Olympic Weather Support System common to all the

        customers. Even though

        The technological heart of the weather concerns are both

        weather forecasting operations varied and common, all

        for the 1996 Olympic Games is  customers have stated a

        the Olympic Weather Support    need for weather parameters

        System. The Olympic Weather    to be forecast in high

        Support System consists of a   temporal resolution,

        state-of-the-art, local area   ideally, at three-hour

        network of high speed computer intervals.

        workstations and an IBM

        massively parallel processing  In addition, Olympic

        computer configured            officials desire immediate

        exclusively for operational    notification if certain

        weather forecasting. The       weather phenomena are

        workstations and the IBM       expected to affect their

        computer ingest huge amounts   activities. The diving

        of meteorological data, which  competition officials, for

        the forecasters will use as    example, require

        the basis for preparing the    notification (e.g., a

        many products needed to        warning) when surface winds

        provide weather support for    greater than 20 mph (32

        the 1996 Games, products such  kph) are expected.

        as weather warnings and

        bulletins, forecasts,          Given the unique weather

        summaries of current and past  concerns of the Olympic

        weather conditions, etc. The   customers and their need

        support system is complemented for high resolution

        by the resources of the        forecasts, the Support

        National Centers for           System was designed to

        Environmental Prediction,      provide rapid access to

        where, in partnership with     multiple high resolution

        Cray Research, Inc., new       data sets (e.g., radar,

        state-of-the-art high          satellite, numerical model,

        resolution numerical           and observational data).

        simulations of the atmosphere

        will be run. The output of     Need for Integration

        these simulations will be fed

        directly into the Olympic      Weather support for the

        Weather Support System.        Olympic Games will be

                                       provided by two Olympic

        Designing the System           Weather Support Offices

                                       (details regarding these

        The design of the Olympic      two offices will be

        Weather Support System was     discussed later). Both

        driven by two things: the      offices have limited work

        weather information            space available for

        requirements of the Olympic    operations. The Marine

        customers needing weather      Weather Support Office, for

        support and the requirements   example, is housed in a

        of the forecasters who would   40-foot trailer, while the

        be using the system to provide main Olympic Weather

        that support.                  Support Office occupies 225

                                       square feet in the

        To determine the weather needs Peachtree City Forecast

        of the Olympic customers, the  Office of the National

        National Weather Service       Weather Service. Because of

        provided the Atlanta Committee the limited space, the

        for the Olympic Games a        Olympic Weather Support

        questionnaire designed to      System had to integrate

        identify those needs. The      resources into a common

        information obtained from the  workstation platform.

        questionnaire, combined with   Integration is also crucial

        existing knowledge of what     to achieving the goal of

        forecasters needed in an       rapid data accessibility.

        operational system, set the    In this regard, the Olympic

        course for the design of the   Weather Support System

        system. Four critical design   foreshadows the National

        criteria were identified: Data Weather Servicešs Advanced

        Accessibility, Integration of  Weather Interactive

        Functions, Intuitiveness of    Processing System (AWIPS),

        Operation, and Data            which is currently being

        Portability.                   developed for deployment in

                                       the modernized NWS.

        Need for Data Accessibility



        Olympic customers have a wide

        variety of specific weather

        concerns, many of which are

        unique to respective events.   ----------------------------

        Rowing competition officials,  Features of the Olympic

        for example, are concerned     Weather Support System

        about southeast winds (which

        would favor competitors in the    *  Data Accessibility

        wind-blocked southeastern         *  Integration of

        rowing lanes), while tennis         Functions

        officials are not concerned       *  Intuitiveness of

        about wind direction but are        Operation

        very concerned about any          * Data Portability

        precipitation occurring. Some

        concerns are common to many of ----------------------------

        the customers, such as high

        temperatures and high

        humidities, and lightning is a

        concern



        TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS



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