Policy Committee Meeting Summary: May 24-25, 1995
Boulder, Colorado
Participants
| Members | Representatives | UPC Staff |
| Robert Fox (Chair) | Robert Gall (NCAR/MMM) | Sally Bates |
| Steve Mullen | David Fulker (UPC) | Ben Domenico |
| Perry Walsh | Clifford Jacobs (NSF/ATM) | Linda Miller |
| Carlyle Wash | | Sandra Nilsson |
| Julie Winkler |
Administrative Matters
- The summary of the February 1995 meeting was amended as follows:
page 4, under IDD Updates, Next Tasks; topology is misspelled and
the KU-band broadcast will cease on December 31, not December 1 as written.
page 5: insert the word "are" the fourth bullet under SOOs discussion;
sentence should read "...that are nearly identical to Unidata's....'
- The next meetings of the Policy Committee will be
25-26 September, Monday and Tuesday, in Washington, D.C.
22-23 February, Thursday and Friday, in Boulder, CO
- Bill Pennell, UOP's new director, will join UCAR in early June.
Status Reports
Director's Report
A copy of Fulker's report is in the notebook; copies of his transparencies
were distributed at the meeting.
Discussion
- Constant changes by the NWS to the data stream are causing problems: the
need to create new decoders is becoming a burden.
- Deciding on whether and how to expand the Unidata/Wisconsin stream has
been deferred until all OS/2 sites are participating in the IDD. There
continue to be a number of OS/2-only sites, and these continue to define the
limits of the stream.
- There was considerable discussion about operating systems: what's
coming, which is easier to administer, etc. It was generally agreed that
these questions should be referred to the ATAC.
Action 1:
The Users Committee will endeavor to discover whether the UPC policy to
support OS/2 is interfering with access to support on campuses and if so,
which operating system would be preferred.
Budget Report
Copies of Nilsson's transparencies were distributed at the meeting.
Discussion
- Full IDD deployment will reduce the cost of UPC's contract with
Wisconsin (the costs for the uplink circuits will disappear) and end the
contract to Alden for the satellite broadcast.
Users Committee Report
Copies of the summary of the April Users meeting are in the notebook.
Discussion
- Unidata users would like NIDS data, but it's too expensive. The UPC's
last proposal to NSF emphasized providing access to data as UPC's most
important role. UPC might consider providing subsidy for the NIDS data.
- Unidata users needs for archival data are not being met. NCDC data are
expensive and don't interface easily with Unidata applications. Fulker
envisions Unidata forming a distributed archive, but there must be a carrot
to enable participation. The Policy Committee is also on record (Policy
Decision 9009.1) as opposing Unidata's becoming a data center. Another
approach could be to facilitate use of NCDC data by having the UPC build
converters and creating tutorials on how to use them.
Action 2:
Fulker will discuss costs of NIDS data to universities with WSI.
Action 3:
Access to NIDS will be on the agenda for the next meeting.
Action 4:
Unidata's role as a data clearinghouse will be on the agenda for the next
meeting.
NOAA Report
Bob Fox spoke with Doug Sargeant before the meeting and filed the following
report:
GOES: GOES 9 was launched May 23; it will be in orbit over
the middle of the country; NOAA expects data from it to be available in
July. It is currently envisioned that it will be used for one-minute
imagery for the remainder of the severe weather season. Thereafter, it will
be moved to 135W and will replace GOES-7 as the western operational GOES
spacecraft.
AWIPS: There is a very aggressive effort underway
throughout all of NOAA to accelerate the introduction of AWIPS into NOAA
operations. Following the recommendation of the review committee, NWS will
field AWIPS in a number of incremental upgrades. The initial fielding will
combine infrastructure and communications from PRC with applications
software from the Alaska region, the Office of Hydrology, and other
sources. There will be no "AWIPS Package" available to the community in the
near term.
NOAAport will begin stabilized broadcasts in a few months. The community is
free to acquire and use data from NOAAport as they are able; however, NWS
will be unable to provide much individual help due to the crush of AWIPS
implementation activities. NOAA is strongly committed to providing
continuity of content and smooth transitions along the NOAAport
evolutionary path. [The Unidata home page contains information about the
status of NOAAport, and NOAA has agreed to provide updates
intermittently.]
