Migrating the Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast Functionality into AWIPS

The Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast (ATCF) software, developed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), is used by the National Weather Service’s (NWS) National Hurricane Center (NHC) and Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) to prepare forecasts for tropical weather. ATCF runs on a standalone system and forecasters access the ATCF software and AWIPS independently.

The NWS Office of Central Processing’s AWIPS Software Development Team (ASDT) has been integrating the functionality provided by ATCF into AWIPS. This migration into the AWIPS architecture will provide several benefits to NHC and CPHC. Forecast operations will be streamlined, as forecasters will not need to shift between two separate systems while preparing their forecasts. Forecasters will also be able to overlay tropical cyclone tracks over satellite imagery, radar imagery, forecast model data, static map data (e.g. interstates, cities, etc.), and other hydrometeorological data.

This presentation will discuss the challenges and successes encountered during the migration of these tropical cyclone forecasting tools into AWIPS.