ARTICLEI
SCOPE
This Implementing Arrangement describes the scientific and tech-
nical activities to be undertaken by the American Institute in
Taiwan (AIT) and its representative, the Forecast Systems Labor-
atory (FSL) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrat-
ion (NOAA). It provides for continuing development of the Forec-
ast System being developed by the Joint Forecast Systems Project
. This project is a cooperative effort between the Central Weat-
her Bureau (CWB), the designated representative of the Taipei E-
conomic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States
(TECRO), formerly known as the Coordination Council for North A-
merican Affairs, or CCNAA, and NOAA/FSL.
ARTICLE II
AUTHORIZATION
The activities described in this Implementing Arrangement will
be carried out under the general terms and conditions establis-
hed by the Agreement between CCNAA and AIT for Technical Cooper-
ation in Meteorology and Forecast Systems Development. This Imp-
lementing Arrangement is hereby attached to that Agreement and
becomes part of the Agreement.
ARTICLE III
SERVICES
The FX-Advanced system currently under development is a major p-
art of a larger development effort in FSL called WFO-Advanced,
which will provide a total information solution for WFO (Weather
Forecast Office) forecasters. During the period of Implementing
Arrangement #9, CWB will focus on customizing the WFO- Advanced
interactive display component and ingesting CWB-specific raw da-
ta. Other cooperative activities are continuing development of
data assimilation techniques, acquisition of NEXRAD data, trans-
ition to an open system central facility, and the initial inves-
tigation of the AWIPS Forecast Preparation System (AFPS). These
cooperative activities, described in more detail in the Stateme-
nt of Work, will include the following five tasks:
Task #1 - Implementation of the FX-Advanced Forecast Workstation
The FX-Advanced Forecast Workstation project under development
at FSL has six components: interactive display, AFPS (AWIPS For-
ecast Preparation System), 3-dimensional display, 3-dimensional
editing, hydrometeorological applications, and a component that
contains GEMPAK (General Meteorological Package) and other X ap-
plications. This task is part of a continued effort to develop
forecast workstations based on X Window technology. The basic s-
ystem will be installed at the Denver, Colorado and Norman, Okl-
ahoma WFO offices during the I.A. #9 time period. Also during t-
he I.A. #9, CWB will adopt this basic system and customize it i-
nto their first prototype version for evaluation purposes.
Task #2 - Development of Improved Data Assimilation Techniques
CWB and FSL scientists continue to develop improved data assimi-
lation techniques. These techniques include a regression-based
inversion technique and a more sophisticated adjoint-based inve-
rsion technique. These techniques translate the difference betw-
een forecast and observed satellite radiance measurements into
increments of temperature and moisture.
FSL will conduct a sensitivity study to determine how satellite
and aircraft data over ocean areas within the MAPS (Mesoscale A-
nalysis and Prediction System) domain affect the forecast models
.
Based on this study, the radiance increment covariance for mult-
i-level clouds will be refined.
Task #3 - Development of the NEXRAD product interface to the FX-
Advanced Forecast Workstation CWB will install its first NEXRAD
radar in 1996 at Wu- Fen-Shan, northeast of Taipei. CWB plans to
install three more NEXRAD units in Taiwan area by the year 2000.
The importance of developing the NEXRAD product interface to the
forecast workstation is to allow CWB forecasters to integrate D-
oppler radar products with other types of meteorological data.
This task includes continuing data acquisition software develop-
ment for narrowband radar data and providing some radar system
support.
Tawk #4 - Development of the Open System Central Facility
FSL's development of NIMBUS (Networked Information Management c-
lient-Based User Service), an umbrella term for the open system
Central Facility, is an ongoing activity. During 1995-1996, FSL
has served FSL users with 8 GB of data every day. The NIMBUS up-
grade activities during I.A. #9 include incorporating a MPP (Ma-
ssively Parallel Processor) interface, a MSS (Mass Storage Syst-
em), and a new Facility Information and Control System (FICS).
CWB continues to develop its own Central Facility meteorological
data processing environment, which is similar to NIMBUS. FSL wi-
ll continue to provide CWB with planning and implementation inf-
ormation from NIMBUS project so that CWB can incorporate this i-
nformation in their overall central facility planning and sched-
uling efforts.
