Robert-
Robert Mullenax wrote:
McIDAS would be the way we would move if something did happen to
GEMPAK. It's ability to deal with model data is not anywhere nearly
as good, but the new MySQL database storage of GRIB data does make it
faster, and text products via the wxtlist, tafrpt, sclist, sfcrpt has
always been pretty good...and of course satellite is still it's
strong suit. We are heavy users of it right now for certain things.
As you note, each package has it's strength and weaknesses. Note that
the next version of McIDAS (Mc-V) is being developed on top of
the IDV framework and VisAD in Java. Also, work is in progress on
reading McIDAS grids in the IDV using the same framework used for the
GEMPAK grids.
That being said if I ever get a new machine with 4GB of RAM ee will
install IDV on it since it runs on Solaris x86/x64 now. I have
already played around with it quite a bit on my personal laptop.
You don't need 4GB of memory to run the IDV. We continually
strive to improve the memory usage and part of the Mc-V development
will address the heavy image memory usage. Feedback on where
the bottlenecks are currently is always welcome.
As for the underlying issue of GEMPAK moving to AWIPS2, Unidata
is monitoring this closely. If you look at the job description for
the GEMPAK support position, a key piece of that job will be
to work with the Raytheon and NCEP developers to ensure a
smooth transition away from the current GEMPAK/NAWIPS package,
which as noted elsewhere will eventually go away.
Don
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Don Murray UCAR Unidata Program
dmurray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx P.O. Box 3000
(303) 497-8628 Boulder, CO 80307
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/donm
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