AHPS Release 2.0 Overview
This overview covers the features available on the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Services (AHPS) release 2.0 web pages. These features allow users to more easily access hydrologic information that meets their specific needs. These changes have been implemented in response to user feedback and to make the AHPS pages more consistent with the National Weather Service's overall web presence.
National Level Features
On the future National AHPS page as seen above, you will notice the map is now at the same scale and projection as the Warnings and Forecasts map (www.weather.gov). A major addition to this page is the ability to view subsets of the gauges by using a dropdown selection menu. In this dropdown selection menu, located above the National Map in the left-hand corner, the options of All Locations, Hydrograph Only Locations, and Hydrograph/Probability Forecast Locations are available; All Locations is selected by default. Hydrograph/Probability Forecast Locations are gauges that have both hydrograph data and probabilistic data. Hydrograph Only Locations are gauges that only have hydrograph information. Users can also further manipulate the displayed stage category data by simply clicking on the corresponding color in map legend.
A significant change from the previous National AHPS page is the use of a new color scheme to represent different categories of river levels. This color scheme will be used consistently throughout the AHPS web pages.
Local Hydrologic Service Area Page Features
The National AHPS page is not the only area to receive coding enhancements. The Local Hydrologic Service Area (HSA) / Local Weather Forecast Office (WFO) pages have also undergone extensive restructuring to provide an easier tool to display data to the public. Some of the features that have been added to the Local HSA page are:
- The Compass Feature – allows navigation to adjacent areas
- Location Type Dropdown Menus – allows viewing all locations, or subsets with and without probability information
- Expandable Tab-Style Menus – provides ability to view/hide supplemental information
- Dynamic Dropdown River Menus – listing of forecast points along a river
Hydrograph Page
The
Hydrograph page has also undergone restructuring in order to display
data more effectively. Upgrades will take place in two phases.
Each is described below, in the order in which they will occur.
In the first phase,
tab-style navigational menus have replaced the graphical navigation
bar that was utilized in the previous release. Also the  button now appears on the Hydrograph page;
this is used to ease navigation back to the Hydrologic Service Area
map. Additionally,  and  buttons have been placed in a common area under the hydrograph.
The button links to a .pdf description about
the displayed graph. The button provides access to individual observations and forecast
values, in tabular form; this feature was available in the previous
release.
The next phase will provide an improved hydrograph that incorporates many user suggestions. These hydrographs utilize the standard color scheme to represent stage categories. Implementation of these changes will be completed in early 2006. When the final changes are implemented, the hydrograph page will have a new look and new features, examples are given below.
Just as with the National Map page, the Hydrograph page also utilizes dropdown selection menus to allow users to select the data that is displayed on the page. By usage of a dropdown selection menu, users can view a hydrograph scaled to optimally display the range of observations and forecast values (Default Hydrograph), scaled t to flood stage (Scale to Flood Stage), or scaled to display all flood categories at a particular location (Scale to Flood Categories). Scale to Flood Categories can be seen in the previous illustrated example.
Additional new features
found on this New Hydrograph page include the  and  buttons. The button opens a new window with a printable
layout (an Adobe .pdf file) of the current Hydrograph. The button opens a new browser window and displays all of the XML
Data associated with the current Hydrograph.
More Information
There are many new features associated with AHPS Release 2.0; for a more in-depth description of this software release, please visit the URL below:
Full AHPS Release 2.0 Features Document PDF
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