AWIPS radar and warning strategies using multiple virtual desktops

During 2003-2004, the National Weather Service upgraded the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) workstation hardware from relatively slow processing Hewlett Packard (HP) workstations (with bulky monitors) to much faster LINUX based CPUs (with high resolution Liquid Crystal Displays [LCDs]). In the HP environment, multiple monitors were used to display data, but only one Display 2-Dimensional (D2D) could be open on each monitor. The D2D component of the AWIPS workstation is the primary user interface; it allows forecasters to display and manipulate graphic and image products, work with gridded model data, and run interactive hydrometeorological applications. Strategies were developed to optimize D2D data display capabilities under HP, but the process was cumbersome, and required constant manipulation of windowed products.

The new LINUX based workstations have faster processors and improved graphics cards, permitting multiple virtual workspaces (i.e., desktops) to be open simultaneously on each LCD. Multiple D2D sessions can be open on a single LCD, each in their own workspace. New data display strategies are possible, resulting in enhanced situational awareness, less product manipulation, and more effective warning operations.

This paper will present an AWIPS radar and warning strategy using four workspaces per LCD. The strategy will demonstrate how individual workspaces can be set up to display tornado/damaging wind/hail potential, flash flood applications (e.g., Flash Flood and Monitoring Program [FFMP]), the System for Convective Analysis and Nowcasting (SCAN), satellite imagery and observations, mesoscale analysis, WARNGEN, and WWA. Multiple workspaces allow considerably more data display, with much less display manipulation.

In addition to multiple workspaces, this paper will demonstrate an enhanced task list for easily managing D2D tasks (Procedure Bundles, Tables, radar One Time Requests, etc.) unique to each workspace. This eliminates the need to search for windows that disappear behind the main D2D window. A combination of multiple workspaces and efficient task management allows more time to concentrate on severe weather detection and warning operations.