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Data Layers

Industry-leading NEXRAD weather radar data display

Most real-time, live radar display available in US (sub-10-second delay)

Technologies include patent-pending LiveComposite™ and single-tilt

LiveScan™

Video of comparison to traditional display

Full suite of Level 2 regular and Dual-Pol products (Reflectivity, Velocity,

Spectrum Width, Differential Reflectivity, Correlation Coefficient,

Differential Phase)

Derived Level 2 products (Dealiased velocity, Storm-relative Velocity, Shear,

KDP)

Precipitation typing demonstrates areas of snow, rain, and mix using high-

accuracy HRRR model data

NEXRAD Level 3 data for bandwidth-efficient loop animations of recent

conditions

Powerful storm cell tracking tools include clickable cell icons, storm

projection paths, storm cell info textual summary box, and rollover ETA

times + countdown to impact

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NWS Severe Warnings

Clickable polygons display full warning text, display within the very minute of

issuance, and seamlessly animate/update shape across loops as updated by NWS

NWS Severe Watches

Clickable for full text and update shapes across loops as counties are

added/subtracted

County outlines and aviation watch box

Real-time international METAR observations

Time-aware on loops to monitor changing conditions

Rollover information displays key info

Nine selectable parameters for map display

Precipitation-typed National Radar composite (live and loop of last 8 hours)

GOES Satellite data (live and loop of last 8 hours)

IR, Visible, Water Vapor

NWS Local Storm Reports (time-aware for loop)

SPC Convective Outlook vector graphics (Days 1-8)

Critical for visualizing short-range severe weather threats

Categorical levels and Probability levels for Wind, Hail, and Tornado criteria

High-resolution real-time CONUS temperature and dew-point color fill

Supercell development (SCP) and Tornado risk (STP) real-time analysis layers

Current/animated Sea-level pressure contours (MSLP)

Current/animated surface wind arrow vectors

Also can display numerical intensity, or intensity and direction

Tens of other diverse “Mesoanalysis” layers like the four above available

E.g., Wind gust, CAPE, Visibility, Storm-relative helicity, upper level

winds/temperatures, etc.

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National display of color-shaded county-based or public warning zone-based

current NWS advisories

Rollover tool produces text summary of advisories at cursor point

Clicking on color-shaded zone displays full text of active advisories

Frontal boundaries/pressure center graphics

Extensive and customizable capability for viewing future conditions/model data

Global Forecast System (GFS), NAM, and HRRR data sources

Precise forecast graphics/animations of future radar reflectivity (precipitation

typed), temperature, wind, pressure, precipitation, dew-point, absolute vorticity,

upper-air data, and more.

NDFD (National Weather Service official forecast grids) display by region

NDFD parameters: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ndfd/technical.htm#elements

Weather Prediction Center (WPC) products for selectable short-term day range

Excessive Rainfall Outlook graphics

Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) amount graphics

Winter accumulation probabilities for (snow) 4in, 8in, 12in, and (ice) 0.25in

Expected snow/ice accumulation amount by probability percentile over

customizable time summation range out to 72 hours

SPC Mesoscale Discussions

Full suite of tropical weather tracking layers for Atlantic and Eastern Pacific

basins

Active systems, path history with rollover information, forecast track, forecast

error cone, current wind radii, forecast wind radii, tropical vitals information,

NHC coastal watches/warnings

Forecast model data tracks for tropical systems (“spaghetti” plots)

NHC 5-day formation outlook graphics

HDOBS Aircraft Reconnaissance data

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SPC Fire weather outlook graphics (Days 1-8)

24-hour (or custom time between 1-24 hours) Difference product (demonstrates

areas of +/- trend)

Time aware in loops; computes differences at prior times up to current

Pressure (MSLP), temperature, or dew-point differences

USGS live earthquake display with rollover seismic data

Observed and forecast river gauge observations with flood stage info

Satellite-generated fire detections

Unique technologies

Hardware-accelerated 3D globe with high-performance GIS mapping engine

Import and customize visual style of ESRI shapefiles

Line rendering settings and shaded polygon filling

Customizable US city label database

Intuitive, high-responsivity camera controls for rapidly adjusting map view with

panning, zooming, tilt, swivel, and look-at controls

“Viewpoints” feature enables saving and quickly transitioning to preset views

Extensive visual customization options

Real-time, automatically updating data

Smooth animations of recent data leading up to real-time state

Graphical image/video export features

GPS sensor integration

Full-screen mode and dual-monitor output (control and output screens separate)

FTP screen-capture uploading

Probe tool enables mouse rollover on raster layers for precise numerical readout

of value and unit under cursor point (e.g., temperature, wind speed, radar

velocity, radar reflectivity, etc.

