In collaboration with the National Weather Service (NWS) headquarters and the NWS Forecast Office (NWSFO) - Boston, MIT Lincoln Laboratory has developed a Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) image server which provides information to forecasters in near real-time. Data from the TDWR in South Weymouth, MA are ingested on a Unix workstation, with the subsequent products accessible via a separate web server. Scripts were written to allow access to the data in a convenient and intuitive manner. The images may be displayed and interrogated utilizing a Java-capable web browser, such as Netscape or Internet Explorer. Unauthorized access to the server is prevented by checking the IP addresses of incoming requests.
The primary products of the server are the reflectivity and velocity displays of the most recent TDWR basedata. These are available as either a single panel at a user-selected elevation scan angle or a four-panel display of preset elevation angles. Images at the lowest elevation are saved into a GIF file, which may then be accessed through a Java applet. In addition to the reflectivity or velocity value at the cursor point, the range, bearing, and altitude of the beam are also displayed. Movie loops of a user-specified number of frames may also be accessed using the GIF images, which are kept on the server for a minimum of 24 hours. The image files are then placed into a server-accessible archive for future reference.
Initial forecaster reaction to the availability of TDWR data has been positive, and the project is being expanded. During the summer of 1998, we hope to work with the FAA and the NWS to bring local TDWR data to NWSFOs in Sterling, VA and Salt Lake City, UT.
This work was sponsored by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration under Air Force Contract F19628-95-C-0002