The National Weather Services' NCEP Central Operations AWIPS II development team has begun Forecaster Integration Testing (FIT), according to Chief of Systems Integration Michelle Mainelli.
"The month of February was spent configuring the NCEP AWIP II Test Bed to begin Forecaster Integration Testing," says Mainelli. "During this past month, forecasters and developers from the National Hurricane Center, Storm Prediction Center, Aviation Weather Center, Climate Prediction Center, Ocean Prediction Center, Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, and NESDIS had an opportunity to spend two to three days testing the functionality, data display, and product generation on the system."
This is only the first round of three FITs for each Center to take part in prior to the start of the NWS National Field Operational Test and Evaluation (OTE) period beginning this summer.
At the current time, NCEP Central Operations has not set up an automated data flow into the system. "We hope to have non-SBN data flow into the Test Bed by late March/early April," says Mainelli. "While the software development of the National Center Perspective is not fully complete, the feedback we have received from the Centers who have taken part in the FIT has been invaluable."
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| 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. | |
