The Integration of Clarus into the NWS's MADIS

Clarus was designed to provide broader weather information support for surface transportation system operators in their efforts to improve safety, reliability and security of transportation users. The Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS), developed by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Atmospheric Research (OAR) and the National Weather Service (NWS), extends NOAA’s observational networks by collecting, integrating, Quality Controlling (QC), and distributing observations from NOAA and non-NOAA organizations. MADIS partners with international agencies; federal, state, and local agencies (e.g. state Departments of Transportation); universities; volunteer networks; and the private sector (e.g. airlines, railroads) to integrate observations from their stations with those of NOAA. The end result of this partnering is a finer density, higher frequency global observational database for assimilation into NWS Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) forecast models, for use by NWS forecasters as part of their forecast process, and made available to the greater meteorological community for operational use. NWS declared MADIS operational at the NWS’ National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Central Operations (NCO) as part of the Integrated Dissemination Program (IDP) on January 21, 2015. All the data that MADIS has collected since 2001 is now archived at the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), and OAR’s Global Systems Division is responsible for the continued evolution of the MADIS system. MADIS provided the perfect pathway for moving Clarus to operations. The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal HighWay Administration (FHWA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) office for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) signed an Interagency Agency Agreement (IAA) to transition Clarus system functionality to MADIS operations. The work of building the infrastructure in MADIS to handle Clarus functionality is now complete and available on the operational MADIS system. This talk with highlight the new capabilities in MADIS for handling Clarus Road Weather data and future collaboration possibilities.