According to Michelle Mainelli, Chief of the Systems Integration Branch of the National Weather Service's NCEP Central Operation, the AWIPS II development group remains on schedule in the migration of the NAWIPS software to the AWIPS II architecture.
"The NCEP AWIPS II Test Bed has been successfully installed within our facility by Raytheon Technical Services," says Mainelli. "We are in the process of installing and configuring the software component including setting up the data flow to the system."
Forecaster Integration Tests (FITs) are scheduled to begin on January 18, 2011. Mainelli notes that the integration tests will involve forecasters and IT specialists from the National Centers; at least one of the integration tests will also include developers from the Unidata Program Center. The FITs will continue through the early summer of 2011.
"As we work through the FITs, documentation and training materials outlining the system configuration and its use will be provided to all users, with draft versions available by the end of January," says Mainelli.
AWIPS II deployment at the National Centers is still scheduled for the fall of 2011, with final acceptance by the centers in late in 2011 or early in 2012, depending on the specific needs of each Center. Soon after acceptance of the system by the National Centers, the Unidata Program Center will release its own AWIPS II package to Unidata community members.
Michael James, who heads the Unidata Program Center's AWIPS II development effort, has been working with the preliminary software releases. He will be demonstrating an early version of Unidata's AWIPS II package in the Unidata booth at the American Meteorological Society 2011 meeting in January.
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Prototype of Unidata's AWIPS II package available at the AMS 2011 Annual Meeting | January 23-27 2011 |
| NCEP Field testing | Summer 2011 |
| NCEP Deployment of AWIPS II systems to National Centers | Fall 2011 |
| Release of AWIPS II package to Unidata community members | Winter 2011/2012 |
| Unidata will provide active support and maintenance of GEMPAK for 18 months after the release of AWIPS II to the Unidata community. After the 18-month active support period ends, Unidata will continue to make the GEMPAK source code, help and training materials, and the GEMBUD mailing list available. | |