Mary des Jardins has replaced Tony Mostek in the Transition Project.
The commercialization of international meteorological data is being debated
next week at the WMO Congress meeting being held in Geneva. The U.S.,
through Joe Friday, continues to support the free and open exchange of data,
but this position is being strongly contested by most European members.
ASOS: NOAA is back to commissioning ASOS stations.
NOAA is included in the current discussions concerning the elimination or
reorganization of DoC. Whether or not there is reorganization, there will
certainly be budget impact. The more optimistic forecasts converge at about
a 5% cut versus current expenditure; other forecasts are all downhill from
there.
NSF Report
Cliff Jacobs reported that NSF's requested budget for 1996 represented an
increase of 3%; within that, the Geosciences requested an increase of 7.6%
(8.4% for ATM). Unidata is funded out of Research and Related Activities,
which has requested an increase of 7.6%. Geosciences has identified three
major themes for the next year: strategic research, which will combine
environment and global change; fundamental research and education, and
instrumentation. Global Change will include three new areas: integrated
assessment, ecosystem dynamics, and advanced research on policy- and
decision-making.
Jacobs spent considerable time explaining recent Congressional activity
pertaining to Congress's efforts to balance the Federal budget. He said
that while there appeared to be support for basic research in both the House
and the Senate, NSF faces the problem of how to cope in the face of major
cuts in science funding in other agencies such as NASA. Furthermore, the
House Subcommittee projects large cuts in funding for basic research in FY
96, with increases slowly bringing funding back to today's levels by FY2000.
Discussion
- Asked for his advice to Unidata in this funding climate, Jacobs
recommended widening the Unidata user community to include a greater range
of geosciences.
IDD Update
Copies of Ben's slides were distributed at the meeting.
Discussion
- The UPC believes that the topology of the IDD will be the result of an
evolutionary process. The topology is hard to design a priori since
geography is irrelevant--commercial networks aren't communicating well with
each other. The first adjustment to the topology will help the UPC
establish a process for subsequent readjustments.
- The IDD is not creating a significant load on the Internet--although it
moves a lot of data, the level is in the noise range when compared to
protocols like HTTP and FTP. There also appears to be no limit to the
scalability of the system.
- There are more "sites" than universities since many institutions have
multiple participants. Since, on a single campus, different departments
have different demands and interests, the UPC counts sites, not campuses, to
track the load on UPC support.
- There are 60 sites remaining to be connected to the IDD; about 15 of
these have not communicated any plans to the UPC. Some of these may prefer
accessing Web displays to participating in the IDD.
User Committee Nominations
The Policy Committee identified five potential candidates to fill three
slots for the User Committee (two additions and a replacement for a member
whose term is expiring). The terms of two current members will be altered
so that memberships expire at the rate of three per year.
Action 5:
Ramamurthy and Fulker will ask the nominees to serve on the committee.
Discussion
- Unidata needs to design a plan for expanding into other geosciences.
Action 6:
The UPC will send Policy Committee notebooks to all the Geosciences division
directors.
Action 7:
Jacobs and Nilsson will investigate holding a separate briefing session for
NSF personnel before the Washington, D.C. meeting.
Associate Participation
Linda Miller explained that people inquiring about associate participation
were really interested in obtaining data and lost interest when told that
these would not be available to them. Bob Fox and (in absentia) Otis Brown
indicated that the issue rested on the question of what was wanted for the
Unidata program: to reach out to agencies? to restrict participation to
universities? to restrict participation to members of the atmospheric
sciences? A model for how non-universities might participate was drafted by
Brown and distributed at the meeting.
Discussion
- The original notion of associates providing synergy isn't working. And
if Unidata becomes a closed club, many opportunities to exchange data will
be lost.
- The Brown model envisions the UPC focusing its resources on universities
while allowing (encouraging?) the universities to reach out to others,
including agencies and foreign universities. This model still contains the
problem of impacts on UPC's support resources.
