Description:

Every test center, space launch range, and airfield has their own set of advisory and warning criteria for various weather phenomena as well as different methods for transmitting these watches and warnings. Some use sirens/giant voices, others use text messages, visual notifications (lights/TV messages), etc. Couple these criteria with the advisories, watches, and warnings issued by the National Weather Service personnel are quickly inundated with numerous warnings. This can lead to warning fatigue with personnel choosing to ignore critical weather warnings leading to avoidable health and safety hazards. Additionally, with the number of advisories and warnings, there is potential for valuable operation time to be lost due to conservative watches and warning criteria. This session aims to focus on methods for standardization of watch/warning criteria amongst the various test centers and launch ranges, methods and new technology for effectively communicating watches and warnings, and assessing what phenomena are being monitored at various centers/ranges and if the watch/warning criteria for that phenomena (i.e lightning) could be revised to decrease downtime while ensuring personnel/system safety.