[Image]                       Need for Data Portability

                                      The forecast, warning, and

        A meteorologist using one of  observational data created

        the workstations of the       on (or collected by) the

        Olympic Weather Support       Support System will be sent

        System.                       to a variety of external

                                      users. In 1996, the primary

                                      recipient of the products

                                      generated on the system will

        Need for Intuitiveness        be a wide-area network

        The staffs of the two         called Info ¹96. Developed

        Weather Support Offices come  by the Atlanta Committee for

        from varied backgrounds.      the Olympic Games, Info ¹96

        While most of the             is composed of a network of

        forecasters are National      IBM personal computers (PCs)

        Weather Service               distributed throughout the

        meteorologists, some of the   Olympic venues. These PCs

        forecasters will be coming    are fed information by a

        from Australia and Canada.    larger IBM computer located

        Even the National Weather     in the Info ¹96 main

        Service forecasters have      communications center. Info

        varied backgrounds, in that   ¹96 will contain weather

        they have been selected from  information, athlete

        locations all across the      biographies, competition

        United States. To complicate  results, transportation

        matters further, the unique   schedules, etc. A dedicated

        weather concerns of the       line will link the Olympic

        Olympic customers             Weather Support System to

        necessitated the development  Info ¹96. Although products

        of forecast and warning       transmitted via this

        products not typically found  communications line will be

        in the National Weather       in textual format, Info ¹96

        Service¹s inventory of        will convert this textual

        products. Thus, even the      information into easily

        most experienced forecasters  understood graphics.

        will be forced to spend a

        good deal of time learning    Media covering the Olympic

        the new products and          Games will have access to

        developing an operational     all weather information

        routine with the new          available on Info ¹96. Other

        software. Because of this,    external users, such as the

        it is imperative that the     local media and emergency

        data interpretation and       management officials, will

        product preparation software  acquire the products

        on the Support System be      generated by the Olympic

        user-friendly and intuitive.  Weather Support Offices by

        This is a crucial need from   alternate means. For

        a training standpoint as      example, a selected set of

        well, since training time is  Olympic weather support

        limited.                      information will be provided

                                      on the Internet¹s World-Wide

                                      Web; on the National Weather

                                      Service¹s Family of

                                      Services; on the NOAA

                                      Weather Wire Service; and on

                                      NOAA Weather Radio via

                                      transmitters located near

                                      Atlanta and Savannah.



                                      Given the need to distribute

                                      Olympic weather support

                                      information to a wide

                                      variety of customers, the

                                      Olympic Weather Support

                                      System must create products

                                      in formats that are useable

                                      by these different

                                      distribution systems.



                                      The Resulting Olympic

                                      Weather Support System



                                      To satisfy the four critical

                                      design criteria, the

                                      state-of-the-art, Olympic

                                      Weather Support System

                                      (OWSS) was constructed. This

                                      system was designed

                                      exclusively for operational

                                      weather forecasting in that

                                      it was loaded with some of

                                      the latest computer

                                      software, software designed

                                      specifically for

                                      meteorological analysis and

                                      forecasting. Data for the

                                      system are drawn from a

                                      number of sources, including

                                      the National Centers for

                                      Environmental Prediction;

                                      automated weather observing

                                      systems, including the

                                      National Weather Service¹s

                                      Automated Surface Observing

                                      System (ASOS);

                                      meteorological satellites

                                      operated by NOAA¹s National

                                      Environmental Satellite Data

                                      Information Service

                                      (NESDIS); weather

                                      surveillance radars; a

                                      lightning detection system

                                      operated by GDS, Inc.; and

                                      upper air observing

                                      networks.



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        THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: WEATHER AND THE XXVI OLYMPIAD