Tapping into Real-Time Mesonet Data Streams to Drive Critical Applications

MesoWest software developed at the University of Utah has been aggregating data from over 45,000 surface observing stations since 1997. These real-time and archival data have been made available previously through web applications and now an easy-to-use application programming interface (API). One of MesoWest's objectives is to provide provisional data to end users as quickly as possible with minimal latency. Traditionally, application developers have deployed highly redundant techniques to ensure current observations are available to drive critical applications, such as requesting the same domain for current observations over and over. These common approaches use relatively large amounts of resource to satisfy a simple concept: getting real time data with low latency from data providers. MesoWest is creating push API services for listening applications by tapping into the same data streams used for internal ingest processes. Developers can now receive data automatically through listening profiles residing within the MesoWest data stream framework. Critical situational awareness applications that monitor real-time observations can greatly benefit from these services.