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IDV – Past, Present, Future. Don Murray and Jeff McWhirter. Outline. Historical Perspective Where are we now? Where are we going? Where should we go?. Past - Unidata 2003 Proposal. Java Development Initiative:
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IDV – Past, Present, Future Don Murray and Jeff McWhirter Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
Outline • Historical Perspective • Where are we now? • Where are we going? • Where should we go? Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
Past - Unidata 2003 Proposal • Java Development Initiative: • Deliver platform-independent applications for the analysis and visualization of meteorological data • Create a component-oriented framework that supports easy construction of custom applications • Maintain, support, and enhance the software for the Unidata community • Enlist other developers in enhancing components and developing new components for the components framework Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
MetApps Project (1998-2003) • Initial Java prototypes to test the feasibility of what was required to meet requirements of Unidata 2003 • MetApps Task Force (subcommittee to User’s Committee) • Chaired by Charlie Murphy (Kean University) • Provided use cases for development • Tested prototypes and provided feedback • Comprised of 6-7 community members and 4-5 UPC developers • Prototypes built • Gridded Data Viewer (2D and 3D versions) • Sounding Application • Image Viewer • Surface Obs Viewer • Outcomes • Java is a viable platform for this type of application development • Use VisAD for data and display model • Reusable Java components for display and remote data access Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
MetApps Prototypes Gridded Data Viewer Image Viewer Interactive Sounding Application w/ 3D Hodograph Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
IDV 1.0 • IDV 1.0 released in June 2003 • Integrated features from prototypes into a single reference application – major features of GEMPAK and McIDAS plus 3D visualization of grids. • Achievements toward Unidata 2003 goals • Reference Application - turn-key, easy to install, platform-independent application for meteorological data • IDV framework supports development of customized applications (VGEE) • Source code, class docs available • External developers far and few between • MetApps Task Force disbanded • Development team reduced to 3 (Don, Jeff and Stu) Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
IDV - Unidata 2008 • Visualization and Analysis goals: • Supporting analysis and visualization of local modeling efforts • Incorporating new datasets and data types • Exploring new approaches to visualizing and interacting with Earth system data • Support the creation of exploration based, interactive, pedagogic materials and integration with digital libraries. • Developing collaborative tools to make effective use of shared visualizations • Developing a framework that allows end-user assembly and integration of IDV components • Adapting to GIS frameworks (OpenGIS and ISO standards), content-based data mining, and other evolving technologies • Based on 3 full time developers – funding from NSF did not support this Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
IDV 1.1, 1.2 • IDV Steering Committee formed to: • Prioritize the IDV development efforts based on the perceived needs of the Unidata community and other interested parties and input from the IDV developers on feasibility and cost. • Consider and recommend large focused development efforts in the range of 3-6 months. • Test implementations and provide feedback. • Other ways priorities are determined: • Developer subject matter expertise used to prioritize features and user requests into the architecture (P. Bruehl) • Funding opportunities (e.g. field projects) • Availability of new data sources • User’s Committee input • Development team reduced to 2 (Don and Jeff) Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
IDV Strengths • Easy to download and install on any platform • Remote access to datasets allows instant use without need for LDM • 3D visualization • Bundle mechanism • Support for multi-disciplinary datasets integrated from a variety of sources • Flexible framework supports customization (GEON-IDV, field projects, McIDAS-V) • Community driven development Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
IDV Challenges • Inertia • Users are used to GEMPAK/McIDAS – see no need to switch • Bad experience with early versions taints perception (slow, unusable) • Reference application shows all features – perhaps need customization for specific disciplines and expertise levels • Remote access presents problems • No THREDDS middleware for query – catalogs are not sufficient for time matching, subsetting, etc. • Automatic update difficult – can’t query file system, no notification system • Bandwidth issues • Lack of features • Not all datasets that GEMPAK and McIDAS have are available in IDV • Lack of publication quality graphics • Diagnostic functions missing • 3D visualization not accepted in meteorological community • All development, testing, support, training, documentation done at UPC by IDV developers unlike GEMPAK and McIDAS Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
The Present- IDV 2.0 • Released August 2006 • Development driven by: • Steering Committee priorities • Fall 2005 meeting with VisAD developers which yielded substantial performance improvements • Funding from T-Rex field project • Spring User’s Committee request to focus on improved UI and performance • Unidata Summer Workshop (Seige client, catalog access to Level II radar data, WRF staggered grids) • User requests and bugfixes • Additional development support (radar access through netCDF/CDM) by Yuan Ho • Average of ~300 runs/day for Sept 2006 Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
IDV 2.0 (continued) • Overview of new features (Jeff) Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
Next Release - IDV 2.1 • Due out after Training Workshop (Nov/Dec) • Major new features: • Better performance for grids and point data • Single level grid access • Better Import/Export for KML (Google Earth) • UI improvements • Various and sundry bug fixes Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
Future Development • Incorporate additional datasets and functionality of GEMPAK and McIDAS based on steering committee and user requests • Need community to define the next most important datasets • Need to coordinate with THREDDS on prioritization and support of new datasets and develop middleware for query • Unidata strategic plan needs to set out goals and priorities • Continued performance enhancements, especially for imagery • Richer diagnostic library • LoCal IDV • Support modeling efforts • TIGGE and other ensemble datasets • 2D time sets (need use cases) • LEAD visualization tool • Enlist other developers and contributors • Developer training workshop in 2007 • Developer’s manual needs to be written • IDV web site for user contributed plugins, bundles, code and images • Hire student assistant to help with testing, documentation and development Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006
Comments/Questions? Presentation to Unidata User's Committee September 2006