Unidata

What Unidata does

NSF Unidata is a nonprofit program center established in 1983 and headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, that provides data, software tools, and infrastructure to the U.S. academic Earth Systems Science community. It is sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated as a program within the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), the nonprofit consortium that also manages NSF NCAR. NSF Unidata's mission is to give universities affordable access to near real-time meteorological data and the open-source tools needed to ingest, visualize, and analyze that data for education and research.

The organization's technology stack centers on a suite of open-source software products and a peer-to-peer data distribution network. Core software includes AWIPS (meteorological display and analysis, originally from the National Weather Service and Raytheon), MetPy (Python weather toolkit), NetCDF (scientific data format and libraries), IDV (Integrated Data Viewer), THREDDS Data Server (remote data access via OPeNDAP, WMS, HTTP), Local Data Manager (LDM) for event-driven data distribution, Siphon, and UDUNITS. The Internet Data Distribution (IDD) network is a peer-to-peer system of approximately 150 cooperating university LDM installations that disseminates near real-time Earth observations and NCEP, CMC, and FNMOC model output. The Science Gateway adds a JupyterHub-based virtual hub for education and research, including the Education Hub with self-paced modules and instructor-led training.

NSF Unidata operates a non-commercial model. All software is freely downloadable and all data is provided solely for education and research purposes — explicitly not for operational or decision-making use. The organization has 11-50 employees and reaches its user community through direct engagement programs (summer internships, Community Equipment Awards, Community Advisory Committee, Community Jobs board), conference participation (AMS, AGU Annual Meetings), GitHub-hosted open-source projects, mailing lists, and strategic partnerships including the COMET MetEd platform and NSF's Jetstream2 Cloud. Revenue and specific funding amounts are not publicly disclosed.

Name

Unidata

Legal name

NSF Unidata (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research)

Website

https://unidata.ucar.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1983

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific Data Infrastructure Software

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Satellite Imagery & Remote Sensing Geospatial Platforms (BPAMANAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

Data Engineering, Integration & ETL/ELT Services (BPAEAHAB), Data & Analytics Platforms (Data Warehousing, Lakes, Streaming) (HDABAAAF)

Keywords

• Earth systems science
• Open-source meteorological software
• Atmospheric data distribution
• Scientific data infrastructure
• Weather data visualization

Headquarters

HQ city

Boulder

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. NSF Funding: NSF Unidata is funded entirely by the U.S. National Science Foundation. It is a program within UCAR (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research), which manages NSF NCAR as a major facility. All software is freely available for download and use; data is provided solely for education and research purposes.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

NSF Unidata provides open-source data services and software tools for the U.S. Earth Systems Science academic community. The program distributes near real-time meteorological data — including satellite observations, radar, gridded forecast models, and lightning data — via its Internet Data Distribution (IDD) peer-to-peer network and offers an integrated suite of open-source software tools (AWIPS, MetPy, IDV, NetCDF, THREDDS Data Server, LDM, Siphon, UDUNITS) for accessing, visualizing, and analyzing that data.

Product overview

NSF Unidata provides an integrated suite of open-source software tools and data services for Earth Systems Science. The core software portfolio includes AWIPS (meteorological display and analysis), MetPy (Python weather data tools), NetCDF (scientific data formats), IDV (data visualization), THREDDS Data Server (remote data access), and the Local Data Manager (LDM) for real-time data distribution. These tools are complemented by data services including the Internet Data Distribution (IDD) network for near real-time data feeds, the AWIPS EDEX server for forecast data access, and CONDUIT for high-resolution NCEP model output. The Science Gateway provides a community hub for education and research with JupyterHub access.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• AWIPS (Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System)

Quantifiable outcome

• Data available from 14 to 45 days (depending on data type) via the THREDDS Data Server
• +2 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered major and core.

• COMET Program / MetEd PlatformmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 June 2026NSF Unidata and the COMET program announced availability of Unidata's eLearning materials on COMET's MetEd platform, extending the reach of Unidata's educational resources to a broader audience of learners in atmospheric science.
• UCAR (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUCAR manages NSF NCAR, of which NSF Unidata is a program center. The Unidata Program Center (UPC) is the UCAR office that coordinates the Unidata program.
• NSF NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNSF NCAR is a major facility sponsored by NSF and managed by UCAR. NSF Unidata collaborates closely with NSF NCAR and its sub-laboratories (CGD, CISL, EOL, MMM, RAL, HAO, ACOM, EdEC) as part of the broader atmospheric research ecosystem.
• Jetstream2 Cloud (NSF)coreTechnology or IntegrationNSF Unidata runs its publicly accessible AWIPS EDEX server on the National Science Foundation's Jetstream2 Cloud, providing cloud-based data infrastructure for educational and research use.
• NWS National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)coreTechnology or IntegrationNCEP provides forecast model output including GFS, HRRR, NAM, RAP, SREF, WW3, NDFD, RTMA, MRMS, and National Blend of Models. These are distributed via NSF Unidata's THREDDS Data Server and IDD network.
• Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC)majorTechnology or IntegrationCMC's Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) model data is distributed via the IDD network. The data includes forecasts at various pressure levels, sea-level pressure, precipitation, and other atmospheric fields. Users must be Unidata community members with LDM software.
• Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC)majorTechnology or IntegrationFNMOC provides NOGAPS and COAMPS model data streams (Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System and Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System) and WW3 wave models via the IDD network under the FNMOC feedtype.
• U.S. Universities (IDD Network Participants)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe IDD network is composed of ~150 cooperating university installations of the LDM. Any university can request data be delivered to their site via the IDD, and sites with specialized observations can inject data into the network for distribution to other sites.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Market position

Strengths4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/unidata
• Facebookfacebook.com/unidata
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/national-center-for-atmospheric-research

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Unidata