Director's Dialog: Future of Center Weather Service Units?

What are the chances that the CWSU program will avoid significant consolidation/reorganization as recently proposed by the FAA?

William Bobb, Center Weather Service Unit (CWSU), Denver

Electrical Incident Disrupts Training Center Schedule

On July 2, 2003, an electrical power incident caused damage to electrical systems and the AWIPS equipment at the National Weather Service Training Center in Kansas City, MO. Although there was a small fire, Training Center personnel acted quickly and there was no damage to the building and no one was injured.

The extent of the damage to electrical and AWIPS systems is still being assessed.

"While this event did impact the offering of training courses for the remainder of FY 03, we remain aware of the important role training plays in the NWS mission and are making every effort to remedy the situation in time for the Training Center to offer the full FY 04 class schedule," said Eli Jacks, Acting Director, NWS Training Division.

In the meantime, employees who have scheduled training should watch their e-mail for potential schedule changes, or call the NWS Training Center at 816-880-9673 if they have any questions.

Earth Observation Summit Planned

NOAA is sponsoring the International Earth Observation Summit (EOS), scheduled for July 30-August 2, 2003, in Washington, DC.

The summit will bring together about 25 nations to build an international, comprehensive, integrated and sustained Earth Observation system.

Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.), Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator will lead the briefing along with senior representatives from NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Scheduled speakers include: Secretary of Commerce Don Evans; Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham; Secretary of State Colin Powell; NASA Administrator Sean OKeefe; Science Advisor to the President, John Marburger; and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James Connaughton.

The aim of the summit is to develop a new Earth Observing system providing scientific data needed to address important global economic, social and scientific challenges, and sustainable development.

See the Summit web page for more information.

NWS Takes First Steps Toward Air Quality Forecast Capability

Following a 2002 Congressional mandate, the NWS is implementing a National Air Quality Forecast (AQF) Capability. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and NOAA are jointly developing a forecasting tool which will predict air quality for communities across the Nation. The new capability will provide hourly gridded forecast guidance for next day ground-level ozone. This guidance will provide more accurate predictions of poor air quality, in time for people to take action to limit harmful effects.

This summer, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) is integrating and testing a NOAA/EPA-developed air quality model system as a first step towards planned operational deployment over the northeastern United States in September 2004. Currently NCEP is testing the model on a daily basis. Evaluation of these test results will be used to refine the system that will undergo summer 2004 real-time testing leading to operational deployment.

"Under the current concept of operations, NWS will issue centrally-produced numerical Air Quality predictions as guidance," said Paula Davidson, AQF Program Manager with the Office of Science and Technology. "This guidance will serve as a standard tool, ultimately nationwide, for public and private state and local forecasters who provide tailored forecasts for their communities, and EPA who provides interpreted air quality health indices and warnings."

The program involves partnering with EPA, which provides national emission inventory data to NWS for numerical weather prediction models. The new integrated system will combine the NWSs weather forecasting with EPAs information on atmospheric pollution to provide next-day, hour-by-hour forecasts of air quality twice every day.

The capability under development is an integrated system linking NWSs numerical weather prediction models to the NOAA/EPA-developed Community Mesoscale Air Quality (CMAQ) system to provide next day guidance, at hourly intervals, at the resolution of NWSs operational mesoscale model - currently NCEPs Eta model at 12-kilometer resolution.

Read the previous NOAA's NWS Focus article on Air Quality Forecasts here.

Tsunami Buoy Transition Effort Progressing

Transfer of operational responsibility for a network of buoys used in tsunami detection to the NWS National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) is a step closer to completion.

NDBC, with assistance from NOAAs Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) completed a servicing cruise for the Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) project in June, and the transition effort is on course to be done before the end of fiscal year 2003.

As part of the U.S. National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP), DART is an ongoing effort to maintain and improve the detection of tsunamis in the open ocean and provides subsequent warnings to communities in danger. DART was developed by PMEL.

Paul Moersdorf, NDBC Director, noted the significance of the DART system.

"Were proud to be supporting the National Tsunami Hazard Program. PMELs team developed a very capable measurement system and we at NDBC are glad to have the opportunity to provide data for more accurate tsunami warnings to the U.S. Pacific coast states."

DART consists of buoys and underwater pressure sensors and is essential in fulfilling NOAA's national responsibility for tsunami hazard and warning forecasts which will reduce the loss of life and property in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Hawaiian Coastal communities, Moersdorf said. DART also will reduce false alarms which result in high economic costs for unnecessary evacuations.

