NOUS41 KWBC 241442

PNSWSH     

Service Change Notice 12-21

National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC

1033 AM EDT Thu May 24 2012

TO:       Subscribers to:

          -Family of Services (FOS)

          -NOAA Weather Wire Service

          -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network

          -NOAAPort

          Other NWS Customers, Partners and Employees

FROM:     Cynthia Abelman

          Chief, Aviation Services Branch

SUBJECT:  International Satellite Communications System

          (ISCS) Broadcast Ending Effective July 1, 2012

Effective 0400 UTC Sunday, July 1, 2012, the ISCS broadcast will

cease when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ISCS

contract expires. NWS will make the ISCS broadcast data available

via an https Internet service.  Specifically, the NWS will make

the World Area Forecast System (WAFS) global forecast data

available on the WAFC Internet File Service (WIFS). 

Additionally, WMO Regional Association IV members and

participating states can receive meteorological and aviation

weather products through the Global Telecommunication System

(GTS) Internet File Service (GIFS).

WIFS is used to provide WAFS products and related services as

defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)

Annex 3. WIFS is in compliance with ICAO Document 9855,

Guidelines on the Use of the Public Internet for Aeronautical

Applications, and the associated FAA Advisory Circular 00-62,

Internet Communications of Aviation Weather and Notices to

Airmen, dated November 1, 2002, which enables WIFS to support the

dissemination of WAFS and related products via the Internet in

accordance with ICAO Annex 10.

WIFS supplies the same WAFS meteorological products as those

currently broadcast by ISCS. Such products include upper winds,

upper-air temperatures, upper-air humidity, height of the maximum

wind, tropopause height and temperature, and forecasts of

significant weather phenomena.

WIFS data can be accessed at:

  http://www.aviationweather.gov/wifs/

WIFS is only available to specific users per the ICAO regulations

referenced above. WIFS user access requests must be approved by

the United States Meteorological Authority to ICAO, which is the

U.S. FAA.

GIFS will make the ISCS broadcast products available for download

via https over the Internet as a data pull service. GIFS will

allow the current set of WMO Regional Association IV (RA-IV) ISCS

users and other select Member States to access products through

the NWS issuance of authorized service usernames and passwords.

All RA-IV ISCS users will need to transition from ISCS to GIFS by

July 1, 2012.

Coordinating information and status updates on the GIFS

implementation and transition is provided on the NWS ISCS

Webpage:

  http://www.weather.gov/iscs/countdown.php

This Website will be updated to keep you informed on the

schedule, progress and status of this transition.

For technical questions and support in registering user access

for WIFS, please contact:

  Jim McDuffy

  Aviation Weather Center

  Kansas City, MO 64153

  816-584-7263   

  Dennis.J.Mcduffy@noaa.gov

For technical questions and support in registering user access

for GIFS, please contact:

  Robert Gillespie, PMP

  Program Manager, ISCS

  Silver Spring, MD 20910

  301-713-9478 x 140

  robert.gillespie@noaa.gov

This and other NWS Service Change Notices are online at:

  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/notif.htm

$$