Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS II) Extended Overview

for NOAA Technology Summit

November 3, 2010

Steve SchotzNWS – Office of Science and Technology

AGENDA

• AWIPS Background and History• AWIPS II Technology Infusion Scope • AWIPS II Migration

– Approach and Status

• AWIPS II Extended Projects– Milestones– Project Description, Benefits and Status

33

Overview AWIPS Impact

AWIPS is absolutely critical not only for tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods, but also for man-made and terrorist disasters where our services are called upon to defend our homeland security.

It was AWIPS that allowed WFO New Orleans to provide 4187 Spot Forecasts for the go-no-go decisions related to what the President declared was a "Spill of National Significance".

-- Kenneth Graham; Meteorologist-In-Charge,

New Orleans WFO

AWIPS Used at

122 Weather Forecast Offices,

13 River Forecast Centers, & 6 National Centers

Forecasts

Warnings

Advisories

Watches

4

AWIPS OverviewEnterprise Architecture Context

5

AWIPS OverviewInformation Architecture

Dissemination

Modeling & Product Generation

Observing

* Note some systems perform multiple functions, e.g. LDAD disseminates information and receives observations

“AWIPS is the Integrating Element of the Weather Service”

Systems Legend

Environment Environment

Environment

LightningDetectionCooperative

Observers

AWIPS

LOCAL EXTERNALUSERS;

COMPUTERSYSTEMS;

OBS PLATFORMSAND NETWORKS

NESDIS

NWSTG

WALLOPSCDA

GOES I-M, PolarOrbiter, and

Other Satellite Data

- Satellite Product Gen- Satellite Operation

GOESI-M

Spacecraft

Data CollectionPlatforms (DCP)

Official UserProducts

USERSUSERS

PROFILER

MICROART

NEXRAD

(May Interface Locallyat Site or Centrally

VIA NWSTG

Upper AirObservations

Weather RadarProducts

Class 4NIDS

USERS

DCPData GOES

Data

USERS

Forecaster

- Product Formulation- Data Integration & Analysis- Forecasting- Services Dissemination

GTSUpper AirObserving

(ServicesDissemination)

SurfaceObservations

World-Wide DataCollection &Distribution

- Numerical Predictions- Large-scale

Forecaster Guidance

Gatewayfor International & Non-

NOAA Domestic products

-Surface Observing

Remote SurfaceObserving

- Radiance Measurements- DCP Data Collection &

Distribution

SatelliteDistribution &

Processing

AtmosphericProfiles

Official UserProducts

- RADAR ReflectivityMeasurement

- RADAR Product Gen NWWSNWR

ASOS

POESSpacecraft

POESData

LightningData

OceanObs

NCDC

(NCF)

MDCRSCommercial Aircraft

Data

NCEPRetrospective

Users

Official UserProducts,

Observations, &Graphics

NCF

-Archiving

LDAD

USERS

FAA Data

Level 2 &Level 3 Data

Data- Calibration Data

Modeling- Interactive Data

Analysis

POESData

NCEPGuidance,

Observations,& Offical User

Products

NSOF/ESPC

66

AWIPS Tech Infusion Background

Extend Unified Baseline & Continue

Functional Improvement

AWIPS AWIPS IIMigration

AWIPS II Extended

and S&T Infusion

Port Functionality to Flexible Architecture

• Late 80s – Early 90s: AWIPS I developed• 1997: AWIPS I deployed• 2004: NWS review identified AWIPS software as major obstacle to

meeting future mission requirements– Costly to maintain

– Challenging to infuse new science and applications

• 2006: NWS executed contract option for AWIPS II-related projects

7

AWIPS Tech Infusion Background

• AWIPS II Migration: Migrate current AWIPS functionalities to a “Service Oriented Architecture” (SOA)

– Improve maintainability and stability via streamlined, extensible software – Reduce time to transition from 18 months to 9 months – Reduce software development time for new products by 50%– Increase software release frequency from 2 to 4 per year

• AWIPS II Extended: Implement on-going pre-planned, major infrastructure enhancements

– Extend AWIPS II architecture to the entire NWS weather enterprise • Enables more seamless product suite among NWS operational centers, e.g., National Centers,

WFOs

• Improves efficiencies in developing new capabilities that can be used across the NWS weather enterprise

– Implement system-wide infrastructure enhancements • Smart Push/Pull technologies to enable AWIPS to handle increased data volumes associated

with major agency initiatives, e.g., GOES-R, Higher resolution models, etc.

