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SAFESEASSystem on AWIPS for Forecasting and Evaluation of Seas and Lakes |
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AWIPS Requirements White
Paper: RWP 310 Title: SAFESEAS Monitoring Capabilities in D2D A. Requirements: 1. AWIPS shall provide the user the capability of monitoring marine observational data for marine zones in the SAFESEAS D2D application. This monitoring capability shall be provided as a graphical display of the observation as a station plot, and also by values displayed in an attribute table. These capabilities for monitoring shall be provided for areas extending beyond the forecast area of responsibility for each office, to ensure that monitoring and notification for warning conditions which could enter into that forecast area is provided. A comparison of the all current issued warnings with real time observations shall be provided. Whenever thresholds for warning criteria are exceeded in observational data and the comparable or higher category warning conditions are not included in official text warning products, the SAFESEAS application will provide the user a visual and audible notification. The monitoring system
shall provide a visual and audible indication of all data which
exceed the thresholds for the default warning criteria as defined
in Tables A1-8 of the First Workshop on SAFESEAS Requirements and
Design document, published by the Department of Commerce, January
2000. Any user selectable combination of the parameters available
for data from the following sources of observations shall be plotted
and displayed in the SAFESEAS application:
These capabilities for monitoring shall extend beyond the forecast area of responsibility for each office, to ensure that monitoring and notification for warning conditions which could enter into that forecast area is provided. Thresholds for the categories displayed in the attribute table, and the graphical display shall be set with the defaults as identified in the Tables A1-8 of the First Workshop on SAFESEAS Requirements and Design document published by the Department of Commerce, January 2000. Any user selectable combination of the parameters available for data from the following numerical model forecast models shall be displayable in the SAFESEAS application:
3. AWIPS shall provide the user the capability of displaying and monitoring the official IFPS generated forecast grids within the SAFESEAS D2D application. This monitoring capability shall provide an visual and audible notification to the user whenever realtime observational data exceed the warning criteria thresholds for Marine Zones, and the corresponding IFPS official forecast grids do not contain data at or above these warning criteria thresholds. A visual and audible notification will alert the user of marine conditions which may warrant preparation of an update to the IFPS official forecast grids. This notification will be provided both as a graphical display of the areas for which the gridded official forecasts may need to be modified, and also by values to be displayed in an attribute table. Thresholds for the categories displayed in the attribute table, and the graphical display shall be set with the defaults as identified in the Tables A1-8 of the First Workshop on SAFESEAS Requirements and Design document published by the Department of Commerce, January 2000. Data for the following marine parameters from the official IFPS generated forecast grids shall be displayed:
These capabilities for monitoring shall be provided for areas extending beyond the forecast area of responsibility for each office, to ensure that monitoring and notification for warning conditions which could enter into that forecast area is provided. Thresholds for the categories displayed in the attribute table, and the graphical display shall be set with the defaults as identified in the Tables A1-8 of the First Workshop on SAFESEAS Requirements and Design document published by the Department of Commerce, January 2000. Satellite imagery shall be used for determination of the following:
5. AWIPS shall provide the user the capability of displaying and monitoring gridded analyses and forecast products prepared by the four Marine Centers: the Marine Prediction Center (MPC); the Tropical Prediction Center (TPC); the WFO Anchorage; and the WFO Honolulu/Central Pacific Hurricane Center in the D2D application. This monitoring capability shall be provided both as a graphical display of the gridded analyses and forecast products for all Marine Zones, and also by values displayed in an attribute table. These capabilities for monitoring shall be provided for areas extending beyond the forecast area of responsibility for each office, to ensure that monitoring and notification for warning conditions which could enter into that forecast area is provided. Thresholds for the categories displayed in the attribute table, and the graphical display shall be set with the defaults as identified in the Tables A1-8 of the First Workshop on SAFESEAS Requirements and Design document published by the Department of Commerce, January 2000. 6. AWIPS shall provide the user the capability to graphically underlay the Gulf Stream Analysis and Forecast in the SAFESEAS D2D application. These analyses and forecasts of the North and South Wall of the Gulf Stream shall be derived from a source of gridded Sea Surface Temperature products: the Navy Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) gridded Sea Surface Temperature Analysis product; or from the Coastal Ocean Forecasting System (COFS) Sea Surface Temperature Analysis and Forecast. This Gulf Stream Analysis and Forecast shall be displayable over a map of the Marine Coastal and Offshore Zones in the D2D. 7. AWIPS shall provide the user the capability of ingesting, decoding and displaying grids generated as output from local models (e.g. workstation eta) in the D2D SAFESEAS application. Monitoring shall be provided for the warning category thresholds and displayed in the attribute table, and graphically in D2D, with the defaults as identified in the Tables A1-8 of the First Workshop on SAFESEAS Requirements and Design document published by the Department of Commerce, January 2000. 8. AWIPS shall provide both an audible alert and visible flashing or color coding to alert the user whenever warning criteria are met in the observational marine data, the gridded analyses and satellite derived products, and the gridded numerical model forecasts. A table shall provide a comparison of the results obtained from each available numerical model forecast out to the day five forecast period. The options for the visual and audible alarms shall be user selectable. The thresholds for warning criteria shall be user selectable, since criteria for some elements such as wave steepness are locally defined. The color coding shall
