Promoting Scientific Collaboration in South America through IDD-Brazil
Abstract
The IDD-Brazil constitutes of an expansion of the Unidata Internet Data Distribution (IDD), a joint effort among the Laboratório de Prognósticos em Mesoescala - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (LPM/UFRJ), Centro de PreviSão de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos (CPTEC, a division of INPE) and the Unidata Program Center, linking several Brazilian and South American Institutions in a network for near-real time data sharing. This international cooperation is modifying drastically the way that researchers use data, providing access to broaden and more detailed information, available freely for the participants of this network. Data-sharing is one of the biggest issues in Brazil, and the solutions developed at Unidata Program Center enhances not only data access and management, but also the display and analysis of a variety of datasets. Using the Local Data Manager (LDM), a site can both receive and send data trough the IDD network, on a client-server architecture. Moreover, this system also provides a seamless integration with many decoders, following WMO standards for a large array of data, ranging from METAR messages to GRIB. Using this network as a new path to deliver and acquire observational data, IDD-Brazil participants are now capable of receiving observational data not only from GTS (Global Telecommunication System), but also from CPTECs PCD (automatic stations) network and the entire array of METAR and SYNOP observations, in a near-real time basis. This network is capable of addressing a gap in data sharing, since it has no cost for educational and research purposes. The UFRJ has been working closely with CPTEC and Unidata, porting new datasets to this system, such as the output from CPTEC's ETA 40km regional model, local acquired Satellite Imagery from GOES, and LPM's MM5 and WRF 20km mesoscale models. The IDD-Brazil is creating a new cooperation among several institutions that traditionally face the same issues, but never had a link to a community. The new challenge faced is the dissemination of this knowledge, a key factor to increase the number of participants. In order to facilitate the dialogue among these institutions, training sessions are planned to occur, and also the involvement in key events - such as the Brazilian Meteorology Meeting an the 8th International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography. Any University or Research Center can, and its encouraged to, share its data with other IDD participants. Constant outreach efforts driven by Unidata, UFRJ and CPTEC are increasing the number of participants in IDD-Brazil, setting new paths for research, empowering Meteorology nationwide, and creating new collaborations throughout the Americas.
- Publication:
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AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AGUSMIN43C..07C
- Keywords:
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- 4262 Ocean observing systems;
- 2753 Numerical modeling;
- 3225 Numerical approximations and analysis (4260);
- 3315 Data assimilation;
- 3355 Regional modeling