Invokes the forecast selection dialogue.

Forecast Selection Dialog

	Tip
	If you want to select more than one item from the product or Sites list, either press and drag the mouse (this works for consecutive items), or click at the items while pressing the Ctrl key.

	Important
	If a forecast is waiting for transmission in /awips/adapt/avnfps/OB8.3/xmit/pending directory, it will be loaded into editor, regardless of the 'Initialize From' menu choice and then deleted from the pending queue.

Syntax stands for syntax quality control. When you press this button, the editor will attempt to decode all forecasts and reassemble them, assuring proper indentation and maximum line length. Any errors/warnings will be highlighted in the displayed bulletin. There are 3 levels of errors:

If you press the left mouse button while pointing at the offending text, an explanatory message will be shown.

Syntax QC

The QC combines several checks. Currently implemented are: Current Weather Check, Climate Quality Control and Impact Check. When you select this button with the left mouse button, all the checks will be performed on all forecasts in the editor window. Right button will display a QC Selection dialog, where you can pick individual TAFs and checks to perform.

QC Selection Dialog

The weather check is intended for a quick check for changing conditions while forecasts are prepared, or when a routine issue forecast is prepared well in advance of the transmission window. If current observation and the weather in the first line of the forecast do not mach, the line will be highlighted.

Climate Quality Control is check that can assess the climatological frequency of the weather element combinations found in the TAF. It scans an archive of hourly and special observations, comparing combinations found in the TAF with observations available for that station. If a combination in the TAF has a low climatological frequency, an alert is displayed on the screen, alerting the forecaster to a climatologically rare event.

Impact check is a new feature in AvnFPSOB8.3. For each line of a TAF, a check is done against airport specific conditions. A message from Impact QC does not mean that the forecast is wrong just indicates that airport operations may be affected if the TAF is issued as is.

QC and Airport Impact Example

Stores current TAF bulletin into a temporary file tmp/CCCWRKTAF.type, where CCC is your node id and type is the forecast type.

Restores bulletin previously stored in a temporary file tmp/CCCWRKTAF.type. type must match the type selected in the editor.

Puts forecast in the transmission queue. In order to succeed, the forecast must successfully pass the Syntax check. In your resource file, there is an item *disalowSend, by default set to error. This means you can't inadverently send a forecast which does not follow the directive. If you have an error flagged, but are certain that the forecast is correct and either the software or directive is wrong, use Clear Errors before pressing Send. A confirmation dialog will be shown, where you will have to choose your name from the list. The corresponding forecaster ID number will be logged for forecast verification purposes.

Send Dialog

You can manually set the transmission time of the product. This feature is provided to allow for sending routine forecasts closer or at the end of transmission window in case of rapidly changing weather conditions.

	Note
	The transmit flag in the etc/forecasters file controls whether this button appears or not in the TAF editor. This feature is useful if users wish to use AvnFPS without the risk of inadvertant transmission of a TAF.

Modifies TAF by removing past periods, adjusts issue and valid times. If you use this tool before running syntax quality control, you can avoid error messages about invalid forecast periods.

Allows for interactive copy of forecasts in a collective. The idea is that you prepare forecast for one site, and want to replicate weather conditions for some other TAF sites nearby. This tool can be an alternative for copy-and-paste.

Updates forecasts with the current observations. Also incorporates functionality of the Adjust Times tool.

An example of a more sophisticated tool; it addresses a situation that commonly occurs in West Virginia. The tool creates forecasts for a number of other sites based on forecasts for KPKB and KHTS. The tool advects clouds and weather, adjusting cloud heights for elevation. Since the tool specifically access the WV TAF sites by name, it cannot be used “as is” by other WFOs.