The National Weather Service (NWS) has implemented a network to collect and distribute Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) Level II/base data to the National Centers for Environmental Prediction in real time to meet operational requirements and to the National Climatic Data Center to meet NWS archive requirements for these data. These data are also readily available for users from the four Internet2 top-tier nodes the NWS has established. This project has been a successful demonstration of how government, private industry, and universities can collaborative develop a successful prototype that the government transitions to a network-wide system. In addition, this project recently received the prestigious NOAA Technology Transfer Award.

This paper and presentation will discuss the status of this 142-radar network, the network performance to date, lessons learned in reaching the full operational capability at the end of 2004, and future plans. The presentation will provide an opportunity for Level II users to provide comments and ask questions they may have in regard to this project now that it has reached a full operational capability.