Meteorological Forecast Applications Associated with AFOS

The primary interface between the AFOS system and the National Weather Service (NWS) forecaster lies within the area of meteorological forecast applications. Although AFOS will benefit the present system in many ways, it will also allow for new applications and different packaging of guidance material. Two such efforts are now in progress. The first of these concerns the automatic monitoring and updating of aviation terminal weather forecasts. Specifically, the AFOS system minicomputer will be programmed to compare each surface observation with the terminal forecast and determine if a problem or a potential problem exists. If so, a message will be automatically generated which will alert the forecaster to the situation and provide him with an objective forecast of ceiling and visibility. The second effort concerns the generation and updating of computer-worded public forecasts. The initial forecast, along with a guidance matrix, will be generated centrally and transmitted via the National Distribution Circuit to the forecast office. The forecaster can accept the forecast as is, make minor changes through text editing the message, or make major changes. Updating to include major revisions requires that the forecast be regenerated, this time on the local AFOS minicomputer.