Forecast Improvements
NSSL Project 9 – Research on Integration and Use of Multi-Sensor Information in Weather Forecasting: Science and Technology Infusion
Funding Type: CIMMS Task II
Objectives
Work with CIMMS/NSSL scientists to develop multiple-sensor severe weather
warning applications and display systems and transfer that technology
to NWS operational systems; maintain an Advanced Weather Information
Processing System (AWIPS) Development Environment at CIMMS/NSSL; facilitate
the development of the Hazardous Weather Testbed – Experimental
Warning Program at the new National Weather Center in Norman.
Accomplishments
The third full year of the CIMMS/NWS/Meteorological Development Laboratory
(MDL) scientist position was completed during this review period. The “AWIPS-Lite” system
that was installed at NSSL last year was upgraded with the new workstation
hardware, and is still being used for AWIPS application development and
evaluation.
The project to adapt the NSSL Warning Decision Support System II (WDSSII) 3D/4D base radar display application (the WDSSII GUI, or ‘wg’) into an AWIPS application known as the Four-Dimensional Stormcell Investigator (FSI) was completed. The FSI is a version of the WDSSII display that simultaneously displays in four panels radar data at constant elevation angle, interactive vertical crosssections and constant altitude cross-sections, along with a 3D display. The software has been delivered to the National Weather Service, and will be included in the AWIPS Operational Build 8.2 (OB8.2) slated for a winter 2008 release. The software is currently being operationally alpha-tested at three NWS forecast offices (Melbourne FL, Omaha NE, and Huntsville AL). Feedback from these alpha tests will be used to help better define the design of the FSI for future version releases. The next version of the FSI, for AWIPS OB8.3, is anticipated to include support for displaying super-resolution WSR-88D data and polarimetric radar data, as well as advanced data sampling capabilities. Beyond that, support for displaying Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) data, and 3D isosurface capabilities is anticipated.
The CIMMS/MDL scientist continued to closely collaborate with the severe weather warning R&D activities at CIMMS and NSSL, in the areas of multiple-sensor severe weather warning applications which will eventually be transferred to NWS operations. We are still supporting the system to display various multiple-sensor WDSSII diagnostic grids for hail, storm rotation, and 3D lightning for the Norman, Fort Worth, and Tulsa WFOs.
The CIMMS/MDL scientist continued to work with collaborators in NSSL, the WDTB, and the Norman WFO to develop a WFO-scale component of the National Weather Center (NWC) Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT), known as the Experimental Warning Program (EWP), designed to be a proving ground for new severe weather applications to assist short-fused (0-1 hour) warning decisions.
The CIMMS/MDL scientist was instrumental in the development of ideas, and he participated during real-time exercises, of a national gridded probabilistic warning experiment which was started in the HWT/EWP during the spring of 2007. This experiment is expected to continue into 2008 and beyond. The CIMMS/MDL scientist, along with the WDTB and the NSSL, co-organized the 2nd Workshop on Severe Weather Technology for NWS Warning Decision Making at the NWC in Norman. This workshop served to bring researchers, technology specialists, field forecasters, and management with the objectives of: 1) Identifying potential pathways to evolve severe weather warning decision making and technologies, and 2) providing recommendations for the evolution of the HWT/EWP.
This project is ongoing.
Publications
Lakshmanan, V., A. Fritz, T. Smith, K. Hondl, and G. J. Stumpf,
2007: An automated technique to quality control radar reflectivity data.
J. Appl. Meteor., 46, 288-305.
Lakshmanan, V., T. Smith, K. Hondl, G. J. Stumpf, and A. Witt, 2006: A real-time, three dimensional, rapidly updating, heterogeneous radar merger technique for reflectivity, velocity and derived products. Wea. Forecasting, 21, 802-823.
Lakshmanan, V., T. M. Smith, K. Cooper, J. J. Levit, G. J. Stumpf, and D. R. Bright, 2006: High-resolution radar data and products over the continental United States. Preprints, 22nd Intl. Conf. on Interactive Information Processing Systems for Meteor., Oceanography, and Hydrology, Atlanta, GA, Amer. Meteor. Soc., CD-ROM 9.7.
Ortega, K. L., T. M. Smith and G. J. Stumpf, 2006: Verification of multi-sensor, multi-radar hail diagnosis techniques. Preprints, Symp. on the Challenges of Severe Convective Storms. Atlanta, GA, Amer. Meteor. Soc., CD-ROM P1.1.
Magsig, M. A., and G. J. Stumpf, 2006: The first workshop on severe weather technology for NWS warning decision making. Preprints, Symp. on the Challenges of Severe Convective Storms. Atlanta, GA, Amer. Meteor. Soc., CD-ROM P1.8.
Monteverdi, J. P., R. Edwards, G. J. Stumpf, and D. Gudgel, 2007: An analysis of the 7 July 2004 Rockwell Pass, CA tornado: Highest elevation tornado documented in the US extended abstract. Preprints, 23rd Conf. on Severe Local Storms, St. Louis, MO, Amer. Meteor. Soc., CD-ROM, P12.2.
Stumpf, G. J., M. T. Filiaggi, M. A. Magsig, K. D. Hondl, S. B. Smith, R. Toomey, and C. Kerr, 2006: Status on the integration of the NSSL Four-dimensional Stormcell Investigator (FSI) into AWIPS. Preprints, 23rd Conf. on Severe Local Storms, St. Louis, MO, Amer. Meteor. Soc., CD-ROM, 8.3.
Example of a gridded probabilistic tornado warning.