- The UPC is not currently in the role of licensing data or policing data
use. Does it want this to change? There are international data issues to
consider as well; Unidata could be in the position to influence policy by
engaging in free and open exchange of data.
- Some universities will be unwilling to reach out to others--they will be
hesitant about the legal issues and about the support requirements. This is
to be both expected and accepted.
- UPC could mitigate the support-load problem by offering training;
support for university-sponsored institutions could also be provided by the
community-support mailing list.
Action 8:
A draft description of the new approach will be drawn up by the UPC and
published in the next issue of the newsletter for comment by the
community.
Action 9:
The topic of university-sponsored participation will be on the agenda for
the next meeting.
WXP Support
Dave Fulker noted that past resolutions and discussions have resulted in the
UPC minimizing its involvement (in terms of resources) in WXP development.
The resignation of Mike Wright (the person at UPC supporting WXP) led the
UPC to recommend that WXP be moved to community support. At its last
meeting, the Users Committee concurred. While easier to use, WXP is not as
comprehensive as GEMPAK or McIDAS, and the UPC believes that resources would
be better spent increasing the ease of use of GEMPAK and McIDAS than in
supporting three packages. To ease the transition, the UPC expects to
support WXP through the next release, and is talking with Wright about the
possibility of his contracting with the UPC to do the release-engineering on
the next release of WXP.
Discussion
- Dan Vietor is not supported by Purdue to continue developing WXP; he
does so on his own.
- Ease of use is an important issue; students prefer WXP to the long
learning curve required by the other packages. Perry Samson argued for the
UPC providing development resources to Dan. The UPC, however, is having
problems supporting three packages and doesn't have extra funds for
development; furthermore, the lack of support by Purdue makes WXP extremely
vulnerable.
Resolution 1 (not unanimous)
The Unidata Policy Committee supports the User Committee's recommendation
that WXP be moved to community support status.
RAMSDIS Update
Linda Miller updated the committee on the status of RAMSDIS (a copy of a
letter from Colorado State University to Miller is in the notebook). She
noted that CSU is looking for collaborators in research using RAMSDIS
data--they are interested in promoting the scientific use of images from the
new satellites.
Strategic Planning
The committee agreed that time should be set aside at each meeting for
planning discussions. They identified the following topics to be discussed
during these periods:
- Reaching out to other communities
- The next Unidata effort after IDD
- Coping with operating system changes
- Support for teaching-enhancement tools
- The implications of NOAAport for universities
- NetCDF and the creation of a distributed data library
Status of Action Items
Action 1:
The Users Committee will endeavor to discover whether the UPC policy to
support OS/2 is interfering with access to support on campus and if so,
which operating system would be preferred.
The Users Committee will address this action at its next
meeting, scheduled for October.
Action 2:
Fulker will discuss costs of NIDS data to universities with WSI.
Done. A report on the results on these talks is on the agenda
for the meeting.
Action 3:
Access to NIDS will be on the agenda for the next meeting.
Done.
Action 4:
Unidata's role as a data clearinghouse will be on the agenda for the next
meeting.
Done.
Action 5:
Ramamurthy and Fulker will ask the nominees to serve on the committee.
The nominees have accepted and are already actively
involved.
Action 6:
The UPC will send Policy Committee notebooks to all the Geosciences division
directors.
Notebooks will have been sent to: Alan Gaines (EAR), Mike Reeve
(OCE), as well as to R. Corell and Dick Greenfield.
Action 7:
Jacobs and Nilsson will investigate holding a separate briefing session for
NSF personnel before the Washington, D.C. meeting.
They investigated and, given the timing of the meeting, found it
not possible for the September 95 meeting; this idea will be revisited at
the Policy Committee's next Washington meeting.
Action 8:
A draft description of the new approach will be drawn up by the UPC and
published in the next issue of the newsletter for comment by the community.
Done. A copy of the newsletter article is in the
notebook.
Action 9:
The topic of university-sponsored participation will be on the agenda for
the next meeting.
Done.
Index
Unidata Homepage
This page was Webified by Jennifer
Philion.
Questions or comments can be sent to
<support@unidata.ucar.edu>.
This page was updated on
.
