Common
Operations
Development
Environment
for NEXRAD

by Mike Eilts

As the WSR-88D makes the transition to an Open Systems/POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface) - compliant world, it is important that the tri-agencies (NWS, FAA, and Department of Defense, together with research and development organizations, develop technology transfer processes that are efficient and effective. Doing so will ensure that the WSR-88D will remain state-of the-art and meet the needs of users. NSSL, working with the OSF, NWS/Office of System Development, and Mitretek, is in the process of developing an infrastructure called the Common Operations Development Environment (CODE), that has the potential to significantly enhance the technology transfer process. By developing this infrastructure, the NEXRAD program will be able to leverage the research and development resources of scientists at universities, federal research laboratories, and National Weather Service offices throughout the country, and at the same time significantly reduce the cost to transfer the applications they build to the operational WSR-88D network.

The main components of CODE include:

1. A development system that allows physical access to operational data streams both from archive devices and in real-time from the WSR-88D and other operational weather data sources;
2. Application Programming Interfaces (API's) to access the above data streams--the same APIs in the operational Open Systems Radar Product Generator (ORPG);
3. Common APIs that perform functions and calculations on the data streams (e.g., calculating the height of a radar beam);
4. A local development display capability that allows display of both data images as well as products from test applications;
5. Common APIs that allow developers to display their products on the local development display;
6. A Visual Programming Tool as part of a development function that allows developers easy methods to develop applications and see the results of their development.

We plan to develop CODE using the software and APIs of the ORPG. This software will be POSIX compliant and will follow Open System standards. The software will perform the above functions and will be made available to research and operational organizations.

This effort will be a continuation and a broadening of the successful WSR-88D Algorithm Testing and Display System (WATADS). WATADS is a tool that allows researchers, operational meteorologists, and others to examine WSR-88D base data and to run both the operational WSR-88D algorithms and some selected future WSR-88D algorithms on archived base data. The present WATADS allows researchers to perform adaptable parameter studies on the algorithms, examine the performance of algorithms using archived data, and to examine the 4-Dimensional Doppler radar data stream. At the present time, there are over 90 NWS offices, Universities, and Department of Defense organizations using WATADS. CODE will be a significant expansion of the capability of WATADS.

For more information contact Mike Eilts at: eilts@nssl.noaa.gov