A Unidata Program initiative to improve the accessibility of real-time weather data
Mitch Baltuch, Software Engineer, Unidata Program Center
Innovative software and services empowering universities to acquire and use atmospheric and related data, often in real time
FEED SOURCE PRODUCTS BYTES ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DDS Alden 36,703 15,870,892 PPS Alden 7,184 10,216,925 IDS Alden 17,338 7,917,316 HRS Alden 25,983 100,880,939 McIDAS U. of Wisconsin/SSEC 243 38,158,586 NIDS WSI 17,743 143,001,342 NLDN SUNY-Albany 236 20,608 DIFAX Alden 436 55,476,805
120 University clients access weather data supplied by various data suppliers. Originally, this data was send in a unidirectional path via satellite. Of 120 users, 65 are on the Internet. At the end of the year(hopefully) the rest will be on the Internet and the satellite service will be discontinued.
A persistent TCP connection is used with a tree distribution system. There are a number of advantages to using the Internet for this distribution. Data rates involve 20 Gb/day. It is less than .1% of the overall load.
UNIDATA is concerned when the Internet is "down" the real-time nature of the data is lost. There is also a problem of who to call and find out about problems. Since it is now distributed among many providers (more than one), it is a problem. All of UNIDATA's statistics are available on WWW.
The NANOG group suggested that UNIDATA use the local NOC (NCAR) to start the trouble ticket process. NCAR's NOC expressed a willingness to work with them on this.