AWIPS II Technology Infusion at the National Centers — Status Update

This paper describes the current progress of the migration of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) AWIPS (NAWIPS) functionality into the AWIPS II architecture. The objective of this migration has been to support both AWIPS and NAWIPS applications within the same architectural framework. NAWIPS is a suite of meteorological and hydrological software that has been fully integrated into the operations of the NCEP Forecast Centers. All NCEP forecasters use the software for data display and product creation. It has also been used at the River Forecast Centers and select Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) in the Alaska and Pacific Regions. In addition, NAWIPS is provided to Unidata for distribution to the university community and private industry. Integration of NAWIPS applications into the AWIPS II architectural framework is already providing new functionality and system-wide capabilities which is benefitting the entire NWS enterprise. NCEP forecasters are able to better interface with National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters at WFOs. In addition, NCEP software developers will have more time to concentrate on core NCEP mission requirements while contributing to the core software architecture maintained on the national level.