Warning Decision Support System -- Integrated Information

Real-time feed to National Weather Service Forecast Offices

Ideally, the NWS will pick up WDSS-II and run it 24/7, but until that happens, you have to cobble together a solution yourself. These are your options:

1. Import real-time WDSS-II products into AWIPS volume browser We can take the data from our real-time system and convert it into AWIPS' netcdf format and ship it via LDM to your regional headquarters. There, it can be placed on the AWIPS LAN (i.e. inside the firewall) and then shipped to your FO. You will be able to view the data in real-time on your AWIPS workstation.
   To get this going, you need to coordinate with your regional IT folks, make sure that you have enough bandwith and choose the products you want (hail? rotation tracks? reflectivity?). Get things set up on your end, and we'll add the IP address you give us to our LDM machine.
   Note that due to AWIPS D2D limitations, the products will appear contoured. However, you'll be able to read out the underlying data values.
2. Use Windows 'wg' Get the Windows XP version of 'wg', the WDSS-II display program and connect to our real-time feed via the Internet. Make sure that you have enough bandwidth. The disadvantage is that you won't be able to view the data on AWIPS, only in wg. The advantage is that the products will be at full resolution and full functionality.
3. Use Google Earth Install Google Earth and use our Google Earth feed . You can view the data on any Internet-connected Windows PC.

Please note that we offer no guarantees that the data feed will be up, or that we won't be running an experiment just when you need pristine data. You are getting real-time data off a research system. Our research tasks take priority, so if we need to try something out, we will. We also don't have the funding to do anything 24/7, so if the data feed goes down, it won't get fixed until we get to it. If you find the products useful, please ask your bosses to
(a) support our research
(b) take over running our software 24/7 at NCEP, for example.