Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM)

April 29-30, 2003

Welcome by Sandy MacDonald, FSL
Introduction by Tim Wilfong, L-M

Joe - Build Updates

5.2.2 -

GOES soundings demo
Meteogram

POES Soundings
MDCRS (Commercial Aircraft reports)
[Note K-Index error in sounding with RH]

GOES High density winds
[Tim W. - Do winds get into models? Darien - No]
Color Table reorganization

OB2 - Last delivery to RSA in Sep/Oct (Darien)
Tim W. - PUP replacement
Darien - Radar delivery in June
Mike S. - OTE Test Start? OB1 delivery before OTE?

8:40 - Jim R. - OB3 Radar plans

New VCPs - Tilt ID strategy - Tilt IDs represent range of tilts
[Tim - OB3 change? - Yes in Spring '04 (Rich)]
Labeling still an open question
New 8-Bit products - [Darien - ORPG clone will make this available]
Consistent Radar Color table scheme for 3, 4, & 8 bit data
Ramped Color table demo

Gridded data sets - Tropical Cyclone Marine Product
Temp/Precip Anomaly
Marine Model Output Stats
QuikSCAT Wind Vectors
Hodograph Wind Displays
Radar development

VCPs
WAN-based one-time request
Enhanced echo tops product
Digital Storm Precip.
Enhanced High Resolution VIL

GCC compiler
New freeware
Deadline for OB3 - early July '03
Deployment - Spring '04
Still mixed system (HPs and Linux)? TBD, Data servers, Informix?
Tim W. - Baseline Linux release? (Red Hat 7.3 - not 8.0 yet)
Doris - Preprocessor replacement? AS's, DS's

9:40 - Patrice Kucera - Radar applications

Alert Request (only for radars with a dedicated feed)

Doris - does it apply to radar status? Answer - No.

One time request - (only for dedicated radars - no dial-out for RSA)

Jim R.- List of tilt angles will change for OB3 due to new VCPs

RPS list editor -

Jim R. - Mandatory (national req.) products always processed

Jim R. - Default RPS list for each VCP in OB3

Radar Multi Request - Not available for RSA

Darien - May change in the future with ROC developments

Radar Display Controls -

VR - Shear

Based on end point of the line

Create a composite wind profile Jim R. - Combine mini sodar & 915MHz & 50 MHz (if available) with individual winds with volume browser - John W. wanted time series merged over 6 hr period? Need Standard profiler display with 50, 915, and mini-sodar (Problem with scale not matching with different products) i.e. they need a sfc to 60kft vertical profile. Could possibly set up a procedure with all of these. Tim W. - Need flexibility with which 915 you use - Mike S. Would like to have it on the main menu.

Auto Scale override - Johnny - Accum. Precip with other models overlaid - each has its own scale since it is dynamic(?) In time series view. Scales not consistent so you have to toggle between each overlay. Jim R. it doesn't do that any more - now it autoscales for all displayed products.

Add to MRF and MM5 to state scale - Delivered in OB1

ER Lockup problem - Johnny - State scale Composite refl. locked up workstation would jump back to CONUS - NOT FOR A WHILE

Std.Dev to workstation - Calculate in Tabular Text on LDAD - in the spec. for delivery - available in June - for OB1 fill in Dev. Degs.

Mike S. tower data take "***" out for no instruments at that data, change to "MMM" for missing data. Mike S. one tower does not have 12ft. Winds. Change Gust to Peak wind. Label chart 1-minute, 2 minute, or 5-minute or 10-minute. Separate pull-downs for 1min, 2min, 5min, etc. (in cascade menus). Add peak speed to 54 ft. and temp at 54 (before the deviation in table) [see Johnny's handout for current display example].

Johnny W. - Tall tower hgt. - In Feet - all off by one foot - (want 12, 54, etc., not exact reported - 7, 13, etc. - rounding problem on current display. Darien - will spec out what it will take. Want 54-6 delta temperature.

Johnny W. - What about display of only one selected hour in table? Current display capability. Xiangbao - have framework for this already. Need to generate a requirement.

