Update on Commissioning the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS)

The National Weather Service (NWS) has completed the deployment of the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) at a number of field offices. This process is at the heart of the NWS' Stage 2 modernization effort along with other technologies being fielded. The NWS plans to commission AWIPS as the primary communications and processing system at all field offices beginning in late 1999 or calendar year 2000 with the introduction of software Build 4.2. AWIPS will be the primary integrator of all data products and services at NWS field Weather Forecast Offices (WFO), River Forecast Centers (RFC) and National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEPs). As such, the commissioning process for AWIPS delineates the steps that must be accomplished before the AWIPS can replace the legacy systems that were in use prior to AWIPS arriving on the site. This paper updates the latest thinking on the commissioning process as it pertains to AWIPS, and the communications system and discusses operational and transitional issues that are being addressed before AWIPS becomes the official system for preparing and disseminating official NWS products.