Wednesday, 16 January 2002: 4:45 PM
Tailoring the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) for Space Launch Range Support
The Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) has been selected for the next generation system for use by the Eastern and Western space launch ranges. AWIPS is being integrated into the new information handling systems being delivered to the Eastern and Western space launch ranges under the Range Standardization and Automation project. In addition to providing many of the usual functions associated with an AWIPS installation, such as weather warning and advisory services for the ranges, AWIPS will be used to prepare launch processing and launch decision products for both space an ballistic operations. To support space launch operations, data from scores of instruments including tower mounted anemometers, temperature and humidify sensors, as well as wind profilers, mini sodars, balloon systems, NEXRAD, ASOS, and several lightning detection systems will be integrated into AWIPS. AWIPS embodies a Local Data Acquisition and Display (LDAD) capability, which can be tailored to accommodate many of these; however, some additional functionality is being added to accommodate data with a vertical dimension. Such expansions to current capability are being added to the standard product by the NOAA Forecast System Lab so that the space launch ranges may easily leverage future releases of AWIPS. The architecture being delivered (AWIPS 5.1.2) uses the Linux operating system. Included is a scalable model server that will be used to run the Local Analysis and Prediction System (LAPS) and Version 5 of the Pennsylvania State/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Mesoscale Model 5 (MM5). The details of the architecture and capabilities will be presented, along with sample displays.
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