5.4 AWIPS Integrated Reference System

Tuesday, 24 January 2017: 4:45 PM
608 (Washington State Convention Center )
Jason E. Burks, CIRA, Huntsville, AL; and K. Sperow

The Advanced Weather Information Processing System (AWIPS) is the processing, visualization, and forecast development software package used by the National Weather Service (NWS). AWIPS provides the ability to ingest, display and combine a myriad of different datasets to help forecasters assess the current and future states of the atmosphere. Currently, however if a forecaster needs to consult reference or training material about a meteorological product the forecaster has to physically move to a non-AWIPS workstation. An integrated reference system has been developed to link products with available reference materials directly within the AWIPS system. By integrating the reference materials into AWIPS and linking directly to the products, forecasters can quickly find training and reference material on those products without having to move to another system. The integrated reference system is dynamic and flexible. The Virtual Laboratory (VLab), managed by the Meteorological Development Laboratory (MDL), is used to develop, manage, and display the training and reference material.  AWIPS reference providers, including local WFOs and RFCs, will be able to quickly add and update materials and easily associate the material with products within the AWIPS system. Once the VLab materials have been added or updated they are instantly available to end-users within AWIPS, ensuring forecasters have the most up-to-date reference material to make critical decisions.

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