AWIPS II

Status Report: March 2012

Michael James

Strategic Focus Areas

Work on AWIPS II supports the following Unidata funding proposal focus areas:

  1. Broadening participation and expanding community services
    Interest in a UPC AWIPS II release is not limited to the NAWIPS/GEMPAK community; the entire meteorological community, including Government organizations, private enterprise and individuals, are interested in the release of the same software suite being put in place at the National Weather Service forecast offices and national centers.
  2. Advancing data services
    With the release of AWIPS II, the Unidata community will have available a suite of services which ingest and process a number of different meteorological datasets. Additionally, the networked nature of EDEX server processes will allow for remote data access by standalone CAVE clients.
  3. Developing and deploying useful tools
    Useful? Certainly.
  4. Enhancing user support services
    Continued work on a full set of AWIPS II documentation directed towards casual/university/non-operational users.
  5. Providing leadership in cyberinfrastructure
    Unidata is the only non-Government entity which will be managing a widespread public release of AWIPS II. We are the source of AWIPS II for the meteorological community.
  6. Promoting diversity by expanding opportunities
    Unsure.

Activities Since the Last Status Report

Regular Software Release from NWS and NCEP

Unidata continues to receive major releases of AWIPS II, including source code and Eclipse development environment, from the National Weather Service (currently version 12.2.1) and National Center for Environmental Prediction (currently version 12.4).


AWIPS II Demonstration at the 2012 AMS Annual Meeting

Unidata welcomed NCEP project managers and developers to the exhibitors booth to conduct live demonstrations of the National Centers Perspective GUI client.


Expanded Documentation

We have received a large volume of Raytheon-authored documentation which focuses on operational architecture, system configuration and third-party development. These documents, which focus heavily on operation-specific configuration, have been re-authored and re-tailored to meet the needs of the Unidata community.


NCEP AWIPS II Testbed Visit

February 2012. Unidata staff spent three days at NCEP talking with developers and project managers about installation and configuration, database management, data flow and display, and the future of National Centers Perspective development.


Boulder WFO Visit

March 2012. Boulder is the second WFO to begin forecaster training with AWIPS II and AWIPS I system side-by-side. Unidata staff paid a visit to the forecast office to discuss hardware requirements and software configuration, and get a sense of forecaster comfort levels with the new software package.

Looking Ahead

Beta Testing Program

The AWIPS II beta testing program is set to begin soon with a single site, later to be expanded roughly a half-dozen sites. Unidata plans to solicit a small number of core institutions to test 1) ease of server installation and configuration (standalone); 2) scalability; 3) multiple server configurations; 4) remote access by CAVE clients.


GEMPAK Functionality

NCEP has committed to providing GEMPAK as a "local application" for AWIPS II, providing users the same functionality as in NAWIPS/GEMPAK (minus the NPROG GUIs). Unidata is in a position to greatly contribute to the development and testing of this GEMPAK implementation.