As we near the end of the modernization program that is ongoing in the National Weather Service, academic programs are facing an explosion of data resources available to them for research and instruction. Through higher speed communications and numerous methods of acquiring data in real-time or in retrospective mode, faculty and students are often at a loss to understand the complexities or subtleties present in these datasets. The goal of the CUDOS program has been to provide a single resource for the vast array of observational upper-air data that are available on the Internet through WWW sites and other types of data servers. Through an easily-navigable WWW site, CUDOS provides a single location which contains station information, current and archived data in a variety of formats for all North American (and environs) upper air stations, and narrated video clips which demonstrate how various types of upper-air data are collected. Rawinsonde, wind profiler, doppler radar, weather satellite, aircraft, rocketsonde, and dropsonde data are all profiled in modules which are designed to be useful for faculty and students involved in teaching general to advanced meteorology courses, as well as others who use upper-air meteorological data.
The CUDOS WWW site will be completed in Fall 1998, with a limited version running presently at http://www.met.fsu.edu/CUDOS. The FSU Department of Meteorology will maintain the site for several years beyond the termination of external funding for the project (through a small innovative grants program at the National Science Foundation), ensuring its relevance in meteorology courses as data systems, stations, codes, etc., evolve.
Please note: we would strongly prefer an electronic poster, but since that option is not selectable from the WWW modification site, I have indicated our alternate choice, an oral presentation. Thanks