A focus group conducted recently with state and local air quality forecasters, mainly from the northeastern United States, provided NOAA's Air Quality (AQ) Forecast Program with feedback on AQ test results from June to September 2003.

The focus group was part of a workshop held in Silver Spring, MD, on September 9-10, 2003.

"Focus group members summarized test performance as encouraging," said Paula Davidson, NWS Program Manager for Air Quality Forecasting.

"While this past summer's relatively cool, rainy weather over the northeast United States provided little opportunity to test the model under conditions leading to poor air quality, the test results are generally corroborated by monitoring data," Davidson said. Developers have begun improvements to address bias observed in test results toward predicting higher than actual levels of ozone. The focus group was pleased, even surprised, according to Davidson, with progress to date in building the capability.

NOAA is developing an Air Quality (AQ) forecast capability scheduled to deploy initially for the northeastern United States in September 2004. The capability will provide twice-daily forecasts of next-day ground-level ozone, in gridded format (12 kilometer resolution) at one-hour intervals. The capability relies on partnerships among NOAA for forecasting and operations, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for emissions data and interpretive health products, and state and local AQ forecasters for local forecasts, warnings, and alerts.

During the past year, researchers from NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) at EPA's Research Triangle Park facility in North Carolina adapted their air quality assessment model to run in forecast mode, driven by the NWS's National Centers for Environmental Prediction's (NCEP's) mesoscale weather prediction model. NCEP developers worked with OAR researchers to integrate and test the AQ forecast model within NCEP's model suite.

Additional supercomputer processors were acquired and integrated into NCEP's High Performance Computing Center facility to provide the needed capacity to meet the scheduled implementation. A high-speed communications line between NWS's Telecommunications Operations Center and EPA's data management facility has been installed to provide forecast guidance data to EPA, as well as provide monitoring data to NOAA to verify predictions. To provide objective verification, developers in the NWS Office of Science and Technology's Meteorologic Development Laboratory are running statistical analyses of test predictions.

Focus group feedback will be summarized in a presentation at the January 2004 American Meteorological Society's annual meeting.

NWS Holds Annual Partners Meeting; Plans Made for Two Meetings in 2004

By Ron Gird
Outreach Coordinator
OCWWS Awareness Branch

The annual NWS Partners Meeting drew 31 representatives from industry, government, and academia to NWS Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD, on September 11, 2003.

The meeting provided an opportunity for users of NWS products and services to learn about and comment on NWS plans and programs. Among the partners at the September meeting were Accuweather, Meteorlogix, the Weather Channel, WSI, UCAR, and Unidata.

A special session on improving communications between NWS and its partners was presented by Percy Thomas, Special Assistant to the Director of the Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services (OCWWS). Thomas said the key to improving communications was NWS responsiveness. Thomas surveyed participants about topics they were interested in, and during an afternoon session he presented a summary of results and some actions NWS may take to address the comments.

Partners offered specific ideas to improve future meetings and overall communications. They indicated a very strong need for more frequent meetings and in-depth discussions on specific technical topics.

Other topics discussed during the meeting included the impacts of delaying NDFD operations, establishing a new NWS Partners web Page, and providing partners more opportunities to participate in NWS improvement plans.

OCWWS is planning two NWS Partner meetings for the coming year. The first is scheduled during the American Meteorological Society Annual meeting in Seattle, WA, on January 15, 2004. The second meeting is set for June 17, 2004, at NWS Headquarters. NWS staff are considering offering monthly topical meetings.

AWIPS Software Expert is NOAA Team Member of the Month

Diane Deitz, a software expert working with the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) Network Control Facility (NCF), is NOAA's September Team Member of the Month.

Deitz is being honored for her technical skills and her dedication to the NWS mission of saving lives, protecting property, and enhancing the Nation's economy. The citation honoring her notes that she has a comprehensive understanding of NWS operations and routinely applies this knowledge to understanding how AWIPS system changes and software discrepancies may affect the ability of forecasters to issue warnings and forecasts.

People who work with her say Deitz proactively identifies potential AWIPS problems and takes appropriate action to develop solutions and alert NWS offices across the country when services are affected.

"If I were to compare Diane to hospital emergency room personnel, I'd say she had an excellent bedside manner," said Deirdre Jones, Chief, Systems Engineering Center, Office of Science and Technology, which is responsible for developing and deploying AWIPS systems and functionality. "She empathizes with her patients, sticks with them until they know the treatment plan, and, if possible, removes any immediate pain symptoms."

Tom Schwein, Chief of the Systems and Facilities Division, Central Region Headquarters, is responsible for operations and maintenance of AWIPS and other systems within the NWS Central Region. Schwein said Deitz takes a personal interest in ensuring field problems are raised to the attention of engineering and development managers, and ensures resolutions are implemented quickly.

"We've worked with Diane for many years now, and her enthusiasm and support has always been tremendous," Schwein said. "I am aware of numerous times when Diane, on her personal time at home, spent her Saturday evening networked into an AWIPS system halfway across the country to ensure AWIPS performed flawlessly during a major severe weather outbreak. It's that type of dedication that has earned her the respect of NWS employees across the country."

"Diane is well deserving of the praise that she receives," added Randy Chambers, the government manager for NCF services, who oversees the work performed by Deitz and others on the NCF staff. "She develops all of the NCF's Standard Operating Procedures, guidelines, and indicators that help all members of the NCF staff quickly diagnose problems and restore site operations. As part of her daily 'nursing' of the sites, she intervenes as needed, she measures the outcome, and examines the results. She shares the conclusions with site and other support entities within the organization. Diane represents the NWS core value of service above self."

OPM Releases 2004 Federal Employees Health Benefits Program Premiums
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently announced new premiums for the 2004 Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), a program that covers over eight million employees, retirees and their families. Details about plans and rates are available here.

OPM compared the average 10.6 percent rate increase as lower than the national average rise in health insurance premiums. For 2004, Federal employees have more plan choices, including HMOs, reversing a 5-year trend of a declining number of plan choices.

Read the OPM news release here.

E-Mail Subscription Delivers Automatic Notices of Newly-Posted NWS Directives

A new NWS Directives System (NDS) e-mail subscription system was implemented this month. When policy directives, procedural directives, and supplements are posted to the NDS web site, subscribers will receive an automatic e-mail with a link to the NDS web site "What's New" page.

Anyone with a valid e-mail address can subscribe to receive updates. NOAA addressees and public users can subscribe from the NDS web site. Each evening, the NDS system will "identify" if any new directives were posted. If so, an e-mail message will be sent to subscribers alerting them to the posting and attaching a link.

To sign up for e-mail notification of new directives, go to www.nws.noaa.gov/directives and click the link at the bottom of the home page. Subscribers also can unsubscribe at the same link.