| Weather Radio Improvement Program (WRIP)
The NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) currently provides forecasts and weather information, weather watches, warnings and
other emergency messages to the public and emergency managers through the NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) and Weather Wire Service (NWWS)
networks. The primary purpose of these systems is to reliably deliver All-Hazard emergency warnings to those people most immediately
at risk, with sufficient lead time to allow them to take action to reduce the likelihood of property damage, injury or death.
The objective of the National Dissemination Network (NDN) Weather Radio Improvement Program (WRIP) is to update and modernize
current National Weather Service dissemination systems to meet current and future stakeholder missions, requirements and needs.
As part of the overarching NDN program, the WRIP has been initiated to evaluate, update and modernize NOAA Weather Radio and
Weather Wire Service dissemination systems. The objectives of the NDN WRIP are:
- Extension of NWR infrastructure operational life -The NWR infrastructure has a major subsystem, the Console Replacement System (CRS), which will have reached the end of life and cannot be supported due to parts obsolescence beyond July of 2007. The CRS needs to be replaced in order to sustain NWR service operation.
- Interface to NWR for DHS/FEMA and other emergency management agencies – Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency
Management Administration (FEMA) and other emergency management agencies require access to NWR stations for dissemination of
localized and national emergency voice alerts. DHS and FEMA need the ability to direct emergency voice messages to a specific
station, group of stations or all stations, depending on the nature and geographic area of the emergency.
- NWR reliability and performance improvement – The telecommunication systems used to convey watches and warnings to NOAA Weather
Radio stations are currently single points of failure, are a source of performance problems, and prevent the implementation of a
more robust, dynamic architecture needed to capitalize on new technologies. Replacing the leased telecommunication circuits
connecting Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) to the NWR stations would significantly increase network reliability, performance and
versatility.
- NWR and NWWS infrastructure consolidation – Merge the NWR and NWWS dissemination systems, facilities and processes into a
single infrastructure to provide a more timely, robust, cost-effective and scalable network.
All the official WRIP documents reside on the OSIP web site, . The WRIP project number
is 04-006 and the project title is "National Dissemination Network".
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www.nws.noaa.gov 
