Introduction

Administration and Research

Forecast Research

Facility

Demonstration

Systems Development

Aviation

Modernization

International

Publications

Acronyms and Terms

Contact The Editor

Design:
Wilfred von Dauster

Objectives

The focus of the Enhanced Forecaster Tools Branch is the Interactive Forecast Preparation System (IFPS). In consultation with a working group of NWS weather forecasters, staff are designing and building the graphical forecast support system for AWIPS. A basic NWS concept driving the design of the IFPS is that forecast duties in the WFO will no longer be divided along service boundaries. Instead, a nowcaster/forecaster division of duties will be in place, with each forecaster responsible for all forecast elements for a specific block of time. Rather than spending time typing information from forecast products, forecasters will maintain a graphical database of forecast weather elements. A goal of the IFPS designers is to minimize forecast preparation time and to maximize forecasters' ability to interact with the data, thus allowing more time to focus on the art and science of forecasting. Starting with the current forecast database and/or gridded fields initialized from numerical models or central guidance, and using a set of highly interactive graphical tools, forecasters will visualize and modify surface sensible weather elements. Product generation utilities will then format the digital forecast data into a wide variety of graphical, gridded, and text-based products with little additional effort from forecasters.

Accomplishments

Interactive Forecast Preparation System

The branch concentrated on four development tasks of the advanced IFPS: improving the Graphical Forecast Editor (GFE), implementing Smart Tools, implementing the Graphical Forecast Viewer (GFV), and supporting the Rapid Prototype Project.

Graphical Forecast Editor – The GFE provides tools for the forecaster to view and edit grid fields that capture the essential information (Figure 54) needed to generate a variety of forecast products. A major effort was required in determining how best to make the GFE look and feel more like AWIPS. Productive meetings with the FSL User-Interface Working Group and members of the Rapid Prototype Project prompted a redesign of the GFE graphical user interface to include as many AWIPS-like features as possible, such as product leg-ends, keyboard accelerators, animation controls, and user-interface layout.

Smart Tools – Smart Tools are small programming scripts generally implemented by forecasters who perform a variety of meteorological operations on forecast grids. The first version of the Smart Tools framework was implemented and is currently used operationally at a few Weather Forecast Offices. These tools allow the forecaster to express meteorological concepts to the GFE, thereby greatly enhancing the efficiency of the grid editing process. As forecasters develop more Smart Tools, FSL will provide a central repository for them so that all forecasters can take advantage of them.

Graphical Forecast Viewer – The main accomplishment in modernized products was the implementation of the GFV, a Java-based application using components of the LDAD system. Customers of weather information can use this tool to view digital forecasts as images, graphics, or text, and to generate their own displays of weather information, tailoring it to suit their needs.

Rapid Prototype Project – The RPP was created to accelerate the IFPS development process and to deliver a workable version to NWS field offices in the shortest amount of time. One WFO representative per NWS region and one from NCEP interact directly with developers to enhance IFP software so that it better facilitates the operational forecast process. With direct user input into the development of IFPS features, tools that enhance forecaster productivity are more likely to be created.

RPP began with a four-day information and training workshop at FSL, with attendance of forecasters from each region, NCEP, and the NWS Training Center. The training sessions covered details on how to install, configure, and operate the GFE suite of software. Back at their home office, each RPP focal point installed the RPP computer and began training local staff. Several offices are now using the GFE to generate gridded images of forecast weather elements and posting them to their Website. One office is generating temperature, wind, and humidity grids on a daily basis.

Projections

The major tasks during Fiscal Year 2000 include:

• Continue to support the RPP process at NWS forecast offices by meeting with forecasters, listening to their comments and improvement suggestions, and integrating feedback into the IFPS development process. Some of these tasks include enhancing the Smart Tools interface, providing access to AWIPS gridded data from within Smart Tools, and continuing to enhance the GFE interface to make it look and feel more like AWIPS. For example, future GFE enhancements will include text product generation and the display of a forecast in time along a route.
• Continue to support IFPS in AWIPS by responding to user feedback.
• Continue to prototype new ways to provide weather information to the user community such as the GFE and other modernized products.

FSL Staff