In case you missed it — here's a recap of news from the Unidata Program Center for the month of November, 2018.
Call for Proposals: Unidata 2019 Community Equipment Awards
The Unidata Program Center is pleased to announce the opening of the 2019 Unidata Community Equipment Awards solicitation. Created under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, Unidata equipment awards are intended to encourage new members from diverse disciplinary backgrounds in the geosciences to join the Unidata community, and to encourage existing members to continue their active participation, enhancing the community process. For 2019, a total of $100,000 is available for awards; proposals for amounts up to $20,000 will be considered.
Python in Action at Valparaiso University
The meteorology curriculum at Valparaiso University (VU) is continuously evolving as new technology arises, and this includes Python. Python is becoming a staple in many VU meteorology courses, where an ever-increasing number of packages and libraries are in use. Adding a new programming language to the educational mix can create a steep learning curve for college students who lack a programming background, but we feel that an early introduction to Python helps to prepare students for immersion into the job market or further education in graduate school.
Unidata Staff at AGU Fall 2018 Meeting
Members of the Unidata Program Center staff will be attending the American Geophysical Union 2018 Fall meeting, December 10-14 2018, in Washington, DC. Read the article for a schedule listing specific sessions at which UPC staff will be presenting or in attendance.
In addition to the talks and poster sessions, Unidata staff will be spending time at the UCAR Community Programs CPAESS and EarthCube booths in the Exhibit Hall (#911 and #912) There will be scheduled demonstrations of AWIPS and the IDV, or just stop by to chat!
NetCDF 4.6.2
Version 4.6.2 of the netCDF-C library is now available. Please read the full announcement for a list of changes. Note that new versions of the netCDF FORTRAN and C++ libraries will be available shortly.
Unidata Summer Student Internships Available!
The Unidata Summer Internship offers undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to work with Unidata software engineers and scientists on projects drawn from a wide variety of areas in the atmospheric and computational sciences. Unidata's mission is to support the Earth Science research and education community with data and tools for data access, analysis, and visualization. As a Unidata intern, you'll pursue the goal of adding innovative enhancements to data access, analysis, and visualization tools developed within Unidata.
NetCDF operators (NCO) version 4.7.8
Version 4.7.8 of the netCDF Operators (NCO) has been released. NCO is an Open Source package that consists of a dozen standalone, command-line programs that take netCDF files as input, then operate (e.g., derive new data, average, print, hyperslab, manipulate metadata) and output the results to screen or files in text, binary, or netCDF formats.
On the Developer's Blog
Unidata Program Center developers write regularly on technical topics on the Unidata Developer's Blog. This month's postings in the ongoing MetPy Mondays series take a look at Python scripting.
Governing Committee News
Unidata's Users Committee met 10-11 September 2018, in Boulder, Colorado. The meeting summary will be available shortly. The next meeting is scheduled for 21-22 March 2019 in Boulder, CO.
Unidata's Strategic Advisory Committee met 19-20 September 2018 in Boulder, CO. The meeting summary will be available shortly. The next meeting will be held 16-17 April 2019 in at Pensylvania State University in State College, PA.
Couldn't agree more about the importance of Python for meteorology majors. At Millersville we require both Fortran and Python. Just giving you all a heads up the Dr. Alex DeCaria is working on a new edition of his book on Python, which will be released next year. It's a perfect text for adoption for an undergraduate course in Python.
Posted by Richard D Clark on December 02, 2018 at 11:18 AM MST #