Cooperative Endeavors

Unidata has many partners outside the university community.  They are valued partners who provide special datasets and cooperate on projects of mutual interest.  

• Canadian Meteorological Centre: uses the LDM software to provide the Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) available to the Unidata community.
• CONDUIT-Cooperative Opportunity for NCEP Data Using IDD Technology. High resolution model data sets are being distributed through the cooperation of NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) and National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), and the Unidata Program Center (UPC) to the research and education community using Unidata's Internet Data Distribution (IDD).
• COSMIC-FORMOSAT-3 satellite mission provides up to 2,500 radio occultation observations on vertical profiles of atmospheric air density, temperature, and water vapor as well as ionospheric electron density per day. Through a collaborative arrangement, data are available for the community's research and education endeavors.
• CRAFT-Collaborative Radar Acquisition Field Test is a joint effort by the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms (CAPS) at the University of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Higher Education State Regents, the University of Washington, National Weather Service (NWS), several stakeholders, and Unidata to access and distribute NEXRAD Level II data in near real time. This effort has been transferred to the NWS who is managing the Internet distribution of the data by four selected sites.
• C2 - Combining of CONDUIT and CRAFT into one cohesive planning entity. The C2 Advisory Committee is responsible for developing strategies for Internet access to real time (streaming) meteorological observations, as well as output from both experimental and operational forecast models, for use by the education and research communities. An early component of the US Weather Research Program (USWRP), the Committee also recommends datasets to be included in Unidata's Internet Data Distribution (IDD)*.
• Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center and GODAE: provides the NOGAPS and COAMPS model data to community members.  They are using LDM technology for  provision of the data.
• GSD: NOAA's Global Systems Division is collaborating with Unidata on several activities, including providing university access to experimental data sets, such as MADIS, 6-minute profiler and ACARS data.
• LEAD: Unidata and seven other institutions have won a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to create a series of powerful tools for weather forecasters and the public. The project, known as the Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery LEAD, will set up a network of high-performance computers that incorporates newly developed software to enable scientists, educators, students, and anyone interested in weather to gain new insights into storms.
• NCDC: NOAA's National Climatic Data Center is testing the use of Unidata software for accessing and distributing various data sets, e.g., Level II NEXRAD radar data. The NOMADS (NOAA Model Archive and Distribution System) project is coordinating with Unidata and others on software requirements and definition of models for archive and access.
• NCEP: National Centers for Environmental Prediction collaborates on GEMPAK/NAWIPS and distribution of model data.
• NGDC: The National Geophysical Data Center partners with Unidata and the community on data access and data management techniques.
• NWS: National Weather Service – provides data through NOAAPORT which includes:  observational data and model data.   Technology transfer of LDM software for distribution of Level II WSR-88D data, and partnering with the NWS on several levels on behalf of the Unidata community.
• SSEC: Space Science & Engineering Center-University of Wisconsin-Madison provides the Unidata/McIDAS satellite datastream and the McIDAS software for data analysis and visualization.
• THREDDS: Thematic Real-Time Environmental Distributed Data Services (THREDDS) is a prototype system for cataloguing, browsing, and accessing remote, retrospective, and other data types through a set of middleware technologies. Its goal is to allow students, educators, and researchers to publish, contribute, find, and interact with data relating to the Earth system in a convenient, effective, and integrated fashion. Just as the World Wide Web and digital-library technologies have simplified the process of publishing and accessing multimedia documents, THREDDS is building infrastructure needed for publishing and accessing scientific data in a similarly convenient fashion.