The Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS) at FSL provides value-added surface and upper-air datasets to the meteorological community. Among these datasets is an integrated mesonet database containing high-frequency real-time observations from over 14,000 mesonet stations across the country. The mesonet database includes observations from state Departments of Transportation, the Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) organized by FSL, the Florida Automated Weather Network, the Louisiana Agriclimatic Information System, and the Mississippi Mesonet, among others. Organizations receiving MADIS data feeds include National Weather Service (NWS) forecast offices, the NWS National Centers for Environmental Prediction, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and many major universities and commercial weather businesses. Saved observations are available online via the MADIS ftp server; real-time observations are viewable on the web.

During hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Ivan, MADIS provided data to the NWS and others, significantly increasing the number of observations available to forecasters for tracking and assessing the storms. For hurricanes Frances and Ivan, FSL worked with the NWS and AWS Convergence Technologies, Inc. to increase the number of observations available to the NWS forecast offices by adding the over 6000 stations from the AWS WeatherBug network to the MADIS system.

Contact information
Name: Patricia A. Miller
Tel: 303-497-6365
Patricia.A.Miller@noaa.gov
Also: Michael F. Barth, Russell B. Chadwick, David Helms