PROJECT BACKGROUND


CUDOS was initiated in the fall of 1997 to provide a one-stop information source for upper-air observations collected by and for meteorologists.  It is our hope that CUDOS will provide the scientist, educator, student, journalist, and all others who use meteorological data the information they need about current and historical upper air data available, information about the types of upper-air datasets that atmospheric scientiests collect, and sources for further information, including access information to archives of such data. CUDOS will consist of real-time data retrieval systems, and virtual visits to observations sites, including observations taken by satellite, rawinsondes, aircraft, dropsondes, ozone instrumentation, rockets, wind profilers, doppler radar, and other research data.

CUDOS was funded to Florida State University by the National Science Foundation , Grant Number ATM-9712348.  The project principal investigat or is Paul Ruscher, Associate Professor of Meteorology at Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida.  Suggestions for links and information to be included in CUDOS are welcome and should be emailed to cudos@met.fsu.edu .  The project schedule has CUDOS debuting in limited form by 31 December 1997, with full prototype international access anticipated around 31 March 1998.  The CUDOS WWW site is scheduled to appear in "final" form during fall 1998, and it will be maintained for a period of at least two years following project expiration, during which time it will be continually maintained and updated.  We are soliciting instructors of synoptic and instrumentation courses in the geosciences to help in the evaluation of CUDOS on an informal basis, so as to maximize benefit to the geoscience community.  If you are interested in participating in such an evaluation during the fall term of 1998, please email the PI directly at ruscher@met.fsu.edu