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Environmental Computing Lab - Status Report Q3 1999During the Fall semester the Environmental Computing Lab saw extremely heavy use and over 100 students participated in classes taught using the lab’s Intel systems. Classes included an introductory GIS class with about 60 students, a meteorological modeling class, and a Science of Earth Systems class. ArcView GIS with Spatial and 3D Analyst extensions, Fortran, and MathCAD were the most heavily used programs. Currently, during spring of 1999 the lab is being used for two intermediate level GIS classes using the ArcView suite, Arc/Info, and ER-Mapper. One of the dual processor workstations is now dedicated to climate modeling in Dr. Kerry Cook’s research group, using mainly GrADS and FORTRAN software. It provides the capability of analyzing and manipulating large data sets both numerically and graphically. Both observed atmospheric data sets as well as simulated atmospheric data sets produced from our General Circulation Model (GCM) runs have been analyzed using this software. Additionally, X server software is being run on that machine, allowing access to systems and applications located elsewhere on different types of machines. Another dual processor workstation, dedicated to Dr. Ray Bryant’s research lab continues to be used for creation of highly detailed soil survey maps suitable for publication either on the internet or in hard copy format. Dr. Bryant’s soil survey mapping operation has shifted mostly to NT from Unix over the last 6 months, in part due to the ease of use of NT, as compared to Solaris, and also partly due to the processing speed of the Intel box. They will be testing Linux-based operations using the Intel box in the next several months. A third dual processor workstation, is in heavy use in the IRIS lab under Dr. Stephen DeGloria. Utilizing image processing and geographic information system software, this workstation is providing teaching and research support for state, regional, and international projects. These projects access and process satellite and terrestrial spatial data, often hundreds of megabytes in size, from various sources and visualize the results. Among these projects are: Northern New York Agricultural Development, New York State GAP Analysis Program, Watershed Science and Management Initiative, Conservation and Management of Biodiversity in the Coastal Zone of the Dominican Republic, and Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Development (Costa Rica and Dominican Republic). |
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Last modified on: 10/12/99 |