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Detailed Feature Grid

Animated timeline system permitting time loop of major program layers (adjustable to last 8.5 hours) ✔ ✔ ✔

National radar composite (Precipitation-typed) ✔ ✔ ✔ GOES satellite imagery (Visible, Water Vapor, Infrared) for East, West, PR, AK, and HI ✔ ✔ ✔

International METAR airport/weather station observations with 9 parameters (Temp, Dew Pt, RH, Wind, Wind Gust, Altimeter, WX symbol, Heat Index, Wind Chill)

✔ ✔ ✔

*Interactive mouse rollover information ✔ ✔ ✔ Time-aware NWS/SPC Tornado and Severe Thunderstorm Convective Watches (county outlines)

✔ ✔ ✔

Time-aware NWS Severe Warning polygons (SVR, TOR, FFW, SMW) ✔ ✔ ✔

10-Meter Wind Barbs/Arrows/Vector layer ✔ ✔

Sea-level pressure (MSLP) contour lines ✔ ✔

High-resolution 2-meter Temperature color-fill ✔ ✔

High-resolution 2-meter Dew Pt color-fill ✔ ✔ Industry-leading NEXRAD Level 2 data display ✔ ✔

*LiveScan™ technology – real-time, moving display of in-progress Level 2 sweeps less than 10 seconds from being bounced back from sky

✔

**Live delay indicator in tenths-of-second ✔

**Update effect shows areas of old and in-progress scan data ✔

**Bandwidth-efficient design ✔

*Full display of NEXRAD Level 2 volume including tilt selector and all six base moments including Dual-Pol (Reflectivity, Base Velocity, Spectrum Width, Differential Reflectivity (ZDR),

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Correlation Coefficient (CC), and Differential Phase (PHI))

*Precipitation-typed Level 2 Reflectivity ✔

*Redundant data design gives access to two public-domain, high-capacity HTTP servers ✔ ✔

*Further redundancy gives built-in access to AWS (Amazon Web Services) public Level 2 cloud server for real-time and archived volumes

✔

*LiveComposite™ technology – running, real-time display of surface-interpolated reflectivity composite throughout entire volume scan in severe situations

✔ ✔

*Level 2 Derived Products (each tilt) ✔

**Dealiased Velocity ✔

**Dealiased Storm-Relative Velocity ✔

***Set Storm Motion vector manually, visually, or automatically by using Level 3 product (default) ✔

**Wind Shear/Azimuthal Rotation product ✔

**Gate-to-Gate Shear ✔

**KDP (Specific Differential Phase) ✔

*Level 2 Derived Products (each volume) ✔

**High-resolution 0.5km x 0.5° grid ✔

**MEHS (Mean Estimated Hail Size) ✔

**POSH (Probability of Severe Hail) ✔

**VIL (Vertically-Integrated Liquid) ✔

**VILD (VIL Density) ✔

**ET (Echo Tops) ✔

**Thunderstorm Downdraft Max Gust Potential ✔

*Mouse-based measuring tool showing azimuth/range from radar and beam height ✔

*Beam-continuous time interpolation feature accurately displays and transitions Level 2 scans in loops which radially comprise a range of times

✔

*Show Level 2 Split-cut scans ✔

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*Spatially-accurate 3D tilt representation of sweep data ✔ ✔ ✔