Doris/Rich - need cross wind, head wind, and tail wind component on tabular text display for Edwards and White Sands. Also need history from one station for Johnson. Need 5, 11, 12, and 13 also selectable (?) For (e.g.) 4 hours of ASCII text. Rich will [text missing in original]

(also meteogram requirement and absolute value display - see Clay)

Clay - ER did send FSL sample data

Xiangbao - Need info. For radius, time selection, and time frame (5 min, 10 min, etc.). Can display multiple windows for 915, 50, and minis.

Warning alert - Currently global - needs to be local (workstation) capability.

Tabular for 50, 915, mini sodars - don't have samples (Mike S.) - want it like mini sodar display.

Print function needed. Darien - will estimate time needed.

Cross, head, and tail - display from volume browser - need ER runways - 15, 33,

Time series from volume browser - plots 12-32 minutes (takes too long if you plot all the data). Turn on time option to load and choose resolution (e.g. 15min steps) - use frame count to change time range available. Johnson SFC staff - Would like to have default for set time intervals, e.g. 1 hour, 6 hours, etc. for each tower. E.g. just add 60 mins to the time resolution - then you know how many frames to choose. Change time res. to 1, 5, 15, 30, 60, etc. Johnny W. what about previous time - Jim R. Select Time option, Can you overlay previous time period on current time data? Jim R. - use overlay/time option, but won't work now - need to make choice of time options more flexible - force load won't work because it time matches. Johnny W. like to look at persistence.

Add wind direction... next Build

Adding sampling to mini sodars - have est.

Next bullet (5k' option) - Darien will try to do this again - funny data. don't have that option yet.

ER needs satellite data over Indian Ocean

WR needs county scale - get corner points from Mike S; should be mapped to the nested grid domains of the MM5. Rest of the scales are great (WR)

WR issue - Add glc - OB1

Home cursor problem - will check on WR

Drawing tool to D2D? - 6 months.

Cuba and Caribbean on D2D - Johnny W. - ran a match - some obs still missing in Caribbean - Jamaica, and Grand Cayman missing for sure. Went out on 5.2.2

Stns. were available quicker on MIDDS than D2D - Jim R. try clear and reload - may be notification issue. C-MAN stations the worst.

Briefing tool byte code.

Run Briefing tool outside the firewall. - Herb can run on PC but security issue

Add GUI for user names - DD Spec'ed out. Want to use NWS individual accounts from OB2?

Johnny W. - Will names show up for individual color table store

Sampling - spec'ed out

Briefing tool add graphics- not recommended (from Andy Goodnight ~ need 20) Herb. - fixed - set to 24.

Add units to WINDEX - OB1

May for next TIM - done ;-)

Major/Minor tick marks - for 915 - Mike S. - minor every sounding or 15 mins. John W. user selectable. Jim R. - NWS 10 major for every plot. Can make a style entry to hard wire - Johnny W. Don't want this, want selectable. If you can sample - tick req. goes away.

GFE - Daily Forecast Critique component to compare model output with observations would be of interest.

Johnny W. - HURREVAC (Hurricane program) may go away - AWIPS only going to be able to track the path (only PC applications for other options). Darien - will SAFESEAS take its place in OB3? Jim - Some of these options have been added - viewable if you zoom in (e.g. quadrant winds, etc.). [Darien called the SAFESEAS developers and there is no hurricane functions at all]

Patrice - UIWG

Lightning - D2D CGLSS / Jim Ramer

-Color coding on lightning +/- plots

-Johnny W. - Will it update every minute? - Yes (Jim R.)

-Johnny W. - How do you control time window? - by frame count

-red, blue, green (6,12,18,24,30 min.) [In breakout session with Phil, Johnny recommends 10-min interval updated every minute instead of 6-min intervals]

-Make time intervals configurable, but not interactively

-Need pos and neg stroke counts in legend feature - just what is displayed (like current strike display).

-Will automatically time match to other overlaid products

-National network displays good as is.

-Need time span in legend (to nearest second) - desirable - get time estimate.

