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>From: Max Bleiweiss <address@hidden> >Organization: NMSU >Keywords: 200204221849.g3MInAa13033 IDD Hi Max, re: what is it you are interested in getting from Unidata >After reviewing the documentation, here is what I would like to do: >I need access to NOGAPS data to run MM5 in an operational mode. I want to make it very clear that the Unidata IDD is not to be considered as an operational source of data. A best effort is made to insure that things work properly at all times, but the IDD and other Unidata services are strictly for research and educational use. You can learn more about this point in the General Guidelines section of our Data Usage Guidelines at: http://unidata.ucar.edu/data/data_usage.html If you need an operational feed of critical data, you are advised to investigate use of a commercial data provider. I don't know where this would leave you with regards to the NOGAPS data, since I believe that it is not available through commercial vendors (I could be wrong on this point, however). >My most >immediate use for the MM5 is to use the regular grid of surface variables >as input to "successive corrections" along with surface "observations" to >distribute the observations to a regular grid. Therefore, I would also >need access to daily surface observations. Eventually, the region over >which I wish to process the data are for the "box" defined by 20N to 40N >and 115W to 95W. At this point, I am not sure what I would have to offer >in return; and, as I am new to all of this, I have much to learn. Does >this sound reasonable? This sounds perfectly reasonable. What you are going to want to do at this point is: o register as a Unidata User (URL in previous email) o work your way through the download, build (if you do not want to install a binary version of the LDM, installation, and configuration of the LDM o request a NOGAPS feed from FNMOC o get assigned an upstream feed site for the surface observation data you require >I do have a new LINUX machine with limited >capability that would be used in this endeavor. A couple of quick comments are in order at this point: we support use of RedHat Linux, and recommend use of 7.1 at this time. Also, our experience is that sites that start getting data via the IDD rapidly expand the volume of data they request from their upstream feed sites. If your machine is short of resources at the outset, it will invariably become usable as your desire for more data grows. In particular, you should make sure you have enough disk space for the data you want to ingest (a few GBs should suffice to start); that your machine has enough RAM (I would consider that being short on memory would mean that you have less than 256 MB; you can get away with less, but your performance _especially on Linux_ may suffer); and that it is fast enough to handle the data that you want to ingest and process (modern machines that have at least a 500 Mhz processor are sufficient). Please make sure that your machine has all OS patches applied to it, especially ones that deal with security. As soon as you provide us informtion on the name/IP of the machine you intend to use for running the LDM, please let Jeff Weber know (he is CCed on this email), so he can arrange an upstream feed site for you/NMSU. Jeff can also provide you with the contact information for someone at FNMOC so you can arrange for a NOGAPS feed. >Max >Max P. Bleiweiss voice: 505.678.3504 >U.S. Army Research Laboratory fax: 505.678.2432 >AMSRL-CI-EW e-mail: address@hidden >White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico USA 88002 Cheers, Tom Yoksas