Status Report: International Activities

October 2016 - April 2017

Tom Yoksas, Yuan Ho

Activities Since the Last Status Report

Renewed effort aimed at creating an IDD-Caribe

Dr. Marcial Garbanzo Salas of the Universidad de Costa Rica is leading an effort aimed at making an IDD-Caribe a reality.  Unidata is playing a supporting role in this effort

New/Planned Activities

No new activities are currently planned

Ongoing Activities

• Data from UCAR GOES East/West ingest systems continue to be routinely accessed by international users in North, Central and South America using McIDAS-X, IDV, and McIDAS-V.  It is expected that programmatic access to GOES-16 data served by ADDE will dwarf the access we have seen for the current GOES-GVAR imagery.
• Use of Unidata tools, especially netCDF, the IDV and GEMPAK, continues to grow internationally.
• IDD-Brazil continues to deliver data via the LDM in Africa.

Strategic Focus Areas

We support the following goals described in Unidata Strategic Plan:

1. Develop and provide open-source tools for effective use of geoscience data
   The majority of tools downloadable from Unidata are available free-of-charge to everyone (the exception being McIDAS-X).
   
2. Provide cyberinfrastructure leadership in data discovery, access, and use
   Activities of the Unidata Program Center are routinely provided to the worldwide atmospheric science community. Strategic partnerships with leading organizations in other countries minimize the impact on UPC staff.
   
3. Build, support, and advocate for the diverse geoscience community
   By informing the international atmospheric science community of the products, data and services available in the Unidata Program, an extended community has been enabled.

Non-U.S. users of products available from Unidata reflect, in a number of cases, minority constituencies in the U.S. atmospheric science community.

Prepared  April 2, 2016