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 history of the WSR-88D Level II Data Collection and Distribution Network Infrastructure, including the different successful phases that were implemented to get to the current operational capability. Also to be discussed will be the future plans to incorporate the new WSR-88D science developments within the network infrastructure.