The Lidar Radar Open Software Environment - LROSE

Atmospheric researchers make extensive use of scanning and profiling remote sensors, including microwave radars, wind profilers, lidars and sodars. Extracting the full value from measurements with these sophisticated instruments depends on having good software tools, and on shared analysis amongst the community of users. The LROSE project aims to create core software and an open-source software exchange, facilitated by NCAR, but with software development and maintenance occurring throughout the user community. This exchange would function well beyond the scanning radar community to benefit users of wind profilers, lidars and possibly other remote sensors. LROSE will build on 25 years of software and standards created by NCAR and UNIDATA. The development model we propose is an NCAR-Community hybrid in which NCAR develops data formats and core software, and enables and encourages the user community to participate by developing application modules and algorithms. These modules would extend the core software to meet specialized data quality control, scientific analysis, display, and data integration needs. This hybrid approach is analogous to the successful approach used by the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF).