CONTACT: Stephanie Kenitzer FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NWS February 13, 1997
Nancy Guiden
PRC Inc.
The Secretary of Commerce today approved the National Weather Service's plan for production and installation of 21 interactive weather computer and communications systems that will help provide better weather- and flood-related services to protect life and property. The system, known as AWIPS, will allow forecasters to display and analyze satellite imagery, radar data, automated weather observations and computer-generated numerical forecasts, all in one workstation.
"The National Weather Service has clearly demonstrated that AWIPS will help forecasters provide better weather and flood-related services to protect our citizens," said Commerce Secretary William Daley. "The system has already become an invaluable resource at 12 initial test sites."
The NWS, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration agency, will begin installing the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System at 21 field sites this summer and fall. A decision on installing the remaining sites is planned for December after completion of an operational test and evaluation of the third incremental software build. The NWS is developing AWIPS in incremental stages to allow for continuous feedback that can be incorporated into ongoing development efforts. A total of 148 AWIPS systems will be installed.
"We are pleased with the Secretary's decision to move forward with installation of the centerpiece of our agency's modernization," said NWS Director Elbert W. Friday Jr. "AWIPS will allow our forecasters to make the most of the new technologies that we've put in place with the modernization. Now they will be able to rapidly gather and assess the most meaningful information needed to issue critical forecasts and warnings for the protection of life and property."
Over the past year, early versions of the sophisticated workstation and communications network were installed at 12 sites around the country for operational testing and evaluation. The tests demonstrated AWIPS' capabilities, including communication of weather satellite imagery and weather forecast guidance via a satellite broadcast network; the state-of-art workstation's ability to display and manipulate radar, satellite, and other weather data; and the operations of a central monitoring and communications facility.
AWIPS is the integrating technology component of the NWS modernization effort, designed to provide the nation with improved weather services. To date, 114 of the 123 planned state-of-the-art NWS Doppler radars and 227 of the planned 306 NWS automated surface observing systems are operational nationwide. Two advanced geostationary weather satellites, GOES-8 and GOES-9, are keeping watch over the United States and well into the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In addition, 13 River Forecast Centers and 111 of the planned 119 new weather forecast offices are serving the country. The NWS modernization is expected to be completed around the turn of the century.
Twenty-one AWIPS systems will be installed as follows:
- Eleven systems at modernized weather forecast offices: Oklahoma City, Okla.; Minneapolis and Duluth, Minn.; Bismarck, N.D.; Hastings, Neb.; Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; New Orleans/Baton Rouge, La; State College and Philadelphia, Pa.; New York City; Portland, Ore.
- Five systems at River Forecast Centers: Minneapolis; Fort Worth; New Orleans/Baton Rouge; State College, Pa.; and Portland, Ore.
- Two systems at the National Weather Service Training Center in Kansas City, Mo.; - Three systems at NWS regional headquarters: Central Region Headquarters, Kansas City, Mo.; Eastern Region Headquarters, Bohemia, N.Y.; and Western region Headquarters, Salt Lake City, Utah.
- AWIPS is being developed by NOAA and PRC Inc. of McLean, Va. PRC, a subsidiary of Litton Industries Inc., with more than 5,600 employees in 150 offices nationwide, is a leading provider of information technology and systems-based solutions for the U.S. government and commercial customers.
More information about AWIPS is available on the Internet at: http://tgsv5.nws.noaa.gov/msm/awips/awipsmsm.htm
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The Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System or AWIPS, a new high-speed computer and communications network, is the centerpiece of the modernization of the National Weather Service. With AWIPS, NWS forecasters will be able to access all the data from the modernized observing systems, including advanced satellites, the new Doppler weather radar network, and automated surface observing systems, as well as numerical model data, together all on one workstation.
AWIPS will help NWS forecasters deliver more accurate and timely warnings and forecasts because it increases their ability to quickly see, understand and respond to evolving weather systems. Forecasters can rapidly relay that information to the emergency management community, the media, the general public and other users. AWIPS will be the nerve center of operations at all modernized Weather Forecast Offices and River Forecast Centers.
AWIPS also will allow NWS forecasters to make the most of the new technologies that have been put in place as part of the modernization. With AWIPS, forecasters can access radar, satellite, numerical model, and other data; analyze fast-breaking storms; generate warnings and forecasts; and get that information to the people who need it -- all from one workstation. Today, forecasters need three or more systems to gain access to the information they need and disseminate the products they produce.
The AWIPS system is composed of two primary elements -- the forecast office or site-level component and the communications network. At the sites, the work station will be the main interface between weather forecasters and the rest of the AWIPS system. NWS forecasters will spend the majority of their time at the work station interpreting and analyzing data, and preparing weather forecast products for transmission. Forecasters will view large amounts of imagery, graphics, and alphanumeric displays in carrying out the operational mission of the NWS.
A communications network will feed data to each AWIPS site, distribute information among the AWIPS sites, and provide for dissemination of information to the public and other external users. A one-way, point-to-multipoint satellite broadcast service called NOAAPORT will be used to distribute the very large amounts of data products which are collected and produced at NOAA central facilities. Data distributed via NOAAPORT will be accessible at all NWS sites and by any appropriately equipped ground station operated by private sector organizations, universities, and other users.
In addition to NOAAPORT, the AWIPS sites will be interconnected via a high-speed data network of terrestrial communications lines. This network will allow two-way, point-to-point communications among the AWIPS sites for the exchange of data and products which are locally collected/produced.