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Tools Decision Makers Use
Social and environmental scientists at NCAR study weather and climate impacts across the globe in the context of human activity. They produce decision strategies and other tools that can help policy makers minimize risk from El Niño and other weather and climate phenomena. Other tools developed at NCAR provide weather and climate information for decision makers such as land managers, urban planners, air traffic controllers, road maintenance crews, and military personnel. Many of these projects are sponsored by the Federal Aviation and Federal Highway Administrations. NCAR scientists and engineers work closely with decision makers to understand their needs, build tools to address them, and improve the tools through continued field work and feedback. These tools typically ingest and integrate data, predict near-term conditions, and give users the guidance they need in an easy-to-use interface. Among these tools are: • a wind shear alert system that now protects major U.S. airports and several international ones • the Auto-Nowcaster, which generates place-specific thunderstorm forecasts for the next two hours •the Weather Support to Deicing Decision Making (WSDