National Weather Service SAFESEAS - Update on A New Marine/Coastal Monitoring and Forecasting Capability for AWIPS

This paper will describe a planned NWS operational software package that will integrate marine information on the National Weather Service's (NWS's) Automated Weather Information Processing System (AWIPS) and assist coastal NWS Weather Forecast Office and National Centers for Environmental Prediction forecasters in their warning and forecast decision making process. This capability, called "System on AWIPS for Forecasting and Evaluation of SEas and LAkeS (SAFESEAS), will be based on the System for Convection Analysis and Nowcasting (SCAN) approach (Smith et al. 1998), which provides forecasters with decision assistance for severe weather warnings and forecasts. Specifically, SAFESEAS will integrate marine information available on AWIPS into a decision assistance architecture and provide a conduit into operations for emerging science and applied techniques related to marine (especially coastal) warnings and forecasts developed by NOAA and university researchers. SAFESEAS will also enable information and products to be exchanged between the NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) and external users via NOS' Physical Oceanography Real-Time System (PORTS). SAFESEAS supports and is coordinated with other NOAA Coastal Forecasting System (CFS) activities.