Re: DIFAX (fwd)

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Robb Kambic                                Unidata Program Center
Software Engineer III                      Univ. Corp for Atmospheric Research
address@hidden             WWW: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 16:44:32 -0600 (MDT)
From: Anthony Rockwood - MSCD Meteorology <address@hidden>
To: Bill Fingerhut <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: DIFAX

Bill,

I'll join Larry and welcome you to the Committee.  Here is a very
unofficial response, liberally flavored with my own biases, from the
UserComm about your Difax questions.

The committee has dealt with the DIFAX issue at considerable length,
including the establishment of a Difax task force (can it really be called
a force?), surveying the community on the use of Difax, evaluating it's
future need, investigating alternate systems used at different Unidata
sites, discussing the role of the Unidata community and the Unidata
Program Center (UPC) in providing alternatives, etc. The "community
concept", that Unidata created and relies upon, provides the only means
for us all to share in what others are doing to solve problems of this
kind.  The point is the UserComm has, and may forever, take up the issue
of Difax.

I think I can summarize the discussions by the following:

1) There is still a demand, particularly at sites with a strong teaching
focus, for paper copies of weather maps for general displays and hand
analysis.

2) Difax has long been the preferred method by which these paper maps were
obtained, but an increasing number of alternatives are now available.

3) There is general agreement that there are certain skills and a certain
level of understanding of atmospheric processes that are best learned by
hand analysis.  The question is, how relevant are those the skills today
and how much of our educational efforts should go into it?  Whether
traditionalists like it or not, technology has forced changes in the way
we do business, and it has become important for students to learn new ways
to learn and teachers, new ways to teach.  I'm not arguing which is better
and I count myself as one of the traditionalists, but I'm beginning to
question how much time we should spend on hand analysis, given the
increase in data and higher level of understanding that technology makes
us achieve.

4) there is absolutely no question in my mind that if a student wants to
become a short-range mesoscale forecaster, he/she must have conceptual
models and analysis skills that come from both hand analysis and computer
generated products.  Perhaps this too will change in time, but it hasn't
yet.

5) Difax products, as distributed by Alden and others, constitutes a mix
of public and private endeavors; the data and maps are public NWS products
that have been distributed by private companies.  NIDS products are in the
same category, but that is in the process of changing.  While the Unidata
community provides an excellent forum for discussing what we're all going
to do about Difax, the UPC should not become the distributor of Difax
products.

6) There are several excellent examples of how individual Unidata members
are producing Difax-like maps and they have repeatedly shared their
methods with the rest of us.  As Linda Miller said this morning, this is
how the Unidata system is supposed to work.  Don Murray has made the
suggestion that perhaps there is a Unidata site that would be willing to
take on the responsibility of generating and injecting Difax products into
the LDM stream.  I believe we should seriously consider this suggestion at
our next meeting.

So the UserComm and the Unidata community have been working on Difax for
some time.  We all knew the end was near and those that place a high
priority on Difax found solutions that they are willing to share.

I hope this provides some background, and I encourage other UserComm
members to comment.  We will surely be talking about it in Nov.

See you then,

Tony 


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   Anthony A. Rockwood              Metropolitan State College of Denver    
   Meteorology Program              Dept.of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences 
   303.556.8399                     P.O. Box 173362, Campus Box 22
   address@hidden                Denver, CO  80217-3362                  
   fax: 303.556.4436                www.mscd.edu/~eas

"No matter what you've accomplished in life or how many friends you have,
the size of your funeral will ultimately depend on the weather."

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