20030829: Concerning proposed MCIDAS data stream change

>From: "Alex Huang" <address@hidden>
>Organization:  UNCA
>Keywords:  200307301533.h6UFXPLd024978 LDM McIDAS upgrade

Hi Alex,

>Thank you for your continuing efforts and support in upgrading/maintaining
>software and expansion of data stream.

You are most welcome!

>I think the increase of satellite data is a good thing, as long as the users
>can choose which data to receive and archive easily.   I am sure UNIDATA
>will make efforts to reduce the impact of increased data size to the
>minimum.

The site will have maximum flexibility to choose exactly what image
sectors they would like.  The only impact that can not be mitigated by
subselection of products is the increase in size of the GOES-East
sectors.  One could, however, subsector the broadcast images using
McIDAS as they are received and end up with the exact same product mix
as is now being sent.

>I would also like to see this change to be flexible, so it can be modified
>later.   In other words, feedback/comments from the users should be again
>solicited after one or two months of implantation of proposed data stream
>change, to understand the real impact of transferring such a huge data set
>on the internet (administrators at some universities/colleges may have
>problems with this), hard drive storage issue, usability of the data,
>practical usage of the images, etc.

I think that this is an excellent idea.  We have not been active enough
in soliciting input on datastream issues in the past.  We do, however,
value and act on user feedback at any time.

>Thank you, and keep up the good work.

Again, you are most welcome.

>p.s. Tom, had you upgraded ldm on our storm2.atms.unca.edu by any chance?  I
>think you did, and I'd just like to confirm it.  How about ldm-mcidas2003?

Yes. storm2 is now running the latest versions of LDM (LDM-6.0.14),
ldm-mcidas (v2003), and McIDAS-X/-XCD (v2003). Chiz will be upgrading
GEMPAK on storm2, typhoon, and lab1 sometime early next week.  typhoon
and lab1 were upgraded to the latest McIDAS-X release on
Wednesday/Thursday.  I also enhanced the LDM boot startup script to be
more thorough in checking for queue problems, etc. I tested this
several times from the Unix command line, and feel confident that things
will work smoothly upon reboot.

I will send a separate email detailing the changes we made the the LDM
GEMPAK, and McIDAS setups on storm2.  All changes we implemented were
aimed at making the job of upgrading to new releases of all of the
packages listed above as easy as possible.

>Dr. Alex Huang
>Chair and Professor of
>Atmospheric Sciences
>UNC Asheville
>RBH 236B, CPO #2450, ATMS, UNCA, Asheville, NC 28804
>828-232-5157 (O)
>address@hidden
>www.atms.unca.edu
>www.unca.edu/~ahuang

Cheers,

Tom