Satellite Based Nowcasting and Aviation Applications for Mobile Devices

Over the past five years the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) has been involved in an independent study directed towards the creation and dissemination of time-critical meteorological products specifically tailored for mobile devices. The PDA Animated Weather (PAW) service is designed to be a technology demonstrator for current and ongoing research being conducted at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), SSEC and other associated institutions. While the product suite provides a traditional selection of atmospheric displays, the underlying goal is to introduce recent and ongoing research in the field of remotely sensed atmospheric parameters. By presenting these advanced elements as blended products, the displays provide the community with a standard frame of reference while extending the content with collocated overlays of these newer fields.

To advance this goal, SSEC has created a prototype WMS environment. The facility is a technical development tool providing real-time product access and dissemination tuning. By using standards-based product generation (OGC-WMS 1.1.1 and KML)1 and separating the products from their visualization, any number of clients can view the resulting products. Image products are reprojected into a standard rectilinear projection and written as GeoTIFF format files. These files can be viewed and manipulated using standard client applications (e.g., web browser, Google Maps, Google Earth, ArcGIS) providing cross platform functionality. Observed, measured and derived metadata fields may be overlaid on these images as polygons and tagged objects.

The PAW service has introduced a set of displays which incorporate image products produced by the UW-CIMSS Satellite Nowcasting and Aviation Application Program (SNAAP) team. SNAAP develops satellite-based nowcasting tools for improving aviation weather forecasting focused on hazards including convection, turbulence, and volcanic ash. Through its Advanced Satellite Aviation weather Products (ASAP) initiative, Satellite products are developed, tested and evaluated. Featured SNAAP image products include, targeted regions of Convective Initiation (CI), Overshooting Tops (OT) and Anvil Thermal Couplets (ATC).