be done to provide a level of threat indicated: 9. AWIPS shall provide monitoring and decision assistance for all warning and forecast criteria out to the day 5 forecast period which are included in the following operational marine products:
10. AWIPS shall provide the capability to compute a gridded threat index for the Great Lakes and the ocean coastal, offshore and high seas marine zones, based upon numerical model forecasts of stability indices and wind direction and speed. This algorithm will provide a means of computing the potential for mixing strong winds and cold air down to the surface, for example where the potential for building high seas along the Gulf Stream is likely. The gridded treat index shall be displayable in probabilistic terms with likely hood of the treat ranging from 0 to 100%. The threat index shall be computed for all available numerical model forecast levels below 850 mb. The following numerical model forecasts and derived satellite products shall be used for computation of the gridded threat index
11. AWIPS shall provide a means of integrating SAFESEAS monitoring and alert capabilities with the marine product generation capabilities in the WarnGen, WWA and IFPS applications. This integration shall provide a mechanism by which data for which warning criteria thresholds have been exceeded during the forecast period are utilized in proposed and amended text warnings and text forecast products.
The System on AWIPS for Forecasting and Evaluation of Seas and Lakes (SAFESEAS) is intended to provide an application which will be used by staff at NWS Marine offices and centers to assist forecasters monitoring the observational data, oceanographic analyses, and numerical model forecasts for the Great Lakes, coastal, offshore, and high seas marine zones. Alert capabilities in SAFESEAS shall be provided for identification of areas with potentially hazardous marine weather conditions. An integration with existing product generation capabilities on AWIPS shall be provided with SAFESEAS. The zones for which SAFESEAS shall provide monitoring and alert capabilities are the forecast domain for the coastal Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) and four Marine Centers: the Marine Prediction Center (MPC); The Tropical Prediction Center (TPC); the WFO Anchorage; and the WFO Honolulu/Central Pacific Hurricane Center. SAFESEAS capabilities are required to provide monitoring of the real time and forecast marine conditions out to the day five forecast period. SAFESEAS shall also provide a method of interfacing with marine product generation applications run on AWIPS. It is recommended that SAFESEAS not provide a separate marine product generation capability, but be designed to integrate with existing AWIPS applications which are utilized for generation of marine forecast and warning products. The current Interactive Forecast Preparation System (IFPS), Warning Generation (WarnGen) and Watch Warning and Advisory (WWA) applications on AWIPS provide capabilities to support the generation of routine and event driven warning marine forecast products. The IFPS routine product generation capabilities are prepared with marine elements that are initialized from numerical model forecasts and guidance products. The warning products generated with WarnGen are interactively prepared by the user and are based upon radar imagery. The WWA application warning product generation is done interactively by the user. Marine product generation capabilities at the national Marine Centers, TPC and MPC are presently provided with the NAWIPS workstations and Personal Computers (PCs). Initial capabilities for decision assistance provided by SAFESEAS shall be limited to monitoring, alert functionality, and a method of interfacing to product generation capabilities now existing in AWIPS. Future enhancements to SAFESEAS shall provide additional capabilities for linking information and data made available from the National Ocean Service (NOS) Physical Oceanography Real-time System (PORTS). C. Desisions/Assumptions: These capabilities are required to support site backup and during failover of the servers. It is assumed the following data, satellite derived guidance, and model guidance will be made available on NOAAPORT in the future, to provide additional support for monitoring of marine observations, analyses, derived satellite products, and numerical model forecasts: Observations:
Numerical Model Forecasts
Gridded Analyses
Marine Center Forecasts
The two National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) centers with marine responsibility, TPC and MPC are presently using the National Center Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (NAWIPS) for monitoring and marine product generation. It is assumed that the TPC and MPC will continue to utilize NAWIPS as their primary workstation system for graphics, while using AWIPS to generate text marine products. Initial SAFESEAS capabilities should focus on the domains of the Great Lakes and Coastal and Offshore Marine Zones. Future SAFESEAS capabilities would provide functionality for the High Seas areas (issued by Honolulu, MPC and TPC). D. Known Reference Documents: Operations Manual Chapters
D07, D51, D52, C43, C11, D54 First Workshop on SAFESEAS Requirements and Design, Department of Commerce Technical Report, January 2000. E. Operational/OCWWS/NC Point(s) of Contact for the Functionality: Richard May, OCWWS
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