Archived Weather Event Playback Capabilities for Universities using AWIPS-2

In the fall and winter of 2015, staff at the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS) at the University of Oklahoma in conjunction with the Warning Decision Training Division (WDTD) of the National Weather Service (NWS) released archived data playback capabilities for AWIPS-2 to NWS field offices and regional headquarters locations.   CIMMS staff have also developed companion software, (WESSL-2, for Weather Event Scripting Language for AWIPS-2) that provides command and control functions for the main WES-2 Bridge (Weather Event Simulator for AWIPS-2) as well as display of non-AWIPS information. 

While the initial and primary function of the WES-2 Bridge and WESSL-2 software package is for training of NWS forecasters, it also is the primary and likely most efficient method of viewing archived data using in AWIPS-2.  In addition, WESSL-2 has the ability to display anciliary educational material alongside AWIPS datasets.    

The WES-2 Bridge software uses data sets (“cases”) generated by the archiver component of AWIPS-2. WES-2 Bridge includes both case review (user-selected time access through cases) and simulation capabilities (time-ordered access in either displaced-real time or interval-based simulations).

This paper describes how WES-2 Bridge and WESSL-2 can be used in a university setting for both education and research.  Plans for distributing these capabilities to the university community through Unidata will be presented.