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NOTICE: This version of the NSF Unidata web site (archive.unidata.ucar.edu) is no longer being updated.
Current content can be found at unidata.ucar.edu.
To learn about what's going on, see About the Archive Site.
On 5/13/2010 1:21 PM, Hoeth, Brian R. (JSC-WS8)[NOAA] wrote:
The AWIPS development is a NWS mission-critical project that hasnt put much attention into an open data architecture. However, the files are self-contained, so we can write code to extract the coordinate information.This seems like as good a time as any to chime in ... I have always been frustrated w/ the fact that Unidata NetCDF is not the same as AWIPS NetCDF. I thought the whole reason to have NetCDF files is that they are a Common Data Format (CDF). What's even more puzzling is that the folks who develop AWIPS (GSD) work right down the road from Unidata. You would think there would be more collaboration? OK, enough soap boxing ... hopefully my comments haven't turned you away and you are still reading ... what I'm mainly interested in is the future. I'd like to make sure that the problems of the past do not repeat themselves. So, with that said, are the IDV developers working closely (or at all?) with the AWIPS II developers? Will IDV be able to display AWIPS II data (which is mainly in HDF vs. NetCDF from what I understand)? Thanks for listening! Sorry if I've offended anyone. Brian Hoeth NWS Spaceflight Meteorology Group Johnson Space Center Houston, TX 281-483-3246
From Matt's comments it sounds like AWIPS-2 may be worse off in that the files are not self contained. OTOH, I think their architecture is more open, eg access to the database may be possible, so perhaps in some situations we can still use those files directly, or perhaps there might be ways to extract useable files.
Big government projects tend to get pretty insular, and unless there are advocates of openness at all levels and phases, it seems to typically get lost. Private contractors still try to do lock-in in various obvious and subtle ways. Community involvement and feedback on how our money is being spent is the only counterforce. As Patrick Henry said: "Eternal vigilence is the price of the liberty to use your own visualization software".
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