As the centerpiece of weather information in NextGen, the 4-D Data Cube will contain verification information about the forecasts utilized by the air traffic management algorithms. Traditional approaches to the development of verification software have yielded effective solutions for agile, focused analysis. However, a new approach is necessary to create verification software sufficient for the NextGen operational setting, a complex, service-oriented architecture (SOA) comprised of weather and air traffic management components. In response to this need, NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (NOAA/ESRL) has developed the initial version of the Network-Enabled Verification Service (NEVS).

In addition to supporting the transition of experimental forecast products to operations, NEVS will provide verification data for other NextGen requirements, including assessment of the performance of forecasts in the single authoritative source (SAS). The flexible framework upon which NEVS is built allows verification information created by any components of the 4-D Data Cube to be published and integrated into one service, enabling NEVS to act as the SAS of verification. Critical to this role is the ability to integrate non-meteorological information provided by other services within the software architecture. NEVS contains a wide array of verification approaches and metrics. Beyond the standard dichotomous and probabilistic measures, it provides object-based analysis, computation of non-parametric confidence intervals on statistics, and evaluation of forecasts on air traffic sector grids.

This paper will describe the NEVS architecture and its relationship to other components in the broader SOA; illustrate the capabilities of the NEVS prototype based on the 2008 convective season; and outline plans to contribute to the 2012 Initial Operating Capability (IOC).