NOUS41 KWBC
DDHHMM
PNSWSH
Public
Information Statement, Comment Request
National Weather
Service Headquarters Washington DC
940 AM EDT Fri
Mar 15 2013
To: Subscribers:
-Family of Services
-NOAA Weather Wire Service
-Emergency Managers Weather Information
Network
-NOAAPORT
Other NWS users and employees
From: Mark Tew
Chief, Marine and Coastal Services
Branch
Subject:
Experimental Gridded Marine Offshore and High Seas
Forecasts in the National Digital Forecast
Database (NDFD) Effective Wednesday
March 20, 2013
Effective
Wednesday March 20, 2013, at 1200 Coordinated Universal
time (UTC), the NWS Tropical Analysis and
Forecast Branch (TAFB)
will begin providing, on an experimental basis,
gridded forecasts
of four marine weather elements over its
offshore waters and high
seas forecast areas of responsibility (AOR) in
the Atlantic and
Pacific. The grids will be included in the National
Digital
Forecast Database
(NDFD). The Ocean Prediction Center (OPC) will
begin providing offshore grids on May 1, 2013. OPC
high seas
forecasts grids are expected to be added during 2014.
The
Honolulu Weather
Forecast Office will provide grids when
necessary hardware improvements are completed later
this year.
The Weather
Forecast Offices in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau
Alaska currently
provide five variables over their offshore
waters on an experimental basis to the NDFD in the
Arctic Ocean,
Bering
Sea and Gulf of Alaska basins.
The gridded
marine parameters include surface wind direction and
speed, wind gusts, significant wave heights and
marine hazards.
The Alaska
offices also produce a weather grid.
The upper right
latitude, longitude for this new oceanic grid is:
79.99N,
10.71E
The lower left
corner lies directly on NCEP grid 204 point, which
coincides with all other Pacific region NDFD grids.
The lower
left latitude, longitude for this grid is:
30.42S, 129.91E
Specific
information on the grid domain can be found at
http://graphical.weather.gov/docs/ndfdSRS.htm
Areas of the new
offshore grids that coincide with the NDFD CONUS
grid will be included in the CONUS mosaic.
Each offshore and
high seas producer will update their grids at
least four times per day.
On March 20, URLs
to download the experimental marine grids will
be online at:
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR
.oceanic/VP.001-003/
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR
.oceanic/VP.004-007/
ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.oc
eanic/VP.001-003/
ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/SL.us008001/ST.expr/DF.gr2/DC.ndfd/AR.oc
eanic/VP.004-007/
More details
regarding these elements are available in the
Product
Description Document in the online catalog of
Experimental NWS
products and services available at:
https://products.weather.gov/PDD/Ex_Grid_Offshore_HS_ndfd.pdf
With this
implementation, forecasts for these new zones will be
available from NDFD in the following standard methods:
- Gridded Binary
Version 2 (GRIB2) files via Hypertext Transfer
- Protocol (HTTP)
and File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
- Extensible
Markup Language (XML) via Simple Object
Access Protocol (SOAP)
- Graphics via
web browser
Graphics for the
oceanic grid will be available via the new
experimental NDFD map viewer located at:
http://preview.weather.gov/graphical/
Both graphics, and XML via SOAP will become available within 30
days of these grids being produced.
Information on
accessing and using NDFD elements is online at:
http://ndfd.weather.gov/technical.htm
Comments and
feedback on these experimental TAFB Offshore and
High Seas NDFD elements,
as well as the OPC Offshore elements,
are welcome at:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/survey/nws-survey.php?code=EGOSWHSMF
GRIB2 users:
http://www.weather.gov/survey/nws-survey.php?code=ndfd-grids
Users OF XML SOAP
service:
http://www.weather.gov/survey/nws-survey.php?code=xmlsoap
NDFD online
graphics:
http://www.weather.gov/survey/nws-survey.php?code=gfp
These new
Offshore and High Seas Marine elements will remain
Experimental
until NWS assesses feedback and completes a
Technical
Analysis. At that time, the NWS will determine whether
to move these experimental elements to
operational status,
discontinue them, or revise and extend the experimental
feedback
period.
If March 20,
2013, is declared a Critical Weather Day this
implementation date will be postponed. Users will be notified of
that decision via another Public Information
Statement and a new
implementation date will be established.
If you have
questions regarding this notice, please contact:
David Soroka
National Marine Program Manager
National Weather Service Headquarters
Silver Spring Maryland 20910
301-713-1677X111
For general
questions regarding NDFD data, please email:
For technical
questions regarding NDFD data, please contact:
David Ruth
Mesoscale Prediction Branch Chief
NOAA/NWS Office of Science and Technology
Silver Spring, Maryland
301-713-1768x157
NDFD Public
Information Statements are online at:
http://www.weather.gov/ndfd/tins.htm
All National
Technical Implementation Notices are online at:
http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm
$$