AWIPS2 Transition at the National Hurricane Center

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is the first National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) to fully embrace the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) software operationally. The NHC is accomplishing this transition through strong collaboration between the developers at the AWIPS Program Office (APO), Raytheon Omaha, Network Central Operations (NCO), and National Weather Service (NWS) management. Additionally, NHC is collaborating with outside partners in establishing an AWIPS environment similar to NHC, including NOAA's Hurricane Research Division (HRD) and Aircraft Operations Center (AOC), and the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA). The transition to the AWIPS software platform is linking the operational environment and evolving AWIPS testbed environments together. The common platforms provide a means of balancing risk to operations with the margin of error that is inherent to both developmental research and operation realities in a cost-effective manner.

Although many software platforms exist to analyze meteorological data, new data from advancements in satellite (e.g., GOES-R), aircraft (e.g., Doppler radar), and numerical weather prediction modeling technologies (e.g., ensembles) make the transition to a common software platform imperative. Research facilities with R2O AWIPS will allow NHC forecasters who use AWIPS on a daily basis to evaluate any aspect of the system enhancements, applications, methods, etc. Forecasters can provide timely, effective feedback to the developers, and the developers can then determine the operational readiness and the utility of their new applications. This two-way communication between forecasters and the developers is imperative to develop and infuse truly beneficial enhancements into operations. This R2O AWIPS collaboration will streamline the process of moving AWIPS enhancements into the operational environment for the betterment of the serving the NHC mission. NHC is now in a position to work closely with developers to help transfer their research and development into operations using the AWIPS software platform, thereby closing traditional large technology gaps that can cripple innovative advancements.

This paper will provide an update on the status of NHC’s transition to AWIPS2 and show examples of products that are being demonstrated as part of R2O projects.