Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 IDV – Past, Present, Future Don Murray and Jeff McWhirter

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 Outline Historical Perspective Where are we now? Where are we going? Where should we go?

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 Past - Unidata 2003 Proposal Java Development Initiative: –Deliver platform-independent applications for the analysis and visualization of meteorological data –Create a component-oriented framework that supports easy construction of custom applications –Maintain, support, and enhance the software for the Unidata community –Enlist other developers in enhancing components and developing new components for the components framework

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 MetApps Project ( ) Initial Java prototypes to test the feasibility of what was required to meet requirements of Unidata 2003 MetApps Task Force (subcommittee to User’s Committee) –Chaired by Charlie Murphy (Kean University) –Provided use cases for development –Tested prototypes and provided feedback –Comprised of 6-7 community members and 4-5 UPC developers Prototypes built –Gridded Data Viewer (2D and 3D versions) –Sounding Application –Image Viewer –Surface Obs Viewer Outcomes –Java is a viable platform for this type of application development –Use VisAD for data and display model –Reusable Java components for display and remote data access

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 MetApps Prototypes Gridded Data Viewer Interactive Sounding Application w/ 3D Hodograph Image Viewer

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 IDV 1.0 IDV 1.0 released in June 2003 –Integrated features from prototypes into a single reference application – major features of GEMPAK and McIDAS plus 3D visualization of grids. –Achievements toward Unidata 2003 goals Reference Application - turn-key, easy to install, platform- independent application for meteorological data IDV framework supports development of customized applications (VGEE) IDV framework supports development of customized applications (VGEE) Source code, class docs available External developers far and few between MetApps Task Force disbanded Development team reduced to 3 (Don, Jeff and Stu)

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 IDV - Unidata 2008 Visualization and Analysis goals: –Supporting analysis and visualization of local modeling efforts –Incorporating new datasets and data types –Exploring new approaches to visualizing and interacting with Earth system data –Support the creation of exploration based, interactive, pedagogic materials and integration with digital libraries. –Developing collaborative tools to make effective use of shared visualizations –Developing a framework that allows end-user assembly and integration of IDV components –Adapting to GIS frameworks (OpenGIS and ISO standards), content-based data mining, and other evolving technologies Based on 3 full time developers – funding from NSF did not support this

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 IDV 1.1, 1.2 IDV Steering Committee formed to: –Prioritize the IDV development efforts based on the perceived needs of the Unidata community and other interested parties and input from the IDV developers on feasibility and cost. –Consider and recommend large focused development efforts in the range of 3-6 months. –Test implementations and provide feedback. Other ways priorities are determined: –Developer subject matter expertise used to prioritize features and user requests into the architecture (P. Bruehl) –Funding opportunities (e.g. field projects) –Availability of new data sources –User’s Committee input Development team reduced to 2 (Don and Jeff)

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 IDV Strengths Easy to download and install on any platform Remote access to datasets allows instant use without need for LDM 3D visualization Bundle mechanism Support for multi-disciplinary datasets integrated from a variety of sources Flexible framework supports customization (GEON-IDV, field projects, McIDAS-V) Community driven development

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 IDV Challenges Inertia –Users are used to GEMPAK/McIDAS – see no need to switch –Bad experience with early versions taints perception (slow, unusable) Reference application shows all features – perhaps need customization for specific disciplines and expertise levels Remote access presents problems –No THREDDS middleware for query – catalogs are not sufficient for time matching, subsetting, etc. –Automatic update difficult – can’t query file system, no notification system –Bandwidth issues Lack of features –Not all datasets that GEMPAK and McIDAS have are available in IDV –Lack of publication quality graphics –Diagnostic functions missing 3D visualization not accepted in meteorological community All development, testing, support, training, documentation done at UPC by IDV developers unlike GEMPAK and McIDAS

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 The Present- IDV 2.0 Released August 2006 Development driven by: –Steering Committee priorities –Fall 2005 meeting with VisAD developers which yielded substantial performance improvements –Funding from T-Rex field project –Spring User’s Committee request to focus on improved UI and performance –Unidata Summer Workshop (Seige client, catalog access to Level II radar data, WRF staggered grids) –User requests and bugfixes Additional development support (radar access through netCDF/CDM) by Yuan Ho Average of ~300 runs/day for Sept 2006

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 IDV 2.0 (continued) Overview of new features (Jeff)

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 Next Release - IDV 2.1 Due out after Training Workshop (Nov/Dec) Major new features: –Better performance for grids and point data –Single level grid access –Better Import/Export for KML (Google Earth) –UI improvements –Various and sundry bug fixes

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 Future Development Incorporate additional datasets and functionality of GEMPAK and McIDAS based on steering committee and user requests –Need community to define the next most important datasets –Need to coordinate with THREDDS on prioritization and support of new datasets and develop middleware for query –Unidata strategic plan needs to set out goals and priorities Continued performance enhancements, especially for imagery Richer diagnostic library LoCal IDV Support modeling efforts –TIGGE and other ensemble datasets –2D time sets (need use cases) –LEAD visualization tool Enlist other developers and contributors –Developer training workshop in 2007 –Developer’s manual needs to be written –IDV web site for user contributed plugins, bundles, code and images Hire student assistant to help with testing, documentation and development

Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006 Comments/Questions?