-Contours? neg = yellow, pos. another color (on old Cape displays)? (dashed and solid lines on D2D) - Need every 1000 V/m.

-Image? - Yes

-Patrice? Should it go under lightning? Yes

-Flash data display - Don't have algorithm, just output (based on changes in field)

-Should plot where strike is estimated to be.

-Jim - are lat/lons of field mill accurate? - Yes

-Johnnie W. - but lat/lons of field mill flash estimate will be in data. Don't merge with. Flash info will be in its own file. Display like CGLSS data, but no polarity - use different symbol on display (i.e. not + or -) Use 1 min. display like CGLSS.

-John. W. - Can you vary the default of the contours? Yes - configurable

-Need lat/lon corners for end network.

-Range ring capability - Yes

-Darien - Tabular text of field mill data? Yes John. W.
 
 

-3D ltg not used during briefings currently

-Check field mill site #25

-Sample displays - every 1000 volts/meter - contour interval

-Red yellow color coding of the table

-Radar Scan strategy - every 2.5 minutes/volume send images as tiffs - problem?

-(Get tilt angles from presentation)

-New radar coming in 3-? Years to replace WSR-74C

-Tim W. - Is 74C tiff still a req. for AWIPS just in image form? Yes - Johnnie, Clay. Maybe another format?
 
 

-Histogram - Aging off feature, scroll bar,

-Animation controls

-3-d perspective view - zoomable

-plan views - zoom and pan - limits okay - redo aspect ratio - don't need to zoom on point (like D2D)

xz/yz - this is scalable but not zoomable, not linked. Johnnie - should be linked with plan view. Wasted space on the sides? 250 nm "sides"? Don't need to go beyond.

Color coding of histogram = old (CGLSS data colored grey - Clay - use shades of grey ~ 6 different shades - maybe 5 min intervals),

Change +/- size? Not yet

Range Rings? Not yet

Need more map backgrounds too.

Need slice mechanism for elevations and layer - thickness adjustable - will dim data outside layer,

Ascent/Descent paths mapped on displays? - Difficult to get flight path data in real time. Only available the day before the landing (ASCII text data). How to get it in AWIPS? Doris - Johnson does this manually right now - generates a shape file in AWIPS. Lowell - Can this file be sent to Cape? Ascent data classified - not available to AWIPS. Maybe add hook so if is available just before launch. Johnnie - they just get a map, no coordinates available.

Animation - Dwell mechanism - nice to have. 2-3 workstations running this at one time. Clay - will it be able to play back old data? Phil - current capability only out to 30min. Will have to archive older data then have D3D look at old data - include CGLSS data - Darien - AWIPS does not archive, no plan to replay on AWIPS.

Playback mechanism -

Phil - Last CGLSS blink for the first minute? Problem with D3D - Johnnie - don't worry about it. Should red be used for both CGLSS and LDAR? Johnnie - Use different color. - Will decide colors later.

Phil - Should LDAR/CGLSS be displayed for 30mins? No CGLSS for more than 5 minutes.

Mike S. - LLPS will have to be out to 30 minutes for Western Range.

Darien - Application resource issue - How many workstations will be running each application? May have to decide which applications will run on which machine. Will need to benchmark to determine performance. Bottleneck may be latency.

Brent/Patrice/Darien - Volume browser issues with MM5

Clay - dimmed on State scale (except D1)? - Looks okay here

Will talk about details tomorrow

D1, D2, D3 (10km (D1) to 1.1km (D3))

Johnny W. - Couldn't get MM5 as source under Volume Browser. Dimmed out at certain scales - e.g. D1 available only at regional scale. Can change configuration file to make available on different scale.

Doris - Grid source template file for "Source" (to add another model)? Darien will find out.

Herb - Couldn't get background color changes yet - waiting for approval

Patrice - Demo - [Charlotte - Template slides old]

Patrice - Confirmation after "remove" selected?

Charlotte - Upper air available (e.g profiler)? Yes

Can combine two images

Charlotte - Problems if slide show set a 5 second update if loop in slide show

Herb - Will not update

Charlotte - Does it have to go to black between slides? Yes, right now - could be changed.