• Real-time collaboration among NWS operators and between NWS operators and partners, e.g., Emergency Managers to support improved product consistency, quality and decision assistance

• Streamlined information generation dissemination and access for partners to support decision assistance

• Improve data visualization to support situational awareness and decision assistance

AWIPS II MigrationRe-Architecture Approach

and Status

• Approach– Perform “black-box” conversion

• Preserve existing functionality, look and feel on top of new infrastructure

– Thorough field validation and acceptance before deployment– No loss of functionality

• Deployed system current with deployed AWIPS capability (i.e., OB9)

– Use open source projects - No proprietary code– Objective is to make AWIPS II available for collaborative

development

• Status– Operational Test and Evaluation (OTE) - In progress– Deployment Begins – Fall 2011

AWIPS II Extended Projects

High-Level Objective Project Target Completion

Extend AWIPS II Infrastructure to Entire NWS Forecaster Enterprise

NAWIPS Migration Deploy

Fall 11

Thin Client Deploy 3Q12

WES Bridge Deploy

WES Integration Deploy

Fall 11 (Deployed with AWIPS II)

4Q12

Implement System-Wide Enhancements to Benefit Entire AWIPS Enterprise

Data Delivery – IOC

Data Delivery - FOC

2Q13

FY13-14

Collaboration – Phase I

Collaboration – Phase II

Collaboration - Phase III

4Q12

FY13-14

FY14-15

Information Generation FOC

FY14

3D Visualization IOC FY14

AWIPS II Extended - NAWIPS Migration

• Objectives– Incorporate NAWIPS capabilities into AWIPS SOA

• Key Benefits

– Enables more cost-effective software development environment for common requirements across the NWS enterprise; Helps enable software agility

– Lays ground work for more effective collaboration and seamless products across NWS enterprise (NCs, WFOs, RFCs, CWSUs) by providing common infrastructure

– Strengthens NWS partnership with University Community by providing entire suite of AWIPS capabilities – Helps enable more efficient R to O and O to R

– Improves support for OCONUS Regions by providing common software infrastructure for NAWIPS and AWIPS functionality

– Enables opportunity to provide NAWIPS capabilities to NWS enterprise• Status

– Software Migration nearly complete– Pre-OTE begins in November 2010– OTE Testing to occur at Centers Winter-Summer of 2011– Deployment – Fall 2011

AWIPS II Extended - AWIPS II Thin Client

• Objectives– Develop enterprise solution for remote access to AWIPS capabilities

• Key Benefits – Incorporate FX-Net capabilities into baseline– Provides common solution to address remote access requirements to

support Incident Meteorologists, e.g., Fire Wx, Weather Service Offices, etc.

– Allows remote users to have access to latest set of AWIPS capabilities – Provides partial solution for COOP scenarios at NCs and RFCs– In combination with Data Delivery Project, allows us to begin to analyze

future opportunities for utilizing cloud computing

• Status– ConOPS defined– Prototyping and system analysis of AWIPS II SOA conducted– Production design – In progress

AWIPS II Extended - Weather Event Simulator (WES)

• Objectives– Develop enterprise solution to support NWS training requirements

• Phase I: Provide bridge for current WES capability into AWIPS II. Also serves as a pathfinder for Phase II

