CRAFT
(Collaborative Radar Acquisition Field Test)
Welcome Letter and Planning Schedule
Dear Friends of CRAFT (Cooperative Radar Access Feed Test)!
For those of you who couldn't attend the 2-day test last week, everything went exceptionally well! We were pleased to have 3 visitors to Norman: Linda Miller and Russ Rew from Unidata and Harry Edmon from the University of Washington. Joining them were the following people:
From CAPS: Kelvin Droegemeier, Keith Brewster, Steve Weygandt, David Jahn, and Jason Levit
From OU School of Meteorology: Tom Condo
From OSF: Tim Crum
From OCS: Dale Morris
- Kelvin opened the meeting by discussing the history and motivation of the project, and then Tim updated everyone on the status of the "Change Request" and Memorandum of Understanding that will allow access to the radars at OKC, Fort Smith, Tulsa, and Fort Worth. Copies of the viewgraphs shown are available from kkd@ou.edu. To summarize briefly, everything is on track for the approval of the first 4 radars, and it is hoped the others (Wichita, Dodge City, Amarillo, and Lubbock) will follow quickly. It is unlikely that we will obtain permission to access the 2 military radars in OK (Frederick and Enid) due to hardware issues.
Harry then described the University of Washington's RIDDS and LDM-based system, and various technical issues were discussed in preparation for the afternoon test. While I was absent most of the rest of the time, my understanding is that the LDM test was a success, and that data were flowing without any problems (albeit for the lack of any weather)! The second day was spent discussing plans for linking the rest of the radars, and a summary of that discussion will be forthcoming shortly.
The tentative timetable for this project is as follows:
By 15 October: Perform identical test using a PC in place of the Sparc 5 workstation that hooks to the RIDDS multiport router;
By 15 October: If above test is a success, purchase PCs and prepare the ingest computer at the State Regents Office;
15 Oct-15 Dec: Install other links;
1 January 1999: Ingest capability fully functional.
- Kelvin noted that this project provides a framework for submitting all sorts of proposals on data compression, distributed computing and networking, database management and data mining, and science (e.g., showing the use of wide band data in NWP models operating at multiple scales ranging from 40 km grids down to 1 km). We'll want to explore these possibilities as soon as possible. Also, Tim Crum noted the importance of advertising this effort and suggested that we consider preparing a BAMS and/or conference article. More on that soon.
- Linda Miller has coined the name CRAFT for this project (not to be confused with the Cooperative Regional Assimilation and Forecast Test -- a name used by CAPS several years ago). Further, she has set up an email distribution list at CRAFT@unidata.ucar.edu. We'll make sure that all interested persons are on this list.
- That's it for now! Special thanks go to Keith Brewster and Tom Condo for their efforts in making the test a success. And of course, we are indebtted to Harry Edmon, who flew in all the way from Seattle to help with this effort, and to Linda and Russ. We see all sorts of opportunities for shipping datasets over long distances!
- This wonderful collaborative effort is off to a great start! Stay tuned for more details as the project unfolds.
- - Kelvin Droegemeier