20020830: New User

>From: "stuart.foster" <address@hidden>
>Organization: Western Kentucky University
>Keywords: 200208301627.g7UGRiZ07182 IDD

Stuart,

>The Kentucky Climate Center provides climate services at the state level.  We 
>are interested in expanding our climate monitoring capabilities.  Specifically
>we are interested in developing capabilities to receive and process NEXRAD 
>radar data.  My understanding is that the Unidata Program could provide us 
>with the capability.

Yes, that is correct.  We can feed you the data via the internet in our
Internet Data Distribution system, and/or you can access the data remotely
using software that supports McIDAS ADDE capabilities (to date, we provide
McIDAS and our Integrated Data Viewer).  All three applications that
we support (GEMPAK, McIDAS, and the IDV) can be used if the data is
ingested through the IDD and saved locally at your site.

>I believe that we have the necessary infrastructure, and
>if not, we can acquire additional equipment.  Please guide me through any 
>procedures necessary to become a registered Unidata member and to get our 
>connection up and running.

The first step in the process is registering as a Unidata user.  This
is done online at:

my.unidata.ucar.edu/user.php?op=new_user

After registering as a Unidata user, you can either plunge right in
to grabbing our LDM (Local Data Manager) software (the LDM is the
cornerstone of the IDD), or you can review information about the
application software we offer and first decide which package you
are interested in using (many sites use all of the packages we offer,
so you don't have to chose one or the other).

Some links to peruse are:

Unidata HomePage
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu

Unidata LDM
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/packages/ldm

Unidata IDD
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/idd

Unidata Software
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/Software.html

The "big picture" is the following:

o User sites install the LDM on a Unix system at their site (several
  flavors of Unix and Linux are supported for the LDM).

o that site is then assigned primary and failover feed sites from
  which the can be fed data (we assign these sites after you have the
  LDM installed, and after we make some determination of your networking
  capabilities).

o you install one or more of the application packages that we offer

o you configure the LDM to ingest the data you are interested in using

o you also configure the LDM to decode the data you are ingesting into
  a format that is compatible with the analysis pacakge(s) you want
  to use

So, the first step is to read through our web pages for the LDM and IDD
so you can get an idea of the kind (operating system, speed, RAM, disk
storage capabilities, network connection, etc.) of machine you will
need to use.  The next step is to either decide on which analysis package
you want to use and then to install the LDM.

Please let me know if/when you have additional questions.

>Stuart Foster, Director
>Kentucky Climate Center
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Stuart A. Foster, Ph.D., State Climatologist for Kentucky
>Director, Kentucky Climate Center
>Department of Geography and Geology
>Western Kentucky University
>1 Big Red Way
>Bowling Green, Kentucky 42101
>Phone: 270-745-5983
>Fax: 270-745-6410
>Email: address@hidden
>Web: http://kyclim.wku.edu
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tom Yoksas