Johnny W. - Preset versions still available? Yes

Clay - Create templates? Yes, but advanced capability

Max number of frames? 24. - all part of one slide.

Change values in existing slide show.

Charlotte - change "slides" to "slide set".

Doris - both "text" and "image" lines under lever selector - even if no text or no image part. Herb - this is by design

Can have two images in the slide? Can only combine two images.

Phil - Difference between text and image files?

Update Images? Herb - Use procedures (procedures won't update slide show).

Capture D2D display

Drawing tool (on top of satellite image) - add to slide show.

Can't pull in tabular text displays.

Can re-annotate display.

Can animate annotated images in slide show

Can animate different models together (e.g. RUC, ETA, AVN)

4-Panel display

Quicker stepping between slides in newer version - not available yet

Can run briefing tool on Windows desk top.

Clay - Can auto update in Briefing tool? Yes, through procedures - can use a variety of data sources (D2D, Web, etc.).

Set time back two hours

Tim W. - Workstation dependent? Yes. Will not affect other workstations

Set back one month - no inventory flashes

How far back can you go? Doris can use WES - causes problems (Darien).

Set time has to be reset each time.

Bug in procedure if using old time (Darien).

How much data can be stored locally?

How can data be captured? How is it stored?

User training needs? Okay on WR?

East coast? Johnny okay.

Sys Admin training needed - Mike S.

Wednesday Morning 4/30 John McGinley

[LAPS presentations were provided to participants on CD.]

LAPS Overview

Tim W. - Use of microwave data? John M. - not currently

IHOP Results

Federal Highway Road Project

US Army Precision Airdrop System
 
 

Data Ingest, Kalman Filter - John McGinley

Johnny W. - Temp Bias? - John Yes, cold bias, no bias in wind

Data acquisition and quality control - Steve Albers

Data window used in analysis? Varies with frequency of observation

Use of buoy data (avail. 15min. aft hour) - can start LAPS later in hour

Johnny W. - will extreme station data at edges of network (e.g. convective wind gusts moving in from outside the domain) be thrown out in QC? - Steve/John - possibly, but domain bounds are broader than mesonet domain.

Steve A. - Display Web page with different RSA data sources.

Steve A. - Missing tower data during part of the day? Dial-up problem?

Steve A. - QC flags from 50 MHz? Get info from Darien.

50 MHz RASS will not be available on Eastern region, but will have 915.

RTAMPS - Synthetic data right now. Darien has access to data, but not through network. Will be available for both ranges in the future.

Need to track where and when data will be available for LAPS.

Steve Albers - LAPS radar ingest

LAPS cloud analysis

How well does LAPS ID fog? 3 ways (vis, 3.9, IR?)

Make Presentation available on CD and the Web

Dan Birkenheuer - LAPS Moisture Analysis

Need to get tower data for RSA

GPS sensor at Ranges for GPS water vapor analysis.

Temporal availability improved (Johnny W. - looked at before via FSL Web page, but it wasn't current).

Johnny - GOES sounder data? Not in system yet - Just now available via SBN.

Johnny - What are the assumptions based on the location of the satellites used to determine the delay?

John McGinley - LAPS Balance Package

Tim W. - Use of bogusing for Tropical Cyclones. Could be used at RSA?

John - experimental for CWB could be tried for RSA.

Wednesday Afternoon

Brent Shaw - Initalization/Hot Start

Brent Shaw - Operational Implementation

Getting model output to the AMU? Brent - several options (eg. netCDF, GRIB, etc.)

Use 12km eta for initialization? Yes, but on different grids, best available from SBN.

Brent Shaw - Current Implementation at Ranges

Can LAPS run more than once an hour (at H+20min)? Problem with rapid changes in weather. Brent - possible, but more hardware needed.

Mid May interim Delivery to LLMS

Sep '03 - Final delivery for current SOW

Tim W. - What would be needed to run MM5 land surface model? Multiple options: addnl. sfc data, improved LAPS sfc. analysis, other models (RUC, etc.) not available currently on SBN.

