As of June 3, 2013, THREDDS Data Server (TDS) version 4.2 will no longer be in use on Unidata's servers. This is important because many of the variable names in all GRIB files have been changed in TDS 4.3. This affects almost all the model data served at Unidata.
As previously described in this post, the Unidata Program Center's THREDDS Data Server (TDS) using the domain name "motherlode.ucar.edu" will be upgraded to use TDS version 4.3 at this time. Since late March, a TDS version 4.3 server using the domain name "thredds.ucar.edu" has been in operation. The domain name "motherlode.ucar.edu" will not work for TDS access after August 1, 2013. (Other motherlode access methods will continue to work as they currently do.)
Remember that the Unidata Program Center will be holding the 2013 Software Training Workshop this July in Boulder, Colorado. The workshop features courses covering our display and analysis packages GEMPAK (with an introduction to AWIPS-II) and the IDV, data access and management tools, the Local Data Manager (LDM), the Network Common Data Form (netCDF), and the THREDDS Data Server (TDS).
Following suggestions from our Users and steering committees, Unidata has begun creating short video tutorials designed to introduce viewers to different aspects of our software. Our plan is to create new videos (and update existing videos) as time and resources allow.
Don Murray of the University of Colorado at Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) has provided an IDV bundle depicting the May 20, 2013 storm in central Oklahoma. The bundle combines satellite and radar imagery centered on Moore, OK, where a massive tornado caused extensive damage.
Version 6.11.5 of the LDM has been released. This version doesn't have the "libxml2" package bundled-in; consequently, the "libxml2" development package must be installed on the host system before the LDM package can be built. The development package is necessary because the runtime package doesn't have the required header-files (development packages usually have the word "devel" in their name). If you're using version 6.11.4 of the LDM, have not encountered any problems with it, and don't care which "libxml2" package the LDM uses, then there's no need to upgrade to LDM 6.11.5.
Version 4.3.1 of the netCDF Operators (NCO) has been released. NCO is an Open Source package that consists of a dozen standalone, command-line programs that take netCDF files as input, then operate (e.g., derive new data, average, print, hyperslab, manipulate metadata) and output the results to screen or files in text, binary, or netCDF formats.
Since the last update, which involved testing only the ingest and decoding of CONDUIT 0.5/2.5 degree GFS, I've opened up the NGRID and NEXRAD3 feeds, as well as text and satellite products from the WMO and NIMAGE feeds, respectively.
The goal is to compare the speed of the grid decoder on high-resolution CONDUIT GFS runs alone versus running in parallel with the full nationwide NEXRAD3 feed and other products.
Vaisala's National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) began operation in 1983 as a regional network run by the State University of New York at Albany. Since then, the network has expanded to monitor cloud-to-ground lightning activity across the continental United States, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
