2014 AMS Annual Meeting

Sponsored by:

Program

Many challenges exist when trying to analyze and visualize atmospheric datasets. It is often the case that those new to the field of Atmospheric Science quickly hit a “wall” when it comes to working with atmospheric data, and one of those walls is data formats. Different communities within the atmospheric science have developed tools that allow their users access a specific data type (for example, netCDF or GRIB1/2 for the modeling domain). While this might be acceptable for those who live solely in one domain (modeling, observations, etc.), life can become quite problematic once these different data types need to be accessed at the same time and in the same computing environment, for scientific analysis and visualization.

This short course seeks to break down the walls that divide different domains in the atmospheric sciences, particularly the modeling and observational community. The focus will be on integrating model output with various observational datasets, both real-time and archived, to demonstrate how the IDV enables the visualization and analysis of these disparate data sources. While this is most easily done with WRF output, other model output can be used as well. This one-day course will cover the following topics:

• Introduction to the IDV
• Examining model output with the IDV
  • Analyzing YOUR model output in the IDV
    • WRF output preferred, but not required
  • 2D/3D visualization
  • Gridded data analysis
• Using observational datasets in the visualization and analysis of gridded model output
  • Verification of model forecast
• Enabling collaboration via IDV bundles

The course format primarily consists of hands-on exercises. Participants are encouraged to bring some of their own data to learn how to use the IDV with their datasets. Unidata staff will be available the entire week of the conference to help participants face-to-face as they continue to explore the topics covered in the class  The instructor for the course is:

Sean C. Arms, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research / Unidata. He will be joined by Yuan Ho, Julien Chastang, Tom Yoksas, and Jeff Weber, all of UCAR/Unidata.

A luncheon will not be provided during the short course.  Participants are required to bring their own laptops for use during the course.

For more information please contact Sean Arms at Unidata Program Center, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307, (tel: 303-497-8030; email: [email protected]).