Task #5-AFPS Development Plan
The U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) plans to upgrade its me-
thod of producing forecasts by using a new and efficient method
of interactive forecast preparation (IFP). AFPS will be one of
the IFP systems. AFPS is a joint development project between FSL
and the NWS Technical Development Laboratory (TDL).
CWB has a great interest in AFPS development and will investiga-
te the overall AFPS concept as well as the user interface, the
database, the algorithms, and product generators. FSL will prov-
ide basic training on AFPS to CWB personnel.
ARTICLE IV
FINANCIAL PROVISIONS
In accordance with the Agreement, NOAA/FSL is undertaking this
work on behalf of AIT for TECRO. TECRO will reimburse AIT, and
its designated representative NOAA/FSL for all costs incurred in
association with this Implementing Arrangement.
The total cost for activities described in this Implementing Ar-
rangement is mutually agreed to be US$600,000. It is also agreed
that fifty percent of the funds will be transferred in advance,
with the remaining fifty percent transferred within 30 days of
the acceptance of the final report by TECRO, and its designated
representative, CWB.
ARTICLE V
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CONSIDERATIONS
No intellectual property considerations are expected to arise in
conjunction with activities described in this Implementing Arra-
ngement. Existing system designs and computer software of the F-
SL Forecast System are in the public domain. Reports, specifica-
tions, and computer software prepared under this Implementing A-
rrangement will also be in the public domain once they have been
approved in a final form by TECRO, CWB, AIT, and NOAA.
ARTICLE VI
EFFECTIVE DATE, AMENDMENT, AND TERMINATION
This Implementing Arrangement is effective on the date of the l-
ast signature hereafter. This Implementing Arrangement may be a-
mended and/or terminated in accordance with the terms of the Ag-
reement. The estimated completion date for the activities descr-
ibed in this Implementing Arrangement is June 30, 1997.
FOR FOR
THE TAIPEI ECONOMIC AND THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE IN TAIWAN
CULTURAL REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE
IN THE UNITED STATES
[Signed] [Signed]
Rony-jye Chen Barbara Schrage
Deputy Representative Deputy Managing Director
Date: Oct. 31, 1996 Date: Oct. 22, 1996
STATEMENT OF WORK FOR IMPLEMENTING ARRANGEMENT #9 CONTINUING DE-
VELOPMENT OF THE WFO-ADVANCED SYSTEM & DATA ASSIMILATION BETWEEN
THE TAIPEI ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE IN THE U-
NITED STATES AND THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE IN TAIWAN
1.0 Background and Objectives
The agreement between the Coordination Council for North Americ-
an Affairs (CCNAA) and the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) p-
rovides for technical cooperation between the Taiwan Central We-
ather Bureau (CWB) and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Adiministration's Forecast Systems Laboratory (NOAA/FSL). The t-
wo agencies cooperate on the development of meteorology and for-
ecast systems. CCNAA has been renamed the Taipei Economic and C-
ultural Respresentative Office in the United States (TECRO).
The WFO-Advanced system currently under development at the Fore-
cast Systems Laboratory in Boulder is part of an effort to help
the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) implement AWIPS (Advanc-
ed Weather Interactive Processing System), which is the key com-
ponent of a modernized Weather Forecast Office (WFO). The WFO-A-
dvanced system consists of the FX-Advanced system and other com-
ponents that assimilate data and model information and dissemin-
ate forecast products. Figure 1 illustrated these components. T-
he FX-Advanced system consists six components - interactive dis-
play, AFPS, 3-D visualization, 3-D editing, hydrometerological
applications, and a component that contains GEMPAK (General Met-
eorological Package) and X applications. The AWIPS Forecast Pre-
paration System (AFPS) is a system for forecast visualization a-
nd graphical editing being developed at FSL.
CWB will implement a new forecast workstation system in 1998-199
9 to replace its current PC-based system, which was installed d-
uring the spring of 1992. CWB will adopt the WFO-Advanced system
concept and focus on customizing the WFO-Advanced interactive d-
isplay component and ingesting CWB-specific raw data during the
I.A. #9 period. The interactive display is the PC system equiva-
lent and is the central element of the FX-Advanced system. CWB
will also integrate the interactive display with other FX-Advan-
ced components such as AFPS and hydrometeorological applications
.
