20000412: Access to SSEC realtime imagery database Unidata sites

>From: UW SSEC Data Center <address@hidden>
>Organization: Space Science Data Center
>Keywords: 200003232140.OAA18829 McIDAS-X Unidata-Wisconsin ADDE FTP SSEC 
>unirec imagery

Dee, Tom A., and Tom W.,

I a writing to inquire about two different things today:

o did .EDU access to your Data Center imagery archive increase
  after my March 17 announcement of its availability (sent to the
  combination of our ldm-users, gembud, and mcidas-x email lists)

o has SSEC made a decision on Unidata site access to its realtime imagery
  database (i.e. direct ADDE access to SSEC SDI boxes)

As background I offer the following:

In a previous email exchange, you noted:

  Date:      Mon, 27 Mar 2000 11:32:05 -0700
  When you get your survey back it would be useful to know exactly what data
  and the volume you are thinking about.

To which I commented:

  This is really a "chicken and egg" problem.  My idea is to increase
  what is being sent out in the Unidata-Wisconsin datastream in a
  reasonable manner.  This would probably take the form of doubling the
  temporal frequence of imager products and increasing the VIS product
  resolution from 4 to 2 km.  With this set as the baseline, I would then
  want to make available by ADDE through the unirec machine as much data
  as is possible/practical.  This means that SSEC and the UPC would need
  to work together to determine what "as much as possible" really means.

In looking back on our exchange it is obvious to me that I was not
clear enough about what my objectives were and still are.

In order to effectively survey the Unidata community about what they
would like to see in the Unidata-Wisconsin broadcast (i.e. data sent
through the IDD on a regular basis), I need to know if they will be
allowed to access higher resolution (temporal and spatial) imager and
sounder data directly from the realtime SSEC database?  The reason for
this is my perception that users will ask for a lot more data on a
regular basis than they may, in fact, need IF there is no possibility
of getting additional data in another manner.  I believe that the
imagery appetite of the great majority of Unidata sites is quite
modest.  There will be a few sites, however, that will want higher
resolution VIS imagery for their areas of the country and/or other
imagery/sounder bands for research projects.

In a separate correspondence, Tom W. noted:

  >We did spend some time talking about direct access to the current
  >server machines, rather than an intermediate server -- that may not be
  >the best for the current DC customers, but thought you ought to know
  >that we did not dismiss it out of hand.

So, I had some hope that access privileges may be permitted to Unidata
sites desiring more imagery data.

The concept I put on the table at our Users Committee meeting was that
the imagery sent in the UW stream should be considered to be the basic
set of imagery that a site would want to access locally.  Users
desiring higher resolution data, different imager or sounder bands,
etc., would, if permitted by SSEC), be advised that they would need to
access the SSEC realtime database through McIDAS ADDE.  This is why I
really need to know if this kind of access will be possible.

Any help in these issues you can provide would be most appreciated.
If chatting about this on the phone would be easier, I can be reached
at 303.497.8642.  Talk to you soon (I hope :-)...

Tom