NEXRAD Level 3 data ✔ ✔ ✔

*58 different Level 3 radial data products ✔

**Basic products (Base tilt reflectivity, velocity, three Dual-Pol moments), VIL, and Total precipitation

✔ ✔

**Full display of Level 3 radial products at all tilts, including HCA, 1-Hr precipitation, and SRV

✔

**Precipitation-typed Reflectivity ✔ ✔ ✔

*Non-radial Level 3 products ✔ ✔ ✔

**Storm cell/path, hail, Mesocyclone, and Tornado Vortex Signature (TVS) icons ✔ ✔ ✔

***Time-aware, move with storm cell in loops ✔ ✔ ✔

**Melting layer product range lines ✔ ✔

Powerful convective storm tracking system ✔ ✔

*Point-click tracking; click on storm icon expands paths and displays storm cell summary information ✔ ✔

**Rollover storm path displays ETA and arrival countdown to mouse point ✔ ✔

**Extrapolated time interval lines drawn across path (user-adjustable) ✔

**3D time-of-arrival projection captions appear with interval lines ✔

*Mouse rollover info on storm cells, Hail icons, TVS icons, and MESO icons ✔ ✔

*Manual storm tracking system ✔ ✔

**Click-define cell point on map and drag motion cone with visual indication of speed/direction chosen

✔ ✔

**Drag-define squall line or arc of storms and extrude projection swath ✔ ✔

**Storm motion vector displayed for guidance during manual track drawing ✔ ✔

**Extensive visual customization options on swath and cone appearance ✔ ✔

**Rollover ETA/countdown times on tracks/swaths ✔ ✔

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**3D arrival-time text captions along cone/swath ✔ ✔

**Automatic impacted-city list and time-of-arrival display ✔ ✔

***Countdown to ETA option ✔ ✔

Level 3 SCIT/Storm cell attributes table ✔

*Custom cell filtering options ✔

*Custom sorting and color coding of cell attribute elements ✔

Forecast model data ✔ ✔

*Basic data from NAM model ✔ ✔

*Additional data from GFS and HRRR/RAP ✔

*Color fill layer ✔ ✔

**2m Temperature, 2m Dew-point, Future Radar Reflectivity (P-typed), Wind Gust, Precipitation, Atmospheric Moisture (Precipitable Water), 500mb Absolute Vorticity, Pressure Change, CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy), Snow depth

✔ ✔

*Vector field layer ✔

**10m Wind, 850mb Wind, 500mb Wind, 300mb Wind ✔

*Contour line layer ✔

**MSLP, 850mb Height, 500mb Height, 300mb Height ✔

Mesoanalysis data ✔ ✔

**STP (Significant Tornado Parameter) ✔ ✔

**SCP (Supercell Composite Parameter) ✔ ✔

**Surface wind gust, Surface visibility, Surface CAPE, Surface CIN, 0-90mb CAPE, 0-90mb CIN, 0-3km Storm-Relative Helicity (SRH), 500-1000mb Lifted Index, Echo Tops, 850mb Height, 850mb Wind, 850mb Temperature, 850mb Relative Humidity, 850mb Vertical Velocity, 700mb Height, 700mb Wind, 700mb Temperature, 700mb Vertical

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Velocity, 500mb Height, 500mb Wind, 500mb Absolute Vorticity

NDFD National Weather Service graphical forecast data with time slider ✔

**18 regions covering US ✔

**33 distinct NDFD data products (link) ✔

WPC Precipitation Products ✔

*Excessive Rainfall Outlook shaded probability zones/outlines (Days 1-3) ✔

*Winter accumulation shaded probability zones/outlines (Days 1-3) ✔

**Snow (4in, 8in, 12in) and Ice (0.25in) ✔

*Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) chart (Days 1-3 individually and summations for Days 1-2, 1-3, 4-5, and 1-5)

✔

*Gridded Snow and Ice accumulation forecasts ✔ ✔

**Specify probability threshold, accumulation interval (24, 48, or 72 hours), and period ending time (maximum 72 hours)

✔ ✔

National Weather Service graphical Watch/Warnings/Advisories ✔ ✔

*Color-coded/shaded counties or public forecast zones ✔ ✔

*Customizable advisory types/colors ✔

*Rollover info on county/zone under mouse summarizes active advisories ✔ ✔

*Clicking on county/zone with advisory opens information window listing full text and metadata for each active NWS advisory for the selected locale

✔ ✔

SPC Convective Outlooks ✔ ✔

*Days 1, 2, and 3 (Categorical and Probabilistic) ✔ ✔

*Days 4, 5, 6, 7, and 6 (Probabilistic) ✔ ✔

SPC Mesoscale Discussions (Severe, Winter, and Heavy Rain) ✔ ✔

NWS Local Storm Reports ✔ ✔

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*Type and magnitude filter ✔

