September update
2024-09-26
CALLING ALL WEATHER DWEEBS! Bracing for a winter storm here in Nashville, where I moved to from Boston in order to escape winter storms. 3 to 7 inches they say - good thing I brought the XC skis!
dynamical.org @ AMS
From the look of it the vast majority of our subscribers will be at AMS. We are excited to see you there!
Alden will be presenting at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) along with our first fiscal sponsor at Hydro-Québec! Their talk, titled “Fast, Easy, Open: Sustaining Live Updating, Analysis Ready, Cloud Optimized Weather Data Archives,” will highlight the vision behind dynamical.org and the drive to create and sustain ARCO weather datasets.
If you’re at AMS, find Alden and Upstream Tech's Phil Butcher.
Catalog Updates: GEFS is Almost Here!
We’ve made some big strides toward releasing a complete archive and live-updating GEFS dataset to the catalog:
- The GEFS reformatter can now create an archive of years of data super quickly, thanks to tons of parallelism.
- The dataset is not only comprehensive but also a dream to work with:
>>> ds.u100
<xarray.DataArray 'u100' (init_time: 1, ensemble_member: 4, lead_time: 5,
latitude: 721, longitude: 1440)> Size: 83MB
dask.array<open_dataset-u100, shape=(1, 4, 5, 721, 1440), dtype=float32, chunksize=(1, 4, 5, 73, 72), chunktype=numpy.ndarray>
Coordinates:
* ensemble_member (ensemble_member) uint16 8B 0 1 2 3
expected_forecast_length (init_time) timedelta64[ns] 8B 35 days
ingested_forecast_length (init_time) timedelta64[ns] 8B 35 days
* init_time (init_time) datetime64[ns] 8B 2025-01-08
* latitude (latitude) float64 6kB 90.0 89.75 ... -89.75 -90.0
* lead_time (lead_time) timedelta64[ns] 40B 0 days 00:00:00...
* longitude (longitude) float64 12kB -180.0 -179.8 ... 179.8
valid_time (init_time, lead_time) datetime64[ns] 40B 2025-...
Attributes:
long_name: 100 metre U wind component
short_name: u100
standard_name: eastward_wind
step_type: instant
units: m/s
Woah nelly, check out those attributes!
We’re testing out operational updates in our compute cluster THIS WEEK. Once that’s complete, we’ll be ready to push live, real-time updates to the catalog. So close, we can almost taste the churros/pancakes/scones (ha ha ha get it).
What We Are Reading
- Zarr Python 3 released! We’re especially excited about the included chunk sharding extension, which will enable a much wider range of efficient read patterns with a single, optimized dataset. Read more here
- Earthmover debuted Icechunk, a new open storage engine for Zarr datasets. It supports simple and correct updates to datasets that are being read from and written to simultaneously (e.g., live-updated weather), along with great features like dataset versioning and improved read performance. We’re already experimenting with it and considering support once the storage format stabilizes. Check it out here
- China is planning to become a weather superpower by investing in advanced meteorological technologies and infrastructure to enhance its weather forecasting capabilities. Bloomberg
Finally - we'll be launching our steering committee this quarter. Thanks to all those who responded with interest in helping us achieve our mission.
Catch you in the clouds.
MM
September update
2024-09-26
Ahoy weatherheads! It’s been a busy few months for us as we shift gears from dreaming to building.
Catalog updates
- Our dataset for NOAA GFS analysis has getting some awesome usage! Thanks to everyone who has tested it out.
- We are prepping to launch NOAA GEFS forecasts as the second entry to dynamical.org/catalog. It will include a large historical forecast record and update in real-time. Dealing with GEFS in its standard format has, in the past, broken my spirit; and I suppose it’s part of why we are so passionate about making weather data easier to work with! So… thank you GEFS? Excited for this one.
GEFS ensemble average downward long-wave radiation flux.
