Policy Committee Meeting Summary
29 January 1999

Participants

Administrative Matters

• The summary of the last meeting was accepted via e-mail prior to the teleconference call.
• The next meetings of the Policy Committee will be:

  17-18 May 1999, in Boulder, CO
  (debate in progress)

• Additional information on the status of action items from October Meeting:
  • Action 1: Serafino reported that he spoke with George Huffman concerning NCEP's archiving of NCEP data. Eight models are being backed up routinely and the data saved for a few days. Serafino also noted that NASA backs up analysis data on tape back to about 1992. The URLs to NASA's backups are: ftp://larry.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/www/larry.html and ftp://larry.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/www/eosdata.html.
  • Action 3: Glackin reported that the NWS is looking at the issue of creating and distributing a national radar mosaic. See her report below.

Status Reports

Director's Report and the Budget Report

Fulker's and Graham's reports are on the web.

Discussion:

• The principal capability in WXP that is lacking in Unidata-supported software is the ability to handle radar coded message (RCM) files.
• The committee approved Fulker's draft letter to General Kelly; he will now seek input from the Users Committee and from Louis Uccellini, newly appointed as the director of NCEP. Members expressed concern about divergence in the software used by NWS and universities as an inhibitor to research and collaboration, and therefore they stressed the importance of the final point in the draft letter.
• Fulker would like to the Policy Committee to consider what issues might arise if Unidata moves to a position of requiring no licensing at all. He noted that this may require the UPC to develop other mechanisms for identifying who are Unidata users.
• In response to a question about how tight resources have affected Java development, Rew noted that one FTE had been pulled from the effort and, for example, the ability to incorporate real-time data in the new prototype tools has been significantly slowed.
• Fulker noted that his report mistakenly omitted a status update on SuomiNet. Ware is heading up an effort to complete a new MRI proposal with an impressive list of Principal Investigators; a PDF version of the proposal will be circulated.
• Graham's budget scenarios are for NSF funds and NSF-funded staff only.

Action 1: Domenico will confer with Mary Marlino in an effort to continue having Unidata Users Committee representation on the PAGE Steering Committee.

Action 2: The question of whether Unidata should discontinue licenses will be on the agenda for the next meeting.

Users Committee Report

Although the Users Committee has not met since the last Policy Committee meeting, Jennie Moody did convene an ad hoc discussion group at the AMS to discuss the next Users Committee workshop. A summary of the discussion is on the Web. Given the lead-time necessary to reserve space, the next committee meeting will be devoted to choosing a topic and identifying a location for the workshop.

Discussion

• Since the Java prototypes should have progressed enough for demonstration, the workshop might be a forum for discussing what other applications are needed.

NOAA Report

Mary Glackin reported that there are several NWS/NOAA activities of interest to the committee:

1. Gen. Kelly has commissioned several task force teams, including one focused on how to infuse new science and technology into the weather service. Members are: Craig Dorman (ONR), Steve Clifford (ETL/NOAA), Sandy MacDonald (FSL/NOAA), Jeff Holland (US Army), Bill Hooke (DOC/Strategic Planning), Phil Merilees (NRL), Stephan Nelson (NSF). The team should have a report to Kelly in June.
2. The Weather Service is actively developing strategic and reorganization plans.
3. NOAAport is now operational; there have been some problems with data receipt (sleeting rain causes problems), but otherwise it is operating smoothly.
4. The Weather Service is actively working to increase the number of data products available on NOAAport
5. The Weather Service is in active dialog with the NIDS vendors to develop a transition plan that allows continuing data access.
6. There is a task force team being formed to look into issues surrounding the creation of a national radar mosaic; there is nothing definite to report on this.

Discussion

• Concerning NIDS, the NWS is continuing to develop and implement plans to centrally collect radar data for its own needs and make it available to interested users. It expects to make this data available on a server for access and to broadcast it on NOAAport The exact timing is dependent on ongoing negotiations with the current NIDS providers. However, the NWS is targeting having the server available in 1999/early 2000. These negotiations are directed at ensuring that NEXRAD data continues to be available prior to methods of access becoming operational.
• The NWS intends to provide free and open access to data. This really means there will be no restrictions: any NOAAport recipient will be able to do anything he/she wants with the data. The point is to provide the benefits of real-time data to everyone.

NSF Report

Cliff Jacobs' slides are on the Web.

Discussion

• The equipment-grants announcement will be out in February and will highlight equipment for the transition from OS/2 to UNIX and participation in IDD (as relay, archiving site, or data-source site).
• Jacobs noted that Unidata had one of the largest percentage budget increases within ATM.
• The NSF funding priorities identified in Jacobs' slides are developing independent of the GEO2000 initiative, although there are many areas of similarity.

MetApps Report

Charlie Murphy reported that the first prototypes were downloaded by MetApps members in November. The prototypes are now in their third iteration. He noted that one site was having platform problems and that he's concerned about the low level of participation by the group's members. He will experiment with methods for rejuvenating the group, but is also considering expanding the membership. A full report is on the Web.

Discussion

• Participation is a concern. Mike Wright, the UPC's newest staff member, will be trying to devise tools to facilitate interactions.
• Participation may improve when the ability to look at real data is available.

Action Items
January 1999 Policy Committee Teleconference

There were no resolutions taken during this meeting.

Action 1: Domenico will confer with Mary Marlino in an effort to continue having Unidata Users Committee representation on the PAGE Steering Committee.

Action 2: The question of whether Unidata should discontinue licenses will be on the agenda for the next meeting.