Published using Google Docs
AWIPS and GEMPAK
Updated automatically every 5 minutes

Status Report: AWIPS and GEMPAK

October 2020 - April 2021

Tiffany Meyer, Shay Carter

Areas for Committee Feedback

We are requesting your feedback in a google form that will be sent out.

Activities Since the Last Status Report

AWIPS

Unidata’s Jetstream production EDEX server is the primary host for serving real-time weather and geographic data to CAVE clients and through the python-awips data access framework (API).  By offloading the processing of one very large data feed (NEXRAD3) to a separate EDEX Ingest Node, the current implementation of edex-cloud is now capable of processing and serving more data than ever before. The distributed architectural concepts of AWIPS allow us to scale EDEX in the cloud to account for the size of incoming data feeds.   With this distributed architecture, we were able to assist Texas A&M in setting up their very own EDEX server.  The server they built is actually larger and consists of more machines than the current Unidata one.  We helped them configure a main EDEX machine, and two ancillary machines to deal with radar and model data separately.  We are also looking into adding an additional machine for our own EDEX system, to help handle large volumes of requests (for instance, during severe weather, or at the start time of a classroom lab when students are connecting simultaneously to EDEX).

Since the last update, several EDEX changes have been tested on our backup server.  We have been testing and acquiring several new datasets including GOES RGB products produced from CIRA,  additional GOES derived wind and products from NOAAPort,  GOES E GLM products produced by Eric Bruning, impact based warnings, and additional MRMS data products from NCO. With the addition of all the new GOES products, the Satellite menu has been revamped for easy access to new products and removal of entries with no data. All of these new datasets are also available via Unidata’s IDD.

We are in the process of developing and releasing a new version of AWIPS in which we’ve migrated some of the configuration from CAVE to EDEX.  This means we will have more flexibility to update menus for easier product access and understandability, without requiring users to download and install a new version of CAVE.  With the ever changing landscape of data and data products, this switch makes it so Unidata’s AWIPS can be more responsive and reflective of what current data is available, and does so with no effort on the users’ behalf.  All the new data products we've been testing will also be available to the public with this release.

In order to support CAVE for Mac installation, we are in the process of officially signing and notarizing all of our packages through Apple.  This will allow users to easily install CAVE without having to go through any system overrides or requiring administrative privileges.  Additionally, with this new release of CAVE we have added previously inoperable functionality for Mac with the ability to capture and save the CAVE display.  This functionality has always been available for our Linux and Windows distribution, but not for the Mac.

A significant portion of our documentation both for CAVE and EDEX, and for python-awips has been modified for easier understanding and comprehension.  With the help of our new Educational Designer, we created and released a detailed video for the installation of CAVE (and all it’s necessary prerequisite software) on Windows machines.  These changes were partially fueled by our new blog series: AWIPS Tips.  The first week of this month (April 2021), we officially released our first blog.  The series is intended to highlight different functionality and capabilities of all three parts of AWIPS: CAVE, EDEX, and python-awips.  The blogs will be released on a bi-weekly basis, and will be announced on our mailing list (awips2-users@unidata.ucar.edu) as well as our social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn).

In the past several months the AWIPS team created a new support evaluation survey that is advertised in our support email signatures.  We have averaged about one response per month since the form went live and have received overwhelming positive feedback.  The graphic below is from the results of the multiple choice questions we ask:
Forms response chart. Question title: Service Quality. Number of responses: .

On a separate, but related topic, we have transitioned our Elasticsearch/Kibana functionality from an Atmosphere Jetstream instance to an OpenStack Jetstream instance.   This has allowed our IT department to have more control over access and security of the machine.  We have updated the versions of that technology stack and are still in the process of developing the system further to help support our EDEX machines.

The annual AMS conference in January was hosted virtually. We presented on Unidata’s AWIPS current status and a look toward the future.  The abstract and recording are available online.

Software Releases

We are nearing the point of putting out a new AWIPS release.  This would be labeled version 18.2.1, and would include several EDEX configuration changes, CAVE updates, and access to new datasets  as well.  We have been able to successfully build CAVE installers for all platforms, although we are in the process of officially notarizing and certifying the Mac installer.   In the more extended future, we aim to merge our Unidata AWIPS back with one of Raytheon’s more recent builds (most likely version 20.3) which includes transitioning from Python 2 to 3 and Java 8 to openJDK 11.

GEMPAK/NAWIPS

At this time, GEMPAK development at the Unidata Program Center has ceased, and support through Unidata is very limited.  In March 2021, we released a statement about the state of GEMPAK and the Program Center’s hopes of handing off ongoing maintenance of the package to a community-based team. Response to this statement was favorable, and Daryl Herzmann of Iowa State University agreed to serve as the initial point of contact for those interested in contributing to this project.  In order to support a smooth transition to community-based maintenance, we are taking the following steps:

We envision the community-based GEMPAK open source effort as a self-sustaining program, with Unidata acting as a community member rather than as the software’s official maintainer.

Activities Ongoing/In-Progress

AWIPS development activities are constantly developing.  Currently the following activities are in progress:

Future Activities

Future plans are currently in a state of flux.  The AWIPS team is in the process of creating new branches for the OSX specific code base for CAVE for our upcoming 18.2.1 release.  As soon as the code is in a finalized state for all three operating systems, we plan on making a new official AWIPS release.  After that, the goal is to possibly look at developing a remote training workshop for either EDEX or CAVE, and then begin transitioning Unidata’s AWIPS distribution away from version 18, onto version 20.

Metrics

Downloads August 1,  2020 - March 31, 2021

AWIPS downloads: 3,381

GEMPAK downloads: 954

Strategic Focus Areas

We support the following goals described in Unidata Strategic Plan:

  1. Managing Geoscience Data
    The cloud-based EDEX data server continues to see widespread use and growing adoption. More and more datasets continue to be added to the server as Unidata deploys more decode/ingest nodes.
  2. Providing Useful Tools
    All     AWIPS tools (EDEX, CAVE, and python-awips) are freely available, and also incorporate LDM/IDD technology for accessing geoscience data.
  3. Supporting People
    At this juncture, we are providing full technical support with regards to AWIPS for the community, and encouraging community members to assist each other through Unidata-managed forums for GEMPAK support.

Prepared  April 2021