The deployment of the NEXRAD Open Radar Product Generator (ORPG) will provide the FAA with previously unavailable products, thereby enhancing the ability of the FAA to support its aviation safety and efficiency goals. The ORPG will make available a number of FAA required products crucial to both en route and terminal aviation operations.

With the deployment of the Display System Replacement (DSR), multi-level intensity NEXRAD data can be displayed for the first time to en route controllers, significantly enhancing their ability to advise pilots on the location and intensity of hazardous weather along their flight path. However, in order for the controllers to accept the use of NEXRAD data, the anomalous propagation (AP) had to be removed from all FAA NEXRAD products, which requires the ORPG. Since approximately 50% of the delays in the en route airspace are caused by thunderstorms, the availability of the new AP-mitigated products will enable en route controllers to reduce delays and enhance safety.

In the terminal domain, the Integrated Terminal Weather System (ITWS) will use both base reflectivity and a specialized FAA-only digital velocity product, available upon ORPG deployment, to provide hazardous weather information and terminal winds to non-meteorologists including the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) and local controllers, as well as traffic management personnel and airline operations centers. Earlier notification of hazardous weather at major airports across the National Airspace System (NAS) will increase the capability of traffic flow managers and airline operations centers to plan mitigation strategies, thereby reducing delays.