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This report updates the status of Unidata's IDV development efforts since the last report (April, 2006).

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Objectives

In the Unidata 2008 proposal, IDV development was defined under the proposed Endeavor 4 "Software to Analyze and Visualize Geoscience Data". Under this endeavor, the following goals were outlined:

1. Supporting analysis and visualization of local modeling efforts (e.g., WRF and MM5 output)
2. Incorporating new datasets and data types
3. Exploring new approaches to visualizing and interacting with Earth system data, focusing on novel 3-D techniques that fuse data from multiple sources
4. Expanding IDV capabilities to support the creation of exploration based, interactive, pedagogic materials and integration with digital libraries.
5. Developing collaborative tools to make effective use of shared visualizations
6. Developing a framework that allows end-user assembly and integration of IDV components
7. Adapting to GIS frameworks (OpenGIS and ISO standards), content-based data mining, and other evolving technologies

Progress since last report

• IDV version 2.0 was released on August 2, 2006. Because of the new dashboard which significantly changed the user interface of the IDV, the version was labeled 2.0 instead of 1.3. The IDV can be downloaded at http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/idv/.

  A more complete list of new features can be found in the IDV 2.0 Release Notes, but a few highlights are:

  • New Dashboard Window - organizes the various IDV windows.

  • Plug-in architecture that allows users to import customizations of the IDV (specialized code and resources). A portion of the IDV web page will be a place where we can post plug-ins that IDV users can download and install. This plug-in architecture was used for the T-REX field project and is now being used for installing the GEON customizations for the IDV.

  • Performance improvements - major improvements were made in reading observation data from netCDF files (faster, time binning, subsetting), Level II reading through the CDM, and omitting extra work done in creating displays.

  • In display labels and color scales. (Work continues on customizing these more).
• At the Spring 2006 User's Committee meeting, IDV development and performance was discussed extensively. At that meeting, the developers promised to make performance and usability the highest priority for the next full release. Most of the spring and summer was spent on performance analysis and improvement and usability. The IDV Dashboard was developed to address the frequent complaint of "too many windows". Significant performance improvements were made in several areas of the IDV from data loading to display. Work continues in this area and since the 2.0 release, we have begun working with the THREDDS/netCDF-Java group to address any performance issues related to their code that the IDV relies on for accessing data locally and remotely. Response from the IDV users to this work has been generally favorable. Some sample quotes:

  "I like v2 - much easier to use and it does seem quicker than old version. By the way, I installed using your preferred method - the 'plugin' method - and it is straightforward - thank you. " -- IDV for GEON user

  "I like the dashboard controls as they do a nice job of organizing the controls. Overall, I feel the dashboard makes the process of using IDV simpler. I like how the selection process automatically advances you through the tabs with the different levels of controls." -- IDV Steering Committee member

• The IDV was featured in several talks and labs at the highly successful 2006 Unidata Summer Workshop. Don Murray gave an overview presentation of the IDV and Ricardo Nogueira (LSU) showed the results from his thesis comparing student learning in classes that used the IDV vs. those that didn't. John Horel used the IDV in his lab to compare mesonet observations with new NDFD analysis products. Tom Baltzer and Anne Wilson used the IDV as part of the LEAD demonstration to launch WRF simulations on the LEAD testbeds and display the results. Rich Clark gave an overview of the use of IDV in the LEAD Education work being done at Millersville.
• Use of IDV continues to increase. Over the summer, the IDV was being used over 200 times per (week) day. This increase during the summer months was surprising as was the steady support load. Top known sites are University of Wisconsin, ITC (Netherlands), Millersville University, University of Arizona and University of Wyoming (for CUPIDO field project).
• The IDV developers are creating screencast training modules for the IDV. These short presentations will be used to supplement the existing documentation. They cover a particular feature of the IDV and how to use it. Samples are available here.

New development

Development and testing is underway for the next release of the IDV which will be previewed during the IDV training workshop in November. Work will include - updating workshop training materials, performance enhancements for imagery, more user customization (e.g., custom mouse/keyboard controls).

Ongoing efforts include:

• Collaborating in the development of VisAD
• Keeping up with new Java interfaces and developments
• Various and sundry IDV bug fixes and enhancements.

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This document is maintained by Don Murray <dmurray@unidata.ucar.edu>