Unidata Science Gateway: Integrating Atmospheric Science Desktop Applications with Modern Code-Driven Workflows in the Cloud

NSF Unidata is a diverse community of education and research institutions with the common goal of sharing Earth System Science data and the tools to access and visualize that data. For over 40 years, the NSF Unidata Program Center has been providing data, software tools, and support to advance Earth System education and research. Funded primarily by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), NSF Unidata is one of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)'s Community Programs (UCP). The NSF Unidata Science Gateway is an online space where the academic and research communities can collaborate, share resources, and learn from each other in a classroom, workshop, or virtual setting. It integrates NSF Unidata technologies with the NSF Jetstream2 cloud platform and open-source software to create an environment where users can efficiently access, analyze, and visualize real-time and case study Earth System Science data.Since 2020, the NSF Unidata Science Gateway has hosted pre-configured PyAOS (Python for Atmosphere and Ocean Science) JupyterHub servers to facilitate the learning experiences of over 2,400 students across 29 universities, regional workshops, and AMS workshops. These servers provide ready-to-use, cloud-based environments that eliminate the need for students to install complex software on their personal devices. By leveraging the NSF Jetstream2 cloud, these JupyterHub instances ensure consistent and efficient access to advanced tools and datasets regardless of the user’s hardware. This approach not only streamlines the education process but also democratizes access to state-of-the-art scientific workflows, enabling students and educators to focus on learning and analysis rather than technical setup. The flexibility of these cloud-based JupyterHub servers also supports a variety of instructional formats, from traditional classrooms to remote learning to workshops and short courses, making it an invaluable resource for atmospheric science education.Building on this foundation, we have developed a capability for delivering traditionally desktop-based applications, such as the Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) and the AWIPS CAVE client, through the NSF Unidata Science Gateway using JupyterHub and Virtual Network Computing (VNC) technology. These graphical user interface (GUI) tools, long established in operational, research, and educational settings, now run in the cloud within virtual desktops embedded in JupyterHub. By leveraging NSF Jetstream2’s Magnum auto-scaling capabilities, the environment can dynamically provision computing resources to match user demand, making it feasible to support compute- and memory-intensive GUI applications in web-based settings. This approach allows instructors to rely on a uniform, pre-configured environment rather than troubleshooting software installation and configuration issues across diverse personal computers. In addition, large shared datasets can be mounted directly into each user session, ensuring consistent access to the same data resources without the need for local downloads or storage. This architecture enables instructors, students, and researchers to access applications as part of broader cloud-native workflows that integrate notebook-based analysis with established desktop tools, all within a web browser and without local software installation. By unifying code-driven and GUI-based approaches within the same gateway infrastructure, the system broadens the range of accessible tools while lowering technical barriers to advanced atmospheric science education and research.This presentation will provide the motivation for extending cloud-native workflows to GUI-based atmospheric science applications, outline the technical approach employed on the NSF Unidata Science Gateway, and share preliminary results from deployments during the Fall 2025 semester.