This Statement of Work addresses the tasks that will be underta-
ken by the joint team of FSL and CWB personnel in accordance wi-
th the terms of I.A. #9. The goal is to continue to focus on the
development of the FX-Advanced system and to transfer forecast
workstation technology to CWB during this period. This transfer
will allow CWB to begin to test and evaluate the operational FX-
Advanced system. Other activities such as numerical weather pre-
diction data assimilation, acquisition of NEXRAD data, the deve-
lopment of an open system Central Facility, and the initial inv-
estigation of AFPS component of the WFO-Advanced system are also
included in this Statement of Work.
Tasks will be undertaken both by the FSL-CWB Joint Team working
at the FSL facility in Boulder, Colorado and by CWB staff at the
CWB facility in Taipei, Taiwan, as appropriate. This Statement
of Work addresses only tasks that will be undertaken by the FSL-
CWB Joint Team under the terms of I.A. #9. It establishes the p-
erformance schedule, deliverables, and resource requirements.
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ ┌───────────────┐ │
│ │┌──────┐┌─────┐│ │
│ ││Interactive ││AFPS ││ │
│ ││Display ││(E3D) ││ │
│┌────┐ ││(D2D) │└─────┘│ │
││National│ │└──────┘┌─────┐│ │
││Models │→│ │ ││ ┌───┐│
││and Data│ │┌──────┐│3-D Edit- ││→│Disse-││
│└────┘ ││3-D Visuali-││ing (E3D) ││ │minat ││
│┌────┐ ││zation (D3D)│└─────┘│ │ion ││
││Local │ │└──────┘┌─────┐│ └───┘│
││Models ├→│ │GEMPAK ││ │
││and Data│ │┌──────┐│and X ││ │
│└────┘ ││Hydrological││Applicat- ││ │
│ ││Applications││ions ││ │
│ │└──────┘└─────┘│ │
│ └───────────────┘ │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────┘
FX-Advanced System
Figure 1. WFO-Advanced System
2.0 Task Descriptions
In terms of the overall program schedule, five tasks have been
identified as being critical during the July 1, 1996 to June 30,
1997 time period. These are listed below, along with the propor-
tion resources that are to be allocated to each task.
．Task #1 - Implementation of the FX-Advanced Forecast Workstat-
ion (35%)
．Task #2 - Development of Improved Data Assimilation Techniques
(25%)
．Task #3 - Development of the NEXRAD product interface to the
FX-Advanced Forecast Ｗorkstation (20%)
．Task #4 - Development of the Open System Central Facility (10%
)
．Task #5 - AFPS development plan (10%)
These five tasks are described in more detail below.
Task #1 - Implementation of the FX-Advanced Forecast Workstation
The FX-Advanced Forecast Workstation is being developed on Hewl-
ett-Packard workstations. The implementation plan is to use the
"workspace" feature of the HP Visual User Environment to provide
independent windows for the NWS WFO applications. Six workspaces
are defined: D2D, referred to as Forecast Workstation, is the i-
nteractive two-dimensional graphic workspace; E2D is the AFPS w-
orkspace; D3D is the three-dimensional display workspace; E3D is
the 3-D editor; APP is the application functionality; and GEM is
the GEMPAK workspace for the display package for customized data
display and manipulation.
The most recent version of D2D was completed in January of 1996.
It is called AMS96, and it has been demonstrated and used during
daily briefings at the 76th American Meteorological Society (AMS
) meeting in January-February of 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia. The
D2D workspace provides a windows-based environment that allows
the user to simultaneously display five panes of real-time weat-
her products and to interactively manipulate the display produc-
ts in the largest of these panes.
The WFO-Advanced system will be installed in Denver, Colorado d-
uring I.A. #9. It will replace the existing DARE II system, whi-
ch has been used for more than 6 years. The Denver WFO is curre-
ntly preparing a transition plan. Installation of a WFO-Advanced
system at Denver should begin by July of 1996. The major changes
and additions to be completed before the Denver installation in-
clude complete data acquisition, especially a WSR-88D acquisiti-
on interface; forecast dissemination capability; other display
functions and products needed; and an initial version of a moni-
toring and restart system. Additionally, system reliability nee-
ds to be improved and data management refined.
