National Weather Service (NWS) operational impacts of the NEXRAD scientific and technical evolution in the AWIPS era

The National Weather Service (NWS) is in the process of developing and testing the initial implementation of the Advanced Weather Information Processing System (AWIPS). AWIPS will provide an expandable processing system capable of acquiring observational data from a variety of central and local sources, and including its manipulation and display as part of the end-to-end forecast process. The accessability of basic Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) products at each forecaster workstation is one of the earliest benefits AWIPS will provide. As the products and capabilities of the WSR-88D evolve, the need in the algorithm calculations for external data, available through AWIPS, will increase. At the same time, AWIPS will provide the core capabilities for NWS forecasters to see the improved WSR-88D products in ways never before possible. The evolutionary path of both these technologies must be carefully coordinated to enhance their benefits to forecast operations. This paper provides an early look at the impacts expected from this symbiotic development