Exploring a Web-Based GRIB2 Visualization Capability at the Aviation Weather Testbed

GRIB2 format data is widely used in the meteorological community, particularly for numerical weather prediction (NWP) data within the National Weather Service. The Aviation Weather Testbed (AWT) uses both N-AWIPS, the current operational production platform at NOAA Aviation Weather Center, and AWIPS, used by most field operations in the National Weather Service and future platform of the center; however, neither are flexible enough for all research to operations needs of the AWT. Data frequently needs to be reviewed outside of either isolated platform, particularly through internet browsers, for local and remote collaboration work.

Recent versions of Javascript client side web browser scripting support the processing of binary files like GRIB2 format, allowing for full end-to-end from data to visualization in one place making it fully dynamic, without needing compiled code or plugins like Java and Flash. Color tables, data ranges, and more can be adjusted by the end user instead of relying on static imagery. This paper presents results from work in visualizing GRIB2 data on the fly to support research to operations efforts in the AWT.