A Vision for the National Weather Service Road Map for the Future (1999) / Chapter Skim
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3 Providing Weather and Environmental Information Services
3 Providing Weather and Environmental Information Services
Pages 46-57
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From page 46... ...
CUSTOM ERS AN D PROVI DERS OF WEATHER INFORMATION As the recent modernization of NWS technology and operations nears completion, the various communities of information users are already reaping benefits from the improved observations, data assimilation, and modeling. The print and television broadcast media, often with the help of private meteorologists, have been instrumental in communicating NWS forecasts to the general public via increasingly sophisticated and effective graphical representations of weather information.
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From page 47... ...
WEATHER INFORMATION IN AN INFORMATION ECONOMY Given the rapid changes of the past three decades in information technology and in the ways this technology has transformed how we communicate and use information, one can expect that future weather information services will differ from today's in ways we can scarcely imagine, much less predict with confidence. However, two major driving forces are already present and will continue to have a substantial influence at least until 2025.
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From page 48... ...
As weather information becomes more accurate, the familiar weather forecast products will be augmented, or even superseded, by information in the form of decision-support aids tailored for business, public, and personal decisions. The What and How of Information For application-specific products and services, weather information will be integrated with other environmental, economic, and technical data to produce information products that (1)
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From page 49... ...
These scenarios are provided to alert planners to the range of variations in scientific, economic, political, and international conditions relevant to the panel's vision for 2025. PRESENT AND FUTURE ROLES OF INFORMATION PROVIDERS To illustrate how the creation and distribution of weather information products and services are likely to be affected by increases in the value of environmental information, the panel developed a description of how such information is currently provided and a vision of how environmental
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From page 50... ...
NWS forecasts, warnings, and watches are disseminated to most of the public through private broadcast and print media. In addition to the broadcast and print media, other markets for commercial providers of weather information have emerged in recent years.
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From page 51... ...
Role of the National Weather Service The NWS today supplies multifaceted data and valuable information to the public and private entities that provide weather and emergency management services. The nearly completed modernization of NWS observing systems, systems for processing and communicating data, and staff structure has improved the quantity and quality of NWS services.
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From page 53... ...
In the future, NWS products will continue to be accessible to all NWS customers, but the ways in which these products are created and disseminated will improve. With the growth of information infrastructure, the NWS will be called upon to provide more information to a greatly expanded public and private provider network.
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From page 54... ...
Others, such as value-added resellers of NWS forecast data, add value to forecast data by providing specialized graphical presentations or data formats for specific customers. As the weather information industry grows, many more private-sector organizations will join the provider network.
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From page 55... ...
The NWS will retain the lead role for issuing warnings and ensuring their dissemination. Second, the NWS will continue to provide information-rich observational data and "ridded forecast products to other information providers, including not only the traditional disseminators of NWS products (emergency preparedness and broadcast media)
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From page 56... ...
The list is a summary of all the users of weather information, who will in the future be served by the provider network. But it is not a list of NWS primary customers.
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From page 57... ...
In fact, the broad mission of the NWS to provide weather services to the nation requires that it take a leadership role in this process. An ongoing, periodic process for defining requirements should have an accompanying response process.
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