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[IDV #FPF-477191]: Inquiry re your upcoming workshop



Hi Winifred-

> I am writing to seek more information and ask your advice regarding your
> upcoming workshop in August.  I am a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Kunz's
> research lab at Boston University and I'm working on a project focused on
> using NEXRAD radar data for biological research on colonies of Mexican
> free-tailed bats, which form extremely large colonies in caves in southern
> Texas that can be detected as radar reflectivity clouds on NexRad Doppler
> radar.  I've attached an article describing some of the pioneering work done
> by Dr. Kunz and his colleagues on this topic.  My research is focused on
> creating 3D visualizations of the emerging bat clouds, which we then hope to
> use for calibrating with on-the-ground census counts of colony size from
> thermal camera imaging systems to build a database for analyzing population
> changes through time using the archived Radar data.  I can send you a
> description of my research, which was recently funded by NSF's
> Bioinformatics Postdoctoral Fellowship program, if you are interested.

That sounds like a very interesting project.

> I am interested in the utility of your softward packages GEMPAK and IDV for
> these purposes.  I have downloaded the IDV and worked some with the
> visualization of radar data using the online tutorial.  I have not worked
> with GEMPAK but from my reading online it looks like this might be the right
> program for trying to work with large numbers of NEXRAD files and creating
> custom scripts for image processing and data output of volumetric
> measurements from volume rendered bat clouds from multiple elevation scans
> of NEXRAD data.  Please correct me if I'm mistaken on this point.

IDV will be useful in the 3D visualization and does provide some support
for interactive processing.  GEMPAK's strength is in grid manipulation
and does provide support for script processing.  It contains routines
for converting images to grids (and vice-versa) so you can use the grid
processing routines on images.  Both support display and analysis of
Level II radar data.

> My questions are:
> 
> Would your workshop on GEMPAK and IDV would be useful for someone like
> myself whose interests are primarily in applied uses of these programs for
> using radar data to asnwer biological questions?

The primary focus of the workshops is to give the users an overview
of all the capabilities of the packages.  Given the limited time, it
is usually a cursory look at all the capabilities rather than an 
in depth view of specific functionality (e.g. radar display and analysis).
The workshop materials for both programs are available from the homepages
of the packages on the Unidata web site which will give you some idea
of the range of topics covered.

> Do you think that GEMPAK and IDV have potential for helping me achieve my
> objectives?

The IDV would be useful for the 3D display and provides processing capabilities
beyond the basic function through Jython (Python for Java).  The IDV has
been used by others for investigating bird migrations using NEXRAD Level II
data.  GEMPAK can be used for easily processing many images.

> How much time during the workshop is dedicated towards attendant's own
> research projects?

Not as much time as we would like given the time constraints.  Again, the
primary focus is to give an overview of all the capabilities.  There is
time during breaks and at the end of the day for some one-on-one time
with the instructor(s).
 
> What is the instructor to student ratio during your workshop?

The workshops generally have 18-20 students.  There are 1-3 instructors
depending on the package.

> Thank you for your time in answering my questions.  I look forward to
> hearing from you.

I hope this information is helpful.

Don Murray


Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: FPF-477191
Department: Support IDV
Priority: Normal
Status: Open