United States Department of Commerce
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Weather Service
1325 East-West Highway
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910-3283
The Deputy Director
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November 13, 2014
Dear Voluntary Observing Ship Participant:
On behalf of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS),
thank you for your active participation in the Voluntary Observing Ships (VOS) program. Your efforts benefit
all mariners and contribute to understanding of weather and climate. I want you to know the NWS is transitioning
to new VOS software compliant with the World Meteorological Organization/Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography
and Marine Meteorology requirements. The new software is called TurboWin, and enables your observations to be integrated
into global weather prediction models.
Enclosed is your package of TurboWin to replace the current AMVER/SEAS VOS weather reporting software with a link
to the TurboWin manual with instructions on how to install and use the software. I believe you will find TurboWin
much easier to use and because it uses photographs to characterize sea state and clouds, there will be more uniformity
in the way observations are taken. These improvements will contribute to improved marine weather forecasting capabilities.
Thank you for you collaboration with the NWS VOS program and please keep in contact with your NWS Port Meteorological
Officer (PMO). Please let your PMO know if you have any question or concerns about this transition.
Sincerly,
Laura K. Furgione
Instructions for setting up TurboWin:
Please follow the U.S. VOS TurboWin setup instructions found at this link:
TurboWin+ Installation Instructions
You may also download the program here:
TurboWin Homepage
The oberservation code has not changed, and the observation produced is the same as AMVER/SEAS. There are easily navigated
differences in the way the program is displayed, and how users advance through the observations sections. This program is user
friendly, and contains more pictures for aiding in cloud and sea state identification. You will also not some changes in the
selections on the screen prompt. Furthermore, TurboWin provides more optional selections to aid in reporting non-weather
phenomena.
If you are using the AMVER portion of the current program, you still may do so separately as it will not affect the TurboWin
program. The user must send in the AMVER message separately, as the TurboWin does not currently incorporate the two messages.
A future version of TurboWin will include the AMVER reporting capability, and will be announced when released.
Thank you for your participation in the VOS program, your efforts benefit all mariners!
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