Visualisation Systems at the Italian Met Service

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Visualisation Systems at the Italian Met Service

• Capt. Pier Francesco Coppola

EGOWS Meeting, Rome 10-13 June 2002
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Met-Graphics end-users.
CNMCA Forecasters Ops Room
INTRANET-Site Mainly all mil.users
INTRANET-Site Restricted-access
Opl Suite
FTP - Server
INTERNET-Site www.meteo-difesa.it
Mil. Airfields Forecasters Ops Room
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Current Graphics Organization
Met-Graphics Tools
Bulk-Production Met-Graphics
Interactive Met-Graphics
Visualization Tools
Static HTML Docs Conv.BROWSERS
VISIMET
MAGICS 6.x Engine
NAMIS
SAMI
METVIEW
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Bulk production Met-Graphics(1).

• Graphics engine based on MAGICS 6.x invoked as a
  stand-alone procedure.
• Used after post-processing phase with models.
• Used for observations and time series.
• Up to now confined to workstations.
• 5000 Pictures and maps produced and disseminated
  every day.

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Bulk production Met-Graphics(2) - Architecture
Graphics Parameters ASCII-File
Postscript files
ELABORA Fortran Procedure translating parameter
settings into MAGICS subroutine calls.
PNG files
File naming resembles file contents.
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Bulk production Met-Graphics(3) pros cons
PROS
CONS

• Single executable procedure of reduced
  dimensions.
• It doesnt require the knowledge of any scripting
  or programming language.

• Many parameters files organized on file system
  architecture.
• At the present stage it doesnt cope with all the
  graphic facilities contained in MAGICS (but
  could be furtherly developed!)
• File naming resembles the file contents.

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Visualisation Tools (1)

• Capability of visualisation of pre-built
  graphical meteorological products.
• The user has no or very limited control on the
  Graphics engine.
• Weather maps are treated as images. No
  geografical reference is included.

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Visualisation Tools (2).Feeding distribution
architecture.
INTERNET
Bulk-Production Met-Graphics
WEB-Server
INTRANET
HTML Static Docs
FTP
SAMI- Server
SAMI- Client
SAMI- Client
Graphic User Interface included in the application
SAMI- Client
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Visualisation Tools (3)WEB Distribution

• A conventional browser is the simplest and most
  convenient product.
• Very simple to mantain.
• Surfing through Static HTML docs.
• Can be transformed into a dynamic application.
• Recent WEB-oriented programming languages may
  improve the user-interaction.

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Interactive Met-Graphics (1)

• The user has control at a significant extent on
  the Graphics Engine.
• Some flexibility for user-defined setting of
  weather maps parameters.
• Weather maps are geo-referentiated.

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Interactive Met-Graphics (2)NATO Autom.
Meteorological Information System
EUTELSAT II F4
EUROPE
RC NORTH
RC SOUTH
NO
Broadcast Dissemination
DA
Traben Trarbach
UK
NL
PL
GE
BE
FR
CZ
HU
IT
PO
SP
TU
GR
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Interactive Met-Graphics (3)ViSiMet
Graphic User Interface
MAGICS Graphical Engine

• Single-tier application written in JAVA.
• Running on Workstations.
• Could be transformed into client-server
  architecture with RMI technique.

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Future Developments
Met-Graphics Tools
Bulk-Production Met-Graphics
Interactive Met-Graphics
Visualization Tools
IOVIS
MAGICS 6.x Engine
SAMI
NAMIS
METVIEW
Dyn. HTML Docs
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Future organizationIOVIS

• IOVIS is visualiser based on METVIEW graphics
  engine.
• Is part of the outsourced project of the renewal
  of the whole computing facilities system at the
  Italian Met Service.
• Developed in JAVA.
• IOVIS is a client-server dispenser of graphical
  parameter settings to feed METVIEW running in
  background.
• Current phase of improvement of the
  user-friendliness of the application.

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Future organization WEB-based distribution.

• A new more interactive INTERNET site is about to
  be published.
• It is an outsourced project.
• The site is developed in PHP with GD libraries
  wrapped in. (Conventional graphics)
• Current phase of last revision of contents.

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Future organization addresses (1)

• To improve the WEB-based distribution of
  graphical products wrapping the MET-graphics
  engine in new programming languages such as
  PHP, Python, PERL. (?Decoding/encoding GRIBs is
  already in!)
• Python seems to be the more promising WEB
  oriented programming language!
• To go beyond the file system organization of
  files ? INFORMIX DATABASE.

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Future organization addresses (2)

• To go beyond the file current naming convention
  by introducing XML ? at any stage of the
  production cycle any graphical product should be
  completely identified type of data, source of
  data, destination, graphical settings.
• All the information travels with the graphical
  product.