*Mouse rollover full text information ✔ ✔

Extensive Tropical weather tracking layers ✔ ✔

*Active systems with rollover info ✔ ✔

*Includes Invest systems ✔ ✔

*Best-track display with rollover info ✔ ✔

*Official forecast track with rollover info and intensity icons ✔ ✔

*NHC forecast swath cone ✔ ✔

*Wind radii and forecast wind radii ✔ ✔

**Traditional quadrant display or optional radial interpolation ✔ ✔

*HDOB Aircraft Reconnaissance data ✔ ✔

*NHC 5-Day Formation Outlook ✔ ✔

*NHC coastal watch/warning lines ✔ ✔

SPC Fire Weather Outlook (Days 1-8) ✔ ✔

*Quick access to NWS fire weather text forecast product ✔ ✔

Live USGS Earthquake display with rollover information ✔ ✔

24-hour Temperature/Dew Pt/MSLP Difference ✔

*Time-aware; loops show relative difference from past time point ✔

*User customizable hour-range from 1 to 24 ✔

Satellite Fire Detection icons (from MODIS and VIIRS I-Band) ✔ ✔

Live river gauge observations and Days 1-4 forecast ✔ ✔

Frontal boundaries/pressure centers ✔ ✔

Public-safety specialized features ✔

*Point-click wind speed information readout ✔

*Simplified, streamlined interface with large buttons

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*Convenient button user interface for map zooming

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*Convenient button user interface for loading SpotterNetwork placefile

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Hardware-accelerated 3D globe with high-performance GIS mapping engine ✔ ✔ ✔

*Import and customize styling of ESRI shapefiles ✔ ✔ ✔

*Line rendering settings and shaded polygon filling ✔ ✔ ✔

*Customizable US city label database ✔ ✔

*Intuitive, high-responsivity camera controls for rapidly adjusting map view ✔ ✔ ✔

**Panning and Zooming ✔ ✔ ✔

**3D Tilt and Swivel ✔ ✔

**“Look-at”-axis controls ✔

**Camera axis smoothing ✔

Viewpoints feature enables saving and quickly transitioning to preset views ✔

Extensive visual customization options ✔ ✔

Color palette selector ✔ ✔ ✔

Vector object styling editor (line width, color, border, polygon fill, etc.) ✔ ✔ ✔

High-contrast mode ✔

Real-time, automatically updating data ✔ ✔ ✔

Smooth, temporally-interpolated animations of recent data leading up to real-time state ✔ ✔ ✔

Graphical image/video export features ✔ ✔ ✔

*Image export ✔ ✔ ✔

*HD mp4 Video Capture ✔ ✔ ✔

*60fps HD mp4 Video Capture ✔

GPS sensor integration ✔ ✔ ✔

Full-screen mode ✔ ✔ ✔

Probability rendering in precipitation-typed radar reflectivity ✔ ✔ ✔

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Loop-speed settings ✔ ✔

Zoom-box map zooming ✔ ✔ ✔

Convenience interface for loading TIGER/Line 2013 street-level mapping Shapefile data ✔ ✔ ✔

Automatic cache management system ✔

Customize logo, map background, and timestamp appearance ✔ ✔ ✔

FTP screen-capture uploading ✔ ✔

Adjust alpha/transparency of map layers ✔ ✔ ✔

Dynamic-width map legends on raster data layers ✔ ✔ ✔

Window resize friendly ✔ ✔ ✔

Lat/Lon coordinates cursor indicator ✔ ✔ ✔

Severe Watch/Warning polygon outlines clickable for full text ✔ ✔ ✔

Mouse rollover “Probe tool” on raster layers for precise numerical readout of value and unit under cursor point

✔ ✔ ✔

Dual-monitor output (control and output screens separate) ✔ ✔ ✔

Placefile importation support ✔ ✔ ✔

Ctrl+Right-click map for NWS point forecast ✔

Animation controls (play/pause, back/forward, first/last) ✔ ✔ ✔

Realistic atmosphere rendering ✔ ✔ ✔