Another important milestone for WFO-Advanced system is the init-
ial version of AFPS, which will be installed in Denver during t-
he I.A. #9 period so testing can begin. This FSL effort represe-
nts as an "operational implementation" activity; that is, it in-
volves development of an operational version of the AFPS as a s-
tep toward directly implementing this system in the NWS forecast
offices.
According to these milestones, the core of the EX-Advanced syst-
em capabilities will be developed and completed during I.A. #9
period. This represents the near-final phase for the EX-Advanced
project. Currently, three visiting scientists from CWB are part-
icipating in the EX-Advanced system development. During the next
important development phase, FSL anticipates that two visiting
scientists from CWB will continue to participate in the FX-Adva-
nced development task. FSL will release software from each incr-
emental build to CWB after completing each development cycle. F-
SL will also provide available software documentation for the F-
X-Advanced system. If necessary, FSL will provide a short on-si-
te training course to CWB workstation engineering staff, so CWB
staff can learn the details of the FX-Advanced system. The trai-
ning will cover workstation requirements, design, and software
architecture. This orientation will allow CWB staff to start its
in-house software modification so that the system can ingest CWB
's data sources and satisfy CWB's operational needs.
Performance Period.
1.Development and testing of Forecast Workstation software 7/1/9
6-6/30/97
2.Preparation of Forecast Workstation documentation 7/1/96-6/30/
97
3.FX-Advanced software training (time flexible)
Resources Required: 35% FSL-CWB Joint Team
Deliverables:
1.Software releases of FX-Advanced 10/96, 2/97
2.Documentation of the FX-Advanced 1/97, 5/97
3.Training presentation material 5/97
Task #2 - Development of Improved Data Assimilation Techniques
During I.A. #8, the FSWCWB collaboration concentrated on two pr-
ojects: developing a system to monitor forecast errors from TIR-
OS Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) data and developing an i-
mproved technique for analyzing divergent winds. These are both
necessary steps of the overall goal of improved data assimilati-
on, which will include satellite radiance measurements.
During I.A. #9, FSL will continue working with CWB scientists to
develop an inversion technique to translate differences between
forecast and observed satellite radiance measurements into incr-
ements of temperature and moisture. A regression-based inversion
technique willl be completed. Work will also start on a more so-
phisticated adjoint-based inversion technique that includes inf-
ormation on clouds. We will also test the recently developed so-
ftware (Bessel-based error covariance functions) for improved a-
nalysis of divergent wind fields with real data cases.
FSL will also conduct a sensitivity study to determine how sate-
llite and aircraft data over oceanic areas within the MAPS doma-
in affect the forecast models. Satellite data and aircraft data
will be considered both independently and together. Based on th-
is study, the radiance increment covariances functions for mult-
i-level clouds will be refined.
CWB will send a scientist to work at FSL with the MAPS team on
the data sensitivity experiments.
Performance Period:
1.Develop TOVS satellite inversion software 7/1/96-6/30/97
2.Conduct data sensitivity impact test for satellite and aircra-
ft data 7/1/96-6/30/97
Resources Required: 25% FSL-CWB Joint Team
Deliverables :
1.Inversion technique using regression method for satellite rad-
iances with multi-level clouds 1/15/97
2.Refined analysis software for improved divergent wind analysis
1/15/97
3.Report on sensitivity study for impact of satellite and aircr-
aft data over MAPS domain 5/15/97
Task #3 - Development of the NEXRAD product interface to the FX-
Advanced Forecast Workstation
Design and implementation of the NEXRAD Product Interface (NPT)
subsystem is an ongoing activity at FSL. NPI functions can be d-
ivided into three areas: WSR-88D communications, message proces-
sing, and radar applications. The FX-Advanced components will h-
andle radar data management and product generation through depi-
ctables. Depictables are functions that pregenerate display-rea-
dy data sets and update raw data from an edited pictorial repre-
sentation. For WSR-88D communications, the FX-Advanced system w-
ill acquire WSR-88D products from the Radar Product Generator (
RPG) via the Simpact Freeway communication server. The WSR-88D
data are received from the RPG at a rate of up to 56 kbps. Duri-
ng I.A. #8, the FSL FX-team completed the test of a multichannel
, high-speed synchronous communications server and successfully
received data from the RPG. The team is also working on message
processing. FSL will complete most of the narrowband data proce-
ssing including radar applications such as one-time request and
RPS list editor.
