88th Annual Meeting (20-24 January 2008)

Tuesday, 22 January 2008: 5:00 PM
Utilizing UNIDATA's Integrated Data Viewer as an undergraduate meteorology classroom tool
209 (Ernest N. Morial Convention Center)
Mark S. Kulie, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI; and S. A. Ackerman and R. Bennartz
Our experiences incorporating UNIDATA's Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) software into an undergraduate radar and satellite meteorology course will be discussed. Since the IDV seamlessly allows students to visualize and quantitatively explore coincident satellite and radar data (as well as gridded 3-D model and observational data), it quickly evolved into the main tool used in the computer “laboratory” portion of the class. Seeking to capitalize on the inherent strengths of the IDV, numerous exercises and case studies were developed for the laboratory so the students could apply their newly acquired remote sensing skills in a practical, data-driven setting. Examples of these exercises using the IDV will be presented, and an outline for an IDV-based radar/satellite laboratory curriculum will be detailed. A key feature of the IDV that makes such an IDV-centric, semester-long laboratory curriculum possible is its ability to create data “bundles” that allow the instructor to conveniently create and save datasets for easy student access. An activity that was enthusiastically received by the students to mimic real-time monitoring of severe, convective storms using radar data will be described to illustrate how IDV bundles can be effectively used in a classroom setting.

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