The transition of operational responsibility for the DART network from PMEL to NDBC began in the summer of 2001. A transition plan was developed and NDBC staff began to work with PMEL staff to get familiar with the DART system.

In the summer of 2002, a team of NDBC and PMEL personnel departed from Kodiak, AK, to service the five North Pacific DART Systems. Moersdorf said by the end of the cruise, the NDBC team was confident in their ability to perform all operations related to recovery, deployment, and refurbishment of a DART system.

The second phase of the transition began in early 2003. For the first step of this second phase, NDBC accepted logistical responsibility for the network, including the purchasing of equipment and material necessary to maintain the DART network. NDBC has built up its inventory to allow for the refurbishment efforts in the shop environment.

The current standard DART surface buoy has a design life of one year and the sea-floor pressure package has a life of two years. The system has proven to be reliable with a cumulative data return of 96 percent since 1998.

PMEL began prototype system development in 1995. Presently six buoy systems make up the DART array. Three are located south of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, two off the Washington and Oregon coast and one in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific.

Group Gets Kudos for Improving Equipment Reliability

Central Region Electronic Technicians were recently honored with an award citation for improving equipment reliability and cutting costs because failed equipment parts were promptly returned for repair and restocking at NWS's National Reconditioning Center (NRC).

"Kudos to all Central Region Electronic Technicians," said Dennis McCarthy, Central Region Director. "Recently, weve achieved a second record zero level of overdue parts according to the Consolidated Logistics System report. This kind of teamwork symbolizes the kind of initiative by our employees that really makes a difference. Now, defective equipment is returned to the NRC in less than 30 days in our region. Congratulations to everyone involved."

A supply of spare equipment parts is critical to maintaining NWS equipment. Typically NWS Electronic Technicians repair equipment using parts from NWS''''s National Logistics Supply Center (NLSC). Defective parts are returned to the NRC to be repaired and restocked at NLSC. A limited number of spare parts are available at NLSC, so it is important to return failed parts promptly to NRC for repair and restocking.

"A couple of years ago, it typically took 90 days or more for Weather Forecast Offices to return used parts to NRC," noted Vi Capell of Central Region Headquarters. "Improving this turnaround time makes more parts available at NLSC and ensures there is a reliable supply of spare parts available to maintain an effective parts pipeline."

According to Roland Devoe, Central Region Electronics Program Manager, "Our team effort really paid off in terms of reducing costs for emergency repairs and increasing NLSC parts availability."

Technicians throughout the NWS have increased their focus on turning around defective parts to the NRC notes Devoe. "A 50 percent reduction has been achieved nationally in time to return parts to NRC."

NWS Offers Field Forecasters a New Teletraining Course

A new teletraining course on digital tropical cyclone wind forecasts is being offered by NWSs Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Service (OCWWS).

The course titled "Populating Weather Forecast Office Wind Grids Using Forecast Guidance from Tropical Cyclone Centers," provides field forecasters guidelines for populating Interactive Forecast Preparation System/National Digital Forecast Database wind grids when tropical cyclones affect their County Warning Area.

The teletraining is taught by the Tropical Prediction Centers Science (TPC's) and Operations Officer (SOO) Rick Knabb from the TPC offices in Florida.

"The offerings have been extremely popular with local office staff as this is an opportunity to interact with TPC directly as we all continue to work through methodologies and practices of gridded forecasts," said Brian Motta, OCWWS Training Division, COMET Branch, IFPS Professional Development Series Executive Producer. He added that more than 165 people have already taken the teletraining from more than 65 sites.

On July 22, 2003, the grids issued by TPC for the WFOs increase to 6-hourly frequency from 12 hourly. Motta said Warning Coordination Meteorologists will need to educate their customers about how extended-range tropical cyclone forecasts will appear in the grids, and the teletraining should help.

Those interested in downloading the presentation should check with their SOO or IFPS focal point for information or contact Brian.Motta@noaa.gov. For information on registering for this course, see the student guide at: http://www-md.fsl.noaa.gov/IFPS/IFPSTrainingGuide-TPCsTCMGrids.html.

Also On the Web...Claudette

The Corpus Christi, TX, Weather Forecast Office has created a web page on the development of Hurricane Claudette, which hit the Texas coast earlier in July. View the page and accompanying photos taken by the forecast office staff here.