CWB's first WSR-88D radar unit is scheduled for delivery in the
spring of 1996. The Wu-Fen-Shan radar station is currently under
construction. The exterior of the radar station is largely comp-
leted and much interior work remains to be done before the hard-
ware can be delivered. The radar station is scheduled to be rea-
dy for operational status in July of 1996. Because of the coming
installation of its new radar, CWB is extremely interested in i-
nformation on a wide range of topics, for example, the sea clut-
ter problem, radar system calibration, Archive 1 and Archive 2
data acquisition, and applications such as radar volume develop-
ment and wind retrievals from a multiple-radar network. FSL will
confer with CWB and identify its high priority areas. FSL will
then provide support as requested on these specific areas.
Performance Period:
1.Develop NEXRAD product interface software 7/1/96-12/31/96
2.Provide support in radar system calibration, clutter mitigati-
on, composite wind analysis, using raingauge data 7/1/96-6/30/
97
Resources Required: 20% FSL-CWB Joint Team
Deliverables:
1.NEXRAD product interface software 1/30/97
Task #4 - Development of the Open System Central Facility
FSL's development of NIMBUS (Networked Information Management c-
lient-Based User Service), an umbrella term for the open system
Central Facility, is an ongoing activity. During FY96, FSL has
served FSL users with 8 GB of data and products every day. The
ongoing development of data acquisition capabilities deal with
GOES-8, GOES-9, and WSR-88D data systems. Other NIMBUS developm-
ent activities such as the process manager responsible for crea-
ting large real-time model products, the MPP (Massively Parallel
Processor) interface, and networking and systems monitoring are
planned as upgrades for NIMBUS during FY96. To ensure reliable
Central Facility operations, FSL started developing a new the F-
acility Information and Control System (FICS) that uses World W-
ide Web (WWW) technology.
CWB continues to develop its own Central Facility meteorological
data processing environment, called NICE (Network Information e-
xChange Environment) which is similar to NIMBUS. NICE is a cent-
erpiece of the CWB Phase III modernization project. During I.A.
#9, CWB plans to complete the design and implement its first NI-
CE prototype for evaluation. FSL will continue to provide CWB w-
ith planning and implementation information from NIMBUS, so that
CWB can incorporate this information in their overall central f-
acility planning and scheduling efforts, FSL will provide the u-
pgraded central facility (NIMBUS) software to CWB as it becomes
available during T.A. #9.
Performance Period:
1.Development of NIMBUS software 7/1/96-6/30/97
2.Preparation of NIMBUS documentation 2/1/97-6/30/97
Resources Required: 10% FSL-CWB Joint Team
Deliverables:
1.Upgrade NIMBUS software 5/30/97
2.Documentation of NIMBUS 5/30/97
Task #5-AFPS Development Plan
The NWS plans to upgrade its method of producing forecasts at t-
he local Weather Forecast Offices. Instead of the current method
of typing repetitious forecasts, a new and efficient method of
interactive forecast preparation (IFP) will be introduced. The
AFPS will be one of the IFP systems. AFPS is grid-based, and it
contains a series of two-dimensional grids on which the forecas-
ter draws the weather patterns. The textual, graphical, and gri-
dded products are automatically generated once the forecaster h-
as finished drawing the gridded forecast. AFPS is a joint proje-
ct between FSL and the NWS Technical Development Laboratory (TDL
). AFPS is expected to be field-tested for several years beginn-
ing in 1996.
CWB has a great interest in FSL's AFPS development. During I.A.
