Immediate access to real-time geophysical data and products continues to be a challenge: the complex mix of data sources, varied data formats, and a demand for easy access are a few of the reasons. Adding to this challenge, the targeted audience is expanding and today may range from a scientist involved in validation of a product to a middle-school classroom. An emerging idea on bridging these diverse users and access to data is the use of Web Services which can address these issues in a general and extensible way. Web Services provide the ability to ingest and process many data types with differing time and space scales, and spectral channels. The outputs, in turn, have scalable complexity appropriate for audiences ranging from scientists to forecasters to pilots to policy makers.

A Web Map Service (WMS) located at the NSSL incorporates real time NOAA data (satellite, radar, lightning, etc.), and forecast satellite, and radar imagery. The solution makes use of results from Visualization of model forecasts as satellite visible imagery, and Visualization of short-term forecasts of clouds and precipitation. In addition, it leverages current efforts underway at CIRA (Cooperative Institute for Research of the Atmosphere, Colorado State University) and CIMSS to provide simulated infrared satellite imagery from convective resolving forecast models. These efforts are in support of the GOES-R program and provide a simulation of what future GOES-R data will provide. The visible and infrared imagery produced from the forecast models will be ingested into the WMS for display and animation with real-time observed data. The high bandwidth link (nWave) between Boulder and Norman will be used to decrease the latency of data exchange needed for the production of forecast imagery and the ingest of observed and forecast data into the WMS.