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1. Background
High quality science applied to societal problems is at
the heart of the RAP mission. RAP is an integrator of research and technology
across disciplines and organizations, helping to transfer new capability
into the domain of practical application for those who have to make weather-sensitive
decisions in government agencies and the private sector.
Technology Transfer for aviation safety decisions continues
to be the main emphasis at RAP. Development of improved capabilities
for the automated forecasting of aircraft icing, thunderstorms, snowfall
affecting airport ground operations, turbulence, ceiling and visibility,
and oceanic weather continues to be our major activity. Significant
technology transfer has already taken place, including improved education
and training, transfer of advanced products to operational agencies
and commercial companies and delivery of turn-key systems.
Although aviation is our primary focus area, major transfer
of technology is also taking place to DoD, in the form of turnkey forecasting
systems and algorithms. Systems for public weather forecasting also
have been transferred to the private sector. Applications to road weather
information are being developed for transfer beginning next year.
2. ADDS
The Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS), jointly developed
by NCAR-RAP, NOAA-FSL, and the NCEP-Aviation Weather Center (AWC) disseminates
weather products to the aviation community via the web (http://adds.aviationweather.gov).
ADDS is a single source for all aviation weather needs with methods to
retrieve raw observations and forecast data, simple and quick loading
graphics, and increased interaction with data using Java. Besides standard
National Weather Service data, ADDS also displays the products developed
under the FAA Aviation Weather Research program. ADDS participated in,
and passed a 30-day system stability test from 4 August to 5 September
2003. During this test, no intervention was required to support the system,
and over 1500 comments were received from the public on both ADDS and
the Flight Path Tool. On September 30, 2003, ADDS and the Flight Path
Tool were deemed Operational by the National Weather Service.
The Operational ADDS continues to reside at http://adds.aviationweather.gov.There
is now an experimental component of ADDS which showcases products which
have not been certified as operational by the National
Weather Service. While operational ADDS is supported 24/7, the experimental
version, hosted at RAP, is only supported during "normal" M-F
working hours.
JADE, a new area of development for the ADDS team, is a
Java-based toolset for writing 2D visualization applications. It is
based on code written for the current ADDS suite of Java Tools, but
was largely developed as a new technology. Currently, JADE supports
SkewT, time series, and cross-section displays; some GIS functions;
and a number of other capabilities.
3. 4DWX
Since 1995, a team of RAP engineers
and scientists have developed and implemented a four-dimensional weather
(4DWX) system for the US Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC), and
recently, for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The system
consists of new engineering technologies and scientific advancements
in numerical weather prediction and must operate reliably in live, mission-critical
situations. Thus, RAP has been faced with a substantial technology transfer
challenge, which includes training of DOD staff at seven locations around
the US on systems that are frequently updated. Furthermore, the sponsor
base for 4DWX has expanded to include the Army's Virtual Proving Ground,
a new and expanded role with DTRA, the Department of Water Resource
Studies (DWRS) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA). For both the new DTRA and DARPA programs,
the products and systems will have considerable significance for national
security, and must therefore be implemented with the highest standards
and practices that have emerged from RAP in recent years.
4DWX technologies provide the ATEC meteorology groups with their primary
source of weather data, analyses and forecasts. It also provides DTRA
with real-time coupled atmospheric and transport model products that
are being actively monitored and utilized by a number of organizations
charged with homeland security. The Army's Virtual Proving Ground (VPG)
program is being provided with regime-specific, high-resolution model
data sets and 3-D visualization tools to conduct virtual testing exercises
and provide DARPA with advanced 3-D boundary layer wind retrieval capabilities
that are likely to be applied for force protection for the Pentagon.
These systems and products are increasingly using applications and advanced
instrumentation techniques developed by other groups within NCAR, and
by universities (For example, a C.U.-developed tethersonde system that
uses a hot-cold wire technology for measuring turbulence in the boundary
layer, is being proposed as part of the recent proposal to DARPA for
protecting the Pentagon; a 3-D windfield retrieval algorithm developed
in the 1990's by J. Sun and A. Crook is now being adapted for use with
a Doppler Lidar for homeland security application). Thus, the challenge
of technology transfer for 4DWX systems is expanding across NCAR divisions
and to outside institutions.
For the Army test ranges, forecasting decisions are routinely based
on the 4DWX tools that provide high-resolution, range-specific information
and forecasts of low-level winds, expected dispersion patterns of biochemical
simulant agents, noise propagation patterns from high-explosives detonation,
deviations in missile ballistic trajectories due to winds from the surface
up to 100,000 ft, accurate thunderstorm locations, and model-derived
climatological information. In addition, capabilities providing worldwide
weather information and model output are available for support of international
missions. The system consists of a suite of modeling, algorithm and
data handling modules designed to provide advanced meteorological analyses,
forecasts and displays for meteorological units at Army test ranges
and proving grounds throughout the United States. System modules include:
a data management, ingest, archival, and display system; a product distribution
system employing the WWW; high-resolution (1.1 km) MM5 modeling capabilities
(currently converting operations to the WRF); advanced 3-D and stereo
visualization systems for operational and research usage; a system for
extracting high-resolution, observation- and model-based climatology
from the database; and fuzzy-logic techniques for short-term thunderstorm
forecasting. To date, 4DWX systems have been fielded at seven ATEC facilities
around the country, and are continuously monitored and improved by the
4DWX development team. Within the last year, 4DWX systems were transferred
to another branch of the Army to support live operations in Afghanistan
and Iraq, and to DTRA, in support of live exercises to mitigate the
effect of weapons of mass destruction for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Since September 11, 2001, there has been a distinct and rapid trend
towards tailoring 4DWX products for homeland security applications.
Each Army test range is expected to be able to demonstrate the ability
to forecast the transport and dispersion of hazardous airborne agents,
either in support of international DOD or domestic DHS operations; for
supporting local and regional civic organizations involved in homeland
security; or for responding to industrial accidents. As such the focus
of 4DWX product and system development is increasingly focusing on these
needs, which include providing the means to control modeling systems,
or to view system output, on wireless, handheld devices. The following
link provides a condensed description of these emerging capabilities,
where technology transfer to agencies with highly-specialized operational
protocols will provide the 4DWX team, and other groups within RAP and
NCAR, with considerable challenges.
Click
here for more background information on "Predicting the Transport
of Airborne Hazardous Material in Support of Homeland Secuity "
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