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=============================================================================== Robb Kambic Unidata Program Center Software Engineer III Univ. Corp for Atmospheric Research address@hidden WWW: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/ =============================================================================== ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2000 22:03:52 -0400 From: Richard Clark <address@hidden> To: 'Anthony Rockwood - MSCD Meteorology ' <address@hidden>, 'Bill Fingerhut ' <address@hidden> Subject: RE: DIFAX Bill, Larry, Tony: Thanks fo the dialogue concerning the use of difax. You should have received an email that I sent Friday providing the latest update on the difax situation. I hope this helps clarify where things are going. I'm especially encouraged by the UWisc option of developing difax-like maps for distribution wither driectly from their server or via the IDD. For those schools that want the transition to be as little a headache as possible, the UWisc option will be virtually a no-brainer. But note that when I left Unidata on Friday, this option was still tentative. Should it become a reality, Lyndon State and Millersville will be two of 3-4 schools that will serve as test sites to assess the process of getting products from UWisc and sending them to a postscript printer. I suspect that we will hear from Jeff on Monday giving additional information. Let me chime in here and welcome Bill Fingerhut to the UserComm. The agenda for the 9-10 November meeting should be out by week's end. Linda and I will be working on it. If you have specific agenda items, it's probably a good time to email them, either to Linda or me, sometime this week...not that items can't be added later. I'll be keep you posted throughout the week. Rich Clark -----Original Message----- From: Anthony Rockwood - MSCD Meteorology To: Bill Fingerhut Sent: 10/11/00 6:44 PM Subject: Re: DIFAX Bill, I'll join Larry and welcome you to the Committee. Here is a very unofficial response, liberally flavored with my own biases, from the UserComm about your Difax questions. The committee has dealt with the DIFAX issue at considerable length, including the establishment of a Difax task force (can it really be called a force?), surveying the community on the use of Difax, evaluating it's future need, investigating alternate systems used at different Unidata sites, discussing the role of the Unidata community and the Unidata Program Center (UPC) in providing alternatives, etc. The "community concept", that Unidata created and relies upon, provides the only means for us all to share in what others are doing to solve problems of this kind. The point is the UserComm has, and may forever, take up the issue of Difax. I think I can summarize the discussions by the following: 1) There is still a demand, particularly at sites with a strong teaching focus, for paper copies of weather maps for general displays and hand analysis. 2) Difax has long been the preferred method by which these paper maps were obtained, but an increasing number of alternatives are now available. 3) There is general agreement that there are certain skills and a certain level of understanding of atmospheric processes that are best learned by hand analysis. The question is, how relevant are those the skills today and how much of our educational efforts should go into it? Whether traditionalists like it or not, technology has forced changes in the way we do business, and it has become important for students to learn new ways to learn and teachers, new ways to teach. I'm not arguing which is better and I count myself as one of the traditionalists, but I'm beginning to question how much time we should spend on hand analysis, given the increase in data and higher level of understanding that technology makes us achieve. 4) there is absolutely no question in my mind that if a student wants to become a short-range mesoscale forecaster, he/she must have conceptual models and analysis skills that come from both hand analysis and computer generated products. Perhaps this too will change in time, but it hasn't yet. 5) Difax products, as distributed by Alden and others, constitutes a mix of public and private endeavors; the data and maps are public NWS products that have been distributed by private companies. NIDS products are in the same category, but that is in the process of changing. While the Unidata community provides an excellent forum for discussing what we're all going to do about Difax, the UPC should not become the distributor of Difax products. 6) There are several excellent examples of how individual Unidata members are producing Difax-like maps and they have repeatedly shared their methods with the rest of us. As Linda Miller said this morning, this is how the Unidata system is supposed to work. Don Murray has made the suggestion that perhaps there is a Unidata site that would be willing to take on the responsibility of generating and injecting Difax products into the LDM stream. I believe we should seriously consider this suggestion at our next meeting. So the UserComm and the Unidata community have been working on Difax for some time. We all knew the end was near and those that place a high priority on Difax found solutions that they are willing to share. I hope this provides some background, and I encourage other UserComm members to comment. We will surely be talking about it in Nov. See you then, Tony ************************************************************************ **** Anthony A. Rockwood Metropolitan State College of Denver Meteorology Program Dept.of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences 303.556.8399 P.O. Box 173362, Campus Box 22 address@hidden Denver, CO 80217-3362 fax: 303.556.4436 www.mscd.edu/~eas "No matter what you've accomplished in life or how many friends you have, the size of your funeral will ultimately depend on the weather." ************************************************************************ ****