Real-time Meteorological Data Ingestion, Management and Analysis
using the Internet Data Distribution:
Investigators:
Paul Gluhosky: Research Staff in G&G
Description:
The Internet Data Distribution is a project headed by Unidata in
Boulder, CO.
Universities nationwide employ Unidata's Internet Data
Distribution (IDD) to update their holdings of environmental data in
near-real time. IDD is a distributed system with components--data sources,
relays and sinks--at numerous locations. Most components are operated by the
participating universities, and it is thus a community endeavor. This is
organized and guided by the
Unidata Program Center (UPC). The linchpin of
IDD is Unidata's
Local Data Management (LDM) software, designed to move data
in near-real time over the Internet computer network: as data arrive at
various source locations, they are distributed to relay sites which, in
turn, relay them to end-users or to other relays until all data recipients
have been served.
Data Available:
Data streams currently conveyed to US universities via IDD
include:
- FOS: All Family of Services data from the National Weather Service,
injected into IDD by the Alden Corporation. Except for DIFAX, free to
Unidata universities.
- GOES: Selected images--visible and infrared--from NOAA's
Geosynchronous Orbit Environmental Satellites, prepared for Unidata and
injected into IDD by the Space Science and Engineering Center at the
University of Wisconsin in Madison. Free to Unidata universities.
- NIDS: Radar data from the NEXRAD Information Dissemination Service,
prepared and injected into IDD by the WSI Corporation. Discounted for
Unidata universities.
- NLDN: Data from the Geomet Corporation's National Lightning
Detection Network, prepared and injected into IDD by the State University of
New York at Albany. Free to Unidata universities at present, through special
arrangement with SUNYA.
- Experimental Models: Outputs of high-resolution models and other
experimental data prepared and injected into IDD by the Forecast Systems
Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, and the National Meteorological Center in
Suitland, Maryland.
- Weather Underground: Textual and graphical depictions of current
weather and environmental phenomena prepared by the University of Michigan's
Weather Underground and Blue-Skies projects for compatibility with Gopher
and WWW clients--such as Mosaic--as well as with a unique interactive
client. Used to continuously update Gopher servers at mirror sites which
reflect data from the main servers in Ann Arbor. No cost.
26 June 1998