Toward a New National Weather Service: Preliminary Assessment of the Operational Test and Evaluation Process for the Advanced Weather Information Process Systems (1996)

Visits to field sites and discussions with operational personnel have reconfirmed the committee's position that AWIPS is essential to the NWS modernization.⁵ The reactions of site personnel to the systems deployed to date have been positive. During the visits to OT&E sites, the committee observed site personnel using AWIPS as an operational tool to ingest and display satellite and NEXRAD data for preparing forecasts and other products. The committee noted that the functionality of AWIPS Build 1 has already significantly improved NWS operations by providing an integrated view of data from NEXRAD, the geostationary operational environmental satellite (GOES), and the gridded data products from the NCEP weather models. The introduction of AWIPS, the integrating element of the modernized NWS, already promises to facilitate new methods of operation.

Operational feedback from early deployment is critical to guiding future system development. The results of the OT&E have been encouraging so far. The process is effective in identifying significant problems early in the deployment of AWIPS. NWS and the contractor have demonstrated their commitment to resolving operational problems quickly and to improving AWIPS continuously to meet operational needs. The committee 's findings and conclusions are, on the whole, positive. The suggestions for improving the OT&E process are presented below as preliminary recommendations.

Recommendation 1. Configuration scripts should be automated and, as much as possible, should be easily configurable to local conditions. Verification scripts should be developed to confirm configuration changes performed by scripts. All scripts and associated procedures should be placed under the control of a strict configuration management and change management system.

Recommendation 2. Aggressive measures should be taken to improve AWIPS response time. To meet the full operational requirements of AWIPS, the NWS should take advantage of alternative solutions such as the functional capabilities demonstrated in WFO-Advanced.

Recommendation 3. Training for AWIPS hydrological applications at RFCs should be improved. Priority should be given to providing access to applications tailored to specific geographical areas early in the training.