#8, two CWB forecasters participated for four weeks in the 1995
Real-Time Forecast Exercise sponsored by FSL (from October 23 to
November 17, 1995). They used AFPS as well as D2D components of
the WFO-Advanced system during the exercise. During I.A. #9, CWB
will investigate the overall AFPS concept as well as its user i-
nterface, the database, the algorithms used to initialize the d-
atabase, the product generators that access the database and pr-
oduce output products , and the editing tools that allow the fo-
recaster to view and edit these grids interactively and draw the
forecasts graphically. FSL will provide basic training to CWB on
AFPS. The training will cover a system overview, the user contr-
ol interface, viewing the database, and the editors. CWB can th-
en evaluate AFPS and specify its own requirements for a similar
system.
Performance Period:
1.Provide AFPS training 8/1/96-12/31/96
Resources Required: 10% FSL-CWB Joint Team
Deliverables:
1.AFPS training material 1/30/97
3.0 Schedule
The following milestones are consistent with the overall program
requirements:
Functions Milestones
1.Provide FX-Advanced software LVIYO,LI 10/96,2/97
2.Provide FX-Advanced documentation 1/97,5/9
3.Provide Forecast Workstation training material 5/97
4.Provide regression-based inversion technique software 1/15/97
5.Provide divergent wind analysis software 1/15/97
6.Provide sensitivity study report on satellite and 5/15/97
aircraft data
7.Provide NEXRAD radar product interface software 1/30/97
8.Provide upgraded NIMBUS software 5/30/97
9.Provide available NIMBUS documentation 5/30/97
I0. Provide AFPS training material 1/30/97
TASKS 7/18/19/110/111/112/11/12/13/14/15/16/16/30
Task 1(FX-Advanced)
1.incremental s/w ────────────────────→
development
2.documentation ────────────────────→
3.software training ──────────→
(flexible)
Task 2 (Data Assi-
milation)
1.inversion techn- ──────────→
ique
2.wind analysis ──────────────────→
3.sensitivity stu- ────────→
dy for sat/airc-
raft
Task 3 (NEXRAD)
1.NEXRAD product ──────────────────→
onterface
2.radar system ────────────────────→
support
Task 4 (Central
Facility)
1.Central Facil- ────────────────────→
ity developme-
nt
2.documentation ──────→
Task 5 (AFPS tr-
aining)
4.0 Budget
The following are the estimate costs for I.A. #9
TASKS Personnel Travel/Training Total
┌────┬────┬────┬────┐
│Task #1 │$ 160 K │$ 50 K │$210K │
├────┼────┼────┼────┤
│Task #2 │$ 120 K │$ 30 K │$150 K │
├────┼────┼────┼────┤
│Task #3 │$ 100 K │$ 20 K │$120 K │
├────┼────┼────┼────┤
│Task #4 │$ 40 K │$ 20 K │$ 60 K │
├────┼────┼────┼────┤
│Task #5 │$ 40 K │$ 20 K │$ 60 K │
├────┼────┼────┼────┤
│Total I │$ 460 K │$140 K │$600 K │
└────┴────┴────┴────┘
As stated in I.A. #9, funds available for the tasks, traveling
and meeting expenses described in this Statement of Work will be
US $600,000. All budget figures are estimates. Actual amounts w-
ill be accrued for purposes of fulfilling the financial arrange-
ments described in the Implementing Arrangement, in accordance
with the terms of the Agreement.
All programs within the Forecast Systems Laboratory use the same
budget procedures, whether they are base-funded programs or ext-
ernally-funded programs. Beginning in FY91, a facility charge h-
as been applied to all programs to cover management and adminis-
trative cost, and the use of the FSL facility and all associated
equipment and data.
FSL staff time is charged at the employee's salary plus the nor-
mal NOAA benefit, leave and overhead charge. FSL professional s-
taff are primarily in the civil service grade scales of GS-I1 to
GS-14. Contract staff are in equivalent categories.
5.0 CWB Joint Team Assignments at FSL
Three tasks require CWB staff in residence at FSL. The primary
effort of CWB staff at FSL during this period will be directed
toward development of an operational forecast workstation, data
assimilation techniques, and central facility. Assignments for
the CWB staff will be as follows:
．Development of the FX-Advanced system (2 CWB staff)
．Development of verification software for TOVS data and experi-
mental design of TOVS data assimilation (1 CWB staff)
．Development of the NEXRAD data acquisition (1 CWB staff)