- We plan to fast-follow GEFS with GFS (forecasts vs our current analysis) and HRRR from NOAA as well as GDPS and HRDPS from ECCC (Environment and Climate Change Canada). As part of these releases we will be announcing our first catalog sponsor!
GFS analysis feedback
A hearty thank you to everyone who filled out our GFS survey. Common themes included the value of live updating and forecast data, and a clear preference for reading data with python + xarray. That aligned with our expectations (wonderful) and is reflected in our roadmap above. We did see more desire for long history (re)analysis data than we had anticipated -- we'll be moving up a true reanalysis dataset in priority thanks to this feedback. Reply to this email if there's a specific reanalysis you'd like!
Assembling our Steering Committee
We are officially launching our steering committee, which will be comprised of industry users and experts in the technical and scientific domain. The committee will meet quarterly to evaluate and influence the catalog and open-source roadmap and advise potential collaborations and partnerships.
If you’re interested in joining or nominating someone else, please respond to this email or email [email protected]!
What we’ve been reading
My souls, how the wind did scream along! And every second or two there’d come a glare that lit up the white-caps for a half a mile around, and you’d see the islands looking dusty through the rain, and the trees thrashing around in the wind; then comes a h-whack!—bum! bum! bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum—and the thunder would go rumbling and grumbling away, and quit—and then rip comes another flash and another sockdolager.
I’m reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has some stellar meteorological descriptions. Should we petition NOAA to make their detailed forecasts use “h-wack!-bum! bum!” and “sockdolager?” I think yes.
We enjoyed Dr. Jack Kelly’s post on the vision this community shares, where he outlined a complimentary route to solving major pain points. Thanks for the dynamical.org shoutouts, Jack! Definitely check it out here: https://openclimatefix.org/post/lazy-loading-making-it-easier-to-access-vast-datasets-of-weather-satellite-data
We were thrilled to see our pals at Brightband announce themselves to the world. The field of AI meteorological forecasts is progressing at quite the clip - three cheers for more open source models! We also enjoyed Zeus AI's cool work synthesizing multiple, sparse data sources into a single gap filled analysis state.
Enjoy the weather!
Let there be zarr: GFS hourly analysis is live
2024-07-09
Last week, we announced dynamical.org to the world. The response was unexpected*: in just seven days, over a hundred nerds registered themselves as testers with many more following along for the ride.
Apparently, we are not alone in our frustration with yesterday's weather data. Together we can create a future of well-organized data about our most beloved chaotic system!
Today, we are excited to announce the first entry into dynamical’s catalog: an hourly GFS analysis from 2015-01-15 to present.
Testers! Fire up your rigs - in the catalog entry above, we've included documentation and an example notebook. If you run into any issues, email us at [email protected]. As our very first release, we’re expecting there will be lots of additions and refinement based on community input.
Our pals at Source Cooperative are generously providing storage for this first catalog entry. Their team is wonderful and their mission is badass - check them and the broader Radiant Earth organization out.
Enjoy the weather^!
MM
* or expected, depending on how long you've been working with yesterday's weather data
^ courtesy of Alex M.
Introducing dynamical.org
2024-06-25
Introducing dynamical!
Thank you for being the first to follow our journey making weather and climate data more accessible. We are humbled by the response. Our mission clearly strikes a chord - weather data today is a pain to work with.
Over one hundred people (!?) signed up to test the first versions of the data we endeavor to release. And that’s without having spilled the beans on the best parts 😉
So what’s the plan? First, check out Alden’s fantastic introduction to dynamical.org (video link). Second, read about how we are designing dynamical to be a long-term steward and rock-solid foundation on which to build.
We are aiming to release our first public test next week in collaboration with Source Cooperative: a GFS analysis with a long historical record. If you are interested in testing this out and haven’t already told us, reply to this email. We plan to fast-follow with documentation and a data catalog with our roadmap.
Enjoy the weather!
MM + AKS
P.S. Please forward this email to folks working with weather data and consider amplifying our announcement on linkedin / fedi!