Common Operating Picture of Digital Services to NWS Core Partners in support of Impact-based Decision Support Services and a Weather-Ready Nation

"Improving Impact-based Decision Support Services (IDSS) is the primary goal of the NWS Strategic Plan: Building a Weather Ready Nation. As the basis for enhanced IDSS, WFOs are adding extra emphasis on short-term (0-36 hours) forecasts. At a minimum, WFOs are updating gridded digital information every 3 hours to keep forecasts representative. In addition, forecasters deployed to support IDSS must be able to rely on regularly updated weather information to enable support to key decision makers. Moreover, WFOs will integrate the production of WFO-produced Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAF) into the overall production suite generated from the grids. Instead of writing TAFs, WFOs will use a text formatter to generate TAFs from the grids to promote consistency across service areas.  

This presentation will describe work to enhance the tools and formatters currently available at the WFOs to provide a standard and efficient means to craft enhanced short-term forecasts and digital aviation grids. In addition, a new collaboration process is being explored in which NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) provide initial guidance to WFOs where it is locally modified and then returned to the National Center to create a mosaic of the weather elements, such as cloud and visibility. This will provide a more consistent spatial and temporal representation of these essential weather variables, and will be the basis for a Common Operating Picture to support IDSS.