclaimer information on our
data access web pages.  This would be similar to the CIMSS-generated
GOES products that we added to the Unidata-Wisconsin datastream last
June.

As for the need for periodic, but sporadic update of table files, we
could make these available either as a product in the same stream
as the data, and/or as FTPable files on the Unidata web site and on
various THREDDS servers.

Which distribution route we pursue really comes down to how comfortable
you are in distributing the data in a IDD fanout.  Please let us know
what your preferences are.

Again, I want to express our appreciation for your offer to provide
this interesting and useful dataset to the Unidata community!

 >At 1:50 PM -0700 1/30/01, John Horel wrote:
 >>Folks-
 >>
 >>We'd like some feedback on the preferred method(s) to disseminate the
 >>MesoWest surface observations (www.met.utah.edu/mesowest) to the Unidata
 >>community via ldm. We've come close a couple of times to a general release
 >>and then have pulled back for one reason or another. Now appears to be a
 >>good time to make it happen. Universities would obtain access to weather
 >>conditions at over 2500 stations in the west in which current conditions
 >>are updated on a 15 minute schedule (not every station updates every 15
 >>minutes though).
 >>
 >>We're already distributing the data to all NWS offices in the west using
 >>LDM and are working with FSL to feed the data to NCEP. For the NWS
 >>offices, the file format is in a pre-LDAD style that is not suitable for
 >>universities.
 >>
 >>The options as we see it:
 >>
 >>Dissemination
 >>1) We feed interested universities directly
 >>or
 >>2)We feed Unidata and then it goes out via normal broadcast
 >>
 >>Types of files
 >>1) Ascii version in gempak sfedit form
 >>example:
 >>
 >>ftp.met.utah.edu
 >>anonymous
 >>cd pub/mesonet/data
 >>get README
 >>get mesowest.sfedit
 >>
 >>we provide a simple decoder script that would push the data into a gempak
 >file
 >>
 >>Problem: the accompanying table file is updated on an erratic basis. We'd
 >>have to pass along updates every so often.
 >>
 >>2) Self describing file, which includes the lat/lon/elev as part of the file
 >>
 >>Example in same directory
 >>
 >>get sflist_all.utah
 >>
 >>Leave it up to the recipient to deal with  the file
 >>
 >>3) netCDF file
 >>
 >>we're not generating one routinely right now, but that's not a big deal
 >>
 >>While the gempak community would probably be content with option #1 for
 >>file type, what's the best option for mcidas and other platforms?
 >>
 >>
 >>Major issue: we'll need to have a hefty disclaimer and some restrictions
 >>attached to the release of the data based on feedback from some of our data
 >>providers.
 >>
 >>We're pretty much ready to test distribution. I'll be sending email to a
 >>couple of our university partners (UW & Naval Postgraduate School) to see
 >>if they're willing to try it out prior to a more widespread release.
 >>
 >>Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
 >>
 >>Regards,
 >>
 >>John
 >>___________________________________
 >>John Horel. Professor
 >>Phone: (801) 581-7091 Fax: (801) 581-4362
 >>email: address@hidden;address@hidden
 >>Office: 480(483) INSCC
 >>NOAA Cooperative Institute for Regional Prediction
 >>Department of Meteorology
 >>University of Utah
 >>135 South 1460 East Rm 819
 >>Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0110

Tom Yoksas

>From address@hidden Mon Feb  5 12:00:07 2001
>Subject: Re: 20010205: MesoWest data via LDM 

Thanks, Tom.

We're testing today sending an ascii file usable in gempak from one or our 
machines to another. Because of the usage restrictions, we'll follow your 
advice and control the distribution using point-to-point LDM transfers from 
here. We already have a form for people to fill out to use the data (not 
many people bother), so we'll update it and request all universities fill 
it out.

Would someone at Unidata be willing to test the point-to-point distribution 
and display of the data in Nmap2 later  this week?

Regards,

John