NOUS41 KWBC 271447 AAA PNSWSH Public Information Statement: Amended National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC 1247 PM EDT Tue Sep 27 2011 To: Subscribers -Family of Services -NOAA Weather Wire Service -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network -NOAAPORT Other NWS partners and NWS employees From: Joseph Facundo Chief, NWS Observing Systems Branch Subject: Amended: Operational Test and Evaluation (OTandE) for Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) Software version 3.05 (v3.05) Note: The following changes have no direct impact on NOAA Weather Wire Service subscribers Amended to include FAA training of Air Traffic Controllers and extend conclusion of OTandE to spring or summer of 2012. The ASOS product improvement program will begin an OTandE on ASOS software v3.05 on or about October 3, 2011. The new v3.05 software load provides some 58 new functionalities to ASOS and includes 23 operational fixes to the current operational baseline v2.79D. The new capabilities will do the following: - Help ASOS to meet the encoding requirements for METAR/SPECI reports as outlined in the Federal Meteorological Handbook No. 1 (FMH 1) - Improve quality control logic for automated data, improve information provided in log files - Add the reporting of ice accretion amounts - Add the Ice Free Wind (IFW) sensor quality control algorithm Provide support for the Federal Aviation and Administration’s (FAA) Weather Sensor Processor (WSP) program. - Add an Ice Accretion Remark on the 1 minute page and in the METAR and SPECI observations. The amount of ice accreting on a flat surface (planar icing), as estimated by the data from the freezing rain sensor, will be included in the remarks section of the METAR/ SPECI reports. The remark will have the format of "Ihnnn," where "h" is the hourly time period, i.e., 1, 3 or 6 hours. The value "nnn" is the ice thickness accumulated to the nearest 0.01 inch. A toggle for the ice accretion remark to be included in the METAR/SPECI reports is on the PHYSICALS page (REVUE SITE PHYS). The OTandE will be conducted in two phases. Phase 1 is scheduled to take place at 16 FAA service level D and O sites starting on or about October 3, 2011. Phase 2 is scheduled to take place at 26 FAA service level A, B, and C sites starting in the winter of 2011 2012. Phase 2 will start once the FAA trains the Air Traffic Controllers (ATC), and Contract Weather Observers (CWO’s) on the changes in v3.05. The duration of the OTandE will be approximately 6 months, running through the winter months of 2011 2012. The OTandE will conclude sometime during the spring or summer of 2012. More detailed information on v3.05 software can be found at: http://www.weather.gov/ops2/ops24/documents/asos_v3.htm Phase 1: installation of ASOS v3.05 software at the following 16 sites beginning on or about 10/03/2011: BFD Bradford, PA RME Rome, NY TAN Taunton, MA POR Portage, AK ANJ Sault Ste. Marie, MI WAL Wallops Island, VA GIF Winter Haven, FL ATT Austin, TX LOL Lovelock, NV OLS Nogales, AZ CLM Port Angles, WA U.S. Navy Sites: KNAK Annapolis, MD KNGU Norfolk NAS, VA KNKT Cherry Point MCAS, NC KNBC Beaufort MCAS, SC KNIP Jacksonville NAS, FL Phase 2 (26 Sites) beginning sometime during the winter of 2011 2012: HIO Portland, OR GKN Gulkana, AK JNU Juneau, AK FAI Fairbanks, AK DSM Des Moines, IA GRB Green Bay, WI PIA Peoria, IL SGF Springfield, MO TOP Topeka, KS BIS Bismark, ND COU Columbia, MO ACY Atlantic City, NJ CLE Cleveland, OH ORH Worcestor, MA PWM Portland, ME ITO Hilo, HI LIH Lihue, HI TRI Bristol, TN DFW Dallas Ft. Worth, TX TUL Tulsa, OK P68 Eureka, NV PDT Pendelton, OR SLC Salt Lake City, UT TUS Tucson, AZ BFI Boeing Field, MT BIL Billings, MT For more information, please contact: Joseph Facundo NWS Observing Systems Branch Silver Spring, MD 20910 Joseph.Facundo@noaa.gov 301 713 2093 ext.101 Public Information Statements are online at: http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm $$ NNNN