NWS/Aviation Weather Center (AWC)
Team Members
About the team
The Aviation Weather Center (AWC) is part of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) under the NOAA/National Weather Service (NWS). The AWC is located in Kansas City, MO and has a long history of providing operational global aviation weather forecasts and warnings for the NWS, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), industry, and aviators around the globe. The Aviation Weather Testbed (AWT) is co-located with the AWC and supports the transition of aviation research into operations for the NWS, the FAA, and their partners. The AWC and AWT collaborate with universities, governmental forecast centers and research laboratories, FAA organizations, International Meteorological Watch Offices, and other NOAA and NWS organizations. The AWC maintains 24×7 global forecasting and warning operations, and the AWT supports aviation meteorology hazards training, applied research, and transitioning research-to-operations. The AWC and AWT are also actively engaged in supporting the FAA’s NextGen weather initiative in building a 4-Dimensional Weather Data Cube (4-D Cube) that will improve access and accuracy of weather information to support improvements to aviation services in the NextGen era. Activities within the AWT and AWC will play a significant role in the development, testing, and evaluation of NextGen development. CIRA is a collaborating partner with the AWC on a number of research projects and activities. CIRA professionals assist the AWC/AWT in supporting, developing, testing, and transitioning aviation weather research into NWS operations.
The Aviation Weather Center (AWC) Aviation Support Branch (ASB) is responsible for providing support to the research and operations processes, maintaining server and networking infrastructure, and supporting the www.aviationweather.gov website.
The primary goal of the ASB is to maintain the internal network, servers and workstations at the AWC to ensure continuity of operations. The 24×7 support is critical to AWC forecast and web operations. The ASB collaborates with the other National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) centers and the National Weather Service (NWS) to provide data and research to operations support. The branch supports the research operations at the AWC, headed by a team of Technique Development Meteorologists (TDMs). This includes support for the Testbed (AWT) as well as support for AWRP. The AWRP products include Current and Forecast Icing Products (CIP/FIP), Graphical Turbulence Guidance (GTG), National Ceiling and Visibility Analysis (NCVA), and the National Convective Weather Diagnostic/Forecast (NCWD/F). The ASB also supports the AWC website which includes Aviation Digital Display Service (ADDS), World Area Forecast System (WAFS) Internet File service (WIFS) and the International Flight Folder Program (IFFDP).