NWS Radar Web Display System

Thomas H. Grayson
Southern Region Headquarters, National Weather Service

In the spring of last year, the National Weather Service (NWS) commissioned a project for the explicit purpose of “designing and implementing a NWS-wide approach to display radar data on NWS Internet sites coordinated with the schedule for the termination of the NEXRAD Information Dissemination Service (NIDS) agreements. With the NIDS agreements scheduled to expire on September 30, 2000, this meant an entire operational system had to be conceived, designed, procured, tested and implemented throughout the NWS within a matter of a few months. This undertaking was accomplished with minimum cost, and has resulted in the provision of a valuable service to NWS customers and other agency and commercial partners, such as the emergency management community, federal and state forest management services, the aviation industry and the military. This paper will discuss the issues that were encountered in both the design and implementation phases of the project, and their resolutions. Emphasis will focus on the operations systems architecture and the design of the national Radar Web Display System.

The Radar Web Display System was designed to meet the radar data needs of a significant number of NWS customer groups; the general public, including those with a higher weather interest related to safety, such as children's sporting events; local organizations and groups; emergency services personnel; federal, state and local government agencies; small, local commercial businesses; and all levels of educational institutions. The system has the capability to provide timely, easy to use, reliable and responsive hazardous weather radar data to a large audience; provide base and composite reflectivity, and storm rainfall data for the first time from 154 worldwide Doppler radars from as far as Guam in the Eastern Pacific and Nome in Alaska, to Puerto Rico in the Western Atlantic; provide radar mosaics for the contiguous U.S. and regional mosaics for the states of Alaska and Hawaii; provide easy to use looping and zooming capabilities; and provide intuitive means for users to easily navigate throughout the Radar Web Display System and to select radar coverages of interest.

In addition, prior to implementation of the Radar Web Display System there was no overarching system that allowed a user to easily navigate throughout the NWS Web site system. Each field office and operational center maintains a Web site that provides real time and near historical weather and water data for their area of responsibility. The number of these field Web sites approaches 150. The Radar Web Display System was designed to provide a mechanism to link the entire NWS Web site system, thus allowing users to easily navigate from one Web site to another, making it extremely easy for customers to obtain critical warning, forecast, climate and other vital weather and water information for their area of interest. The Systems' design also took into account such important issues as future maintainability, cost, scalability, NWS information technology standards, security, and accessibility.

BIO - Thomas H. Grayson Dr. Grayson is a member of the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association (Charter Member) and has published papers on objective analysis, statistics and operational meteorology. He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1963 to 1967. He is retired from the Naval Reserve with the rank of Captain. EDUCATION Ph.D. University of Michigan 1976 M.S. University of Michigan 1967 B.S.E. University of Michigan 1963 EMPLOYMENT 1988 - Present Chief, Systems Operations Division, Southern Region, National Weather Service (NWS) 1986 - 1988 Director, Western Region, NWS 1980 - 1986 Deputy Director, Southern Region, NWS 1979 - 1980 Chief, Scientific Services Division, Central Region, NWS 1979 - 1979 Deputy Meteorologist-in-Charge, Weather Service Forecast Office, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1977 - 1979 Deputy Meteorologist-in-Charge, Weather Service Forecast Office, Reno, Nevada 1975 - 1977 Chief, Computer Systems Branch, Techniques Development Laboratory, NWS 1971 - 1975 Research Meteorologist, Objective Forecast Branch, Techniques Development Laboratory, NWS 1969 - 1971 Research Meteorologist, Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (formerly, Fleet Numerical Weather Center), U.S. Navy, Monterey, California

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