The 2012 Unidata Users Workshop took place July 9-13 at NCAR's Mesa Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. The workshop's theme — Navigating Earth System Science Data — encompassed topics that drew speakers and participants from across the atmospheric and other geosciences communities.
Twenty-six presenters from the Unidata community shared their insights on doing science in an environment of expanding data availability with the nearly 100 workshop attendees. The talks ranged from high-level descriptions of big initiatives like the National Science Foundation's Earth Cube, Global modeling at NOAA, and the joint NOAA-NASA GOES-R satellite program to hands-on demonstrations of data analysis tools including python, GrADS, Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer, and the still-in-development AWIPS-II system.
The University of Colorado at Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) Climate Diagnostics Center (CDC) maintains a repository of climate datasets that is used daily by researchers and educators at CIRES and around the world. These datasets are being used to answer questions about the Earth's climate system, such as the cause and nature of extreme climate events like the 2010 Russian Heat Wave. We received funds from the 2011 Unidata Community Equipment Awards program to purchase a new server to enhance and expand our existing THREDDS Data Server (TDS) capabilities and establish a RAMADDA server at the CDC in order to provide end-to-end data services that facilitate research and education in the climate sciences.
The Unidata Program Center is seeking new people to serve on Unidata's Policy and Users Committees.
Unidata is governed by its community. Our governing committees facilitate consensus building for future directions for the Unidata Program and establish standards of involvement for the community.
Unidata's LDM, THREDDS, RAMADDA, and other technologies play integral roles in Pennsylvania State University's provision of meteorological data to their own students and researchers and to the wider university community. A 2011 Community Equipment Award helped Penn State upgrade some of their servers to be more capable and reliable.
The Unidata Users Committee invites you to join Unidata staff, community members, and distinguished speakers this July in Boulder, Colorado. The goal of this year's workshop is to raise awareness of data science in the geoscience academic community and share hands-on activities, course materials, and ideas for improving research and education.
The workshop, titled Navigating Earth System Science Data, is scheduled for July 9-13, 2012.
Do you use Unidata software packages? Do you love to write code? The Unidata Summer of Code internship program is looking for you!
The Unidata Summer of Code internship program will be hosting a graduate student intern from late May through August 2012. The USoC intern will be on-site at the Unidata Program Center in Boulder, Colorado, and will have 12 weeks to radically improve one of Unidata's software packages. Pick one you love and make it better! Pick one you're not in love with and reveal its true beauty.
Residents of Boulder, Colorado are familiar with the Chinook winds that bring warm, dry air down from the mountains to the west of town. To composer and musician Nathan Hall, however, the Chinook represented a source of musical inspiration as well. With the help of NCAR and UCAR staff including Unidata Program Center scientist Jeff Weber, Hall used weather data from the Boulder area as the basis for a 7-minute composition and video titled, fittingly, "Chinook."
For many in the Unidata community -- including Unidata Program Center staff -- the annual American Meteorological Society meeting is a whirlwind event that leaves attendees sorting through new ideas for quite some time after the conference itself has ended. We were gratified that so many community members stopped by Unidata's booth in the exhibit hall to catch up on the latest developments or just talk. But rather than try to touch on everything that happened, here we present some recollections of the meeting from UPC staff members who attended, in no particular order.
