[Wrf-users] IDV and VAPOR

[Mark Stoelinga]

I'm curious about IDV and VAPOR, two relatively new visualization and
analysis packages from UCAR (IDV from Unidata, first released in 2004, and
VAPOR from NCAR/CISL, first released in 2006).  I admit I haven't tried
either of them, but from the web pages, they both look like great software
packages, with much effort poured into them.  I have seen a increasing
discussion on the users' email list about both of these packages recently.

My first question is from a policy perspective: Why is UCAR developing two
major visualization/analysis packages that, at first glance, seem to have
many of the same capabilities?

I'm also curious about WRF users' experiences with these two packages.  How
seamless are each of these packages with ingesting native WRF system data?
What are users' experiences with using these two packages for analyzing and
displaying WRF system data?  Has anyone used both, and has an opinion on
relative strenghts and weaknesses?

Mark

=====================================================================
|        Mark Stoelinga        |     University of Washington       |
| Research Assistant Professor | Department of Atmospheric Sciences |
=====================================================================
| Phone:  206-543-6235   _______________  Mailing address:          |
| Fax:    206-543-0308  ( ( __  ) _,-~     University of Washington |
| Office: Room 508 ATG   ( _   ) )         Atmospheric Sciences     |
| Email:  stoeling@       ( ( _ )  either: Box 351640 (regular mail)|
|         washington.edu (______)      or: Rm 408 ATG (overnight)   |
|                         V::///           Seattle, WA 98195-1640   |
| Web: http://www.atmos.washington.edu/~stoeling                    |
=====================================================================


-----Original Message-----
From: wrf-news-bounces at ucar.edu [mailto:wrf-news-bounces at ucar.edu] On Behalf
Of Alan Norton
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 3:47 PM
To: wrf-news at ucar.edu
Subject: [Wrf-news] VAPOR 1.3 released


VAPOR 1.3 has been released (http://www.vapor.ucar.edu) with several new 
capabilities useful in visualizing WRF-ARW datasets.
Includes:
     Image based flow visualization:  You can see and animate the wind 
motion and direction in the probe, for interactive exploration of the 
wind field.
     Isosurfaces can be colored by mapping another variable onto the 
isosurface
     A new user preferences panel helps customize the app to individual 
users and platforms.

For more information, see the release notes at
http://www.vapor.ucar.edu/doc/release-notes/index.shtml
For questions or problems, contact: vapor at ucar.edu

-Alan Norton, NCAR/CISL _______________________________________________
Wrf-news mailing list
Wrf-news at ucar.edu http://mailman.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/wrf-news