• Phase II: Develop integrated solution for AWIPS enterprise

• Key Benefits – Provides robust, sustainable baseline solution to support NWS

training requirements – Allows training users to have access to latest built set of AWIPS

capabilities – Provides training solution for all AWIPS applications

• Status– WES Bridge development in progress; on target with AWIPS II

deployment

AWIPS II Extended - Data Delivery

• Objectives– Develop robust data delivery system within AWIPS II infrastructure that enables efficient access to high

volume datasets – Develop operational robust infrastructure to support “intelligent” access to non-local datasets

• Data Discovery• User defined sub-setting by space, time, and parameter• Subscription or Ad-hoc access methods based on weather events

• Key Benefits – Supports high impact based forecast and decision assistance processes by allowing users to access just the

data they need by space, time, parameter; Enables more efficient data mining– Enables effective on-demand access to Weather Information Database– Enables synergy and interoperability with NextGen technologies, e.g., data discovery services, data access

services and data providers.– Mitigates high growth in data volume e.g. ensembles, high-resolution models and GOES-R

• Multi-Phase Implementation– IOC Focus – NWS data providers, e.g., NOMADS, MADIS, possibly with basic services only, discovery,

sub-setting – Target FY13• Status

– ConOPS for IOC defined– Prototyping in AWIPS II in progress– High-level Architecture/Design in progress

AWIPS II Extended - Collaboration

• Objectives– Develop capabilities to support real-time collaboration– Phase I: Develop/Enhance internal NWS collaboration capabilities– Phase II: Develop/Enhance IOC collaboration capabilities with

external partners– Phase III: Improve collaboration capabilities with external partners

• Key Benefits – Enables more effective collaboration across all levels of NWS

promoting a more coordinated and seamless set of products and services – Fosters consistency of NWS products and services

– Enables interoperability between NWS and decision makers, e.g., emergency managers to support Decision Support Services

• Status– ConOPS for Phase I defined

– Prototyping in AWIPS II in progress

Phase I Collaboration ConOps

• Data display sharing – This capability will allow participating NWS offices to view each other’s AWIPS data

displays during collaboration sessions• Telestrator Functions

– Simple line drawing capabilities, that will allow forecasters to draw and erase temporary lines and polygons on their AWIPS displays that can be viewed by participating collaborators.

– Telestrator functions will help forecasters identify and discuss specific features of interest, e.g., satellite and radar storm signatures, etc.

• Creation and editing of hydrometeorological objects – Creation, editing and exchange of geo-referenced objects and products such as fronts, areas

of severe weather, troughs and ridges, etc. and graphical products such as watches and warnings.

– Meteorological objects and products will be displayed and/or exchanged among the participating collaborators allowing participants to import these graphics and display them in AWIPS applications. The display and exchange of meteorological objects and products will allow sites to collaborate in real-time on object or product features such as location, shape, and intensity.

– Object and product attributes such as front type, product type, etc; will also be saved so that they are available for forecaster access and editing.

• An integrated text chat capability that will allow forecasters to chat during the collaboration session.

AWIPS II Extended – Information Generation

• Objective– Develop infrastructure to support common set of information generation services

and tools to support decision assistance

• Key Benefits – Enables AWIPS tools and Decision Maker tools for decision support

• Streamlines generation of products to support emerging industry standards, e.g., CAP and GIS

• Reduces development time associated with the introduction of new products and services • Enables generation of NWS products from both local data bases and the 4-D weather

Data Cube• Opportunities for synergy with IRIS project

• Status– Initial capabilities encapsulated in Integrated Hazard Services (IHIS) Project

• Overall Objective - Consolidate watch/warning/hazard product generation and provide information to external partners

– Exploratory development in progress

AWIPS II Extended - Advanced Visualization

• Objective– Develop advanced visualizations techniques, e.g., 3-D

visualization that can be utilized by AWIPS baseline applications

• Key Benefits– Enables more effective forecaster visualization of datasets to

support forecast and decision making processes.• Methods to improve situational awareness• Methods to improve identification of factors that affect high impact

events

• Status– Requirements definition/exploratory development to begin

in FY12

QUESTIONS ????