Since the deployment of the Weather Event Simulator (WES) to National Weather Service (NWS) offices in fall of 2001, forecasters have been able to review historical case studies using the Linux version of the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) Display 2-Dimensional (D2D) software. Science and Operations Officers (SOOs) within the NWS have taken advantage of WES hardware configuration to integrate Display 3-Dimensional (D3D) software into their local training and research activities. This software has allowed forecasters to interrogate the 3-D characteristics of meteorological datasets and to examine and evaluate conceptual models associated with different phenomena.

WES capability has been used extensively in laboratory exercises in the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET) classroom. Students in the 2002 COMET Mesoscale Analysis and Prediction Course (COMAP) used D3D with D2D for their research projects and other classroom activities. Lessons learned during these projects have been shared with other NWS offices in an effort to explore ways of best utilizing the software.

Since D3D uses the same data structure as AWIPS, cases built for WES can also be viewed in D3D. Several cases have been developed and distributed nationally by COMET, and individual forecast offices have begun building and sharing data from locally archived events.

This paper will discuss what has been done in the COMET classroom and NWS offices to integrate D3D with D2D. Examples of forecast applications using these software packages will also be provided.