Have Web data server in DMZ for additional data sets (e.g., CRAFT radar data, MADIS, etc.)? Possible. Tim W. justify through improved convective forecasts.

Proposed new tasks

Break

John McGinley/Paul Schultz - Future Possibilities

Lightning Data Assimilation

5 min wind analysis

Upgrade to WRF

Mesoscale Ensembles (Paul)

Johnny W. - If all members predict precip., is probability 100%? Paul - No - depends on predictive skill of each member

Cloud forecasts for aviation
 

Thursday Morning Session

Summary from conf call with ENSCO (Alan Dianic)

Week of May 19th we will set up an LDM between the FSL system and ENSCO to
simulate the lightning data.

ENSCO needs the nat'l text/compressed bufr RAOB, national surface obs for the system.
*Action -- FSL will set up a directory to NFS mount for ENSCO
*Action -- Darien will get a set of data off of NOAAPORT and send to Allan by May 19th
*Action -- Alan will send Darien the wmo ids of the text raobs needed (not part of AWIPS at this point)

There is a good probability that the LDAR data will be live for testing between ENSCO and FSL.
* Action -- Lowell was going to check with security(?) folks on some access (don't have complete
notes on this)

Alan mentioned that he needed 2-4 hours of LAPS analysis grids and a some more forecast grids.
* Action -- Darien will arrange for the analysis grids to be put on the ftp server.
* Action -- Alan needs to call Brent Shaw for the forecast grids.

Wind divurgence discussion
Alan thought this was 8000ft spacing grid (30 x 30)
Uses 54' data (any wind from 30' to 60')
It's a sum (area average divurgence)

2 pass Barnes (similar to Kressman)
He thought the radius of influence was 45000 ft.

* Action -- Alan is going to confirm the above numbers and send in email the coords for the lat/lon corners
* Action -- need to have a snapshot of output sent from ROC (Johnny or Clay?)
 

Training summary

Need a few day course for system maintenance including Russ Bolten, Paul Warner, Judy Lougen, and Marty.
Need info on the following
    localization
    how to interpret monitors
    directory file tour (data flow?)
    troubleshooting

Have Johnny look thru and make sure that functions that are scoped out should be (send
list of functions to Johnny/Clay)
 

Wrapup - Tim Wilfong/Darien Davis

OB1 Upgrades (June Delivery)

Add MM5 to state scale

Add 54-6 delta Temp to tall tower tabular text display

Add 54' peak wind display

Rename Gust to Peak on tab text display

Add County scale to WR display (map to LAPS2 grid)

Add wind direction to parameter list for plotting as a time series

Change GLCM to LF-06 on WR range ring display

(Bug) Check that the home cursor display works

Add wind shear magnitude vs altitude plot. Magnitude in knots/1000ft.

Add units to WINDEX (knots)

Add Xwind/Headwind display (from the volume browser)

When plotting several hours of data, make the display show hours better

Composite wind profile from 50/915/mini sodar (surface to 60kft) (1 week)

Tabular text (15 weeks)

Field mill display (including highlights near launch facility)

Add 5,10 min peak to all tower displays

Add tabular displays for 915s, 50, and AMPS (separate display for each, 1000'sampling for AMPS)

Add print function

Make change to load on warning

Add sampling to profilers and mini sodar displays (on pull-down time height) (1 week)

Global line width on D2D (1 week)

Global line width on Briefing Tool (1 week)

Ability to select background color on D2D and Briefing tool (3 weeks)

Editing tool for D2D -- really vague to spec out. A significant effort. (1-2 yrs)

Adding radar to 3D

Remove asterisk for no data and replace with MMM for missing data

1 min tower does not have 12ft winds

add 1min, 2min, 5min, 10min charts with separate pull-downs in cascade menus

Add GUI for user names (1-2 weeks)

Add GFE and daily forecast critique

Notes by Woody Roberts and Darien Davis
HTML conversion by J. Wakefield
updated 8 May 03