Introduction

Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery (LEAD) makes meteorological data, forecast models, and analysis and visualization tools available to anyone who wants to interactively explore the weather as it evolves. The LEAD Portal brings together all the necessary resources at one convenient access point, supported by high-performance computing systems. With LEAD, meteorologists, researchers, educators, and students are no longer passive bystanders or limited to static data or pre-generated images, but rather they are active participants who can acquire and process their own data.

LEAD software enhances the experimental process by automating many of the time consuming and complicated tasks associated with meteorological science. The "workflow" tool links data management, assimilation, forecasting, and verification applications into a single experiment. The experiment's output also includes detailed descriptions of the product, also called "metadata."

HISTORY

In mid-September 2003, the National Science Foundation (NSF) formally announced funding for LEAD through the Large Information Technology Research (ITR) grants. The University of Oklahoma (OU) serves as the lead institution LEAD initiative, which is an $11.25M, 5-year project. Collaborators include scientists and engineers from 8 other institutions: Colorado State University; Millersville University; Indiana University; University of Alabama, Huntsville; Howard University; The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR); University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The OU Center for the Analysis and Prediction of Storms (CAPS) contributes significantly to the LEAD effort through administration services, new hazardous weather detection algorithms, forecast initialization using cycling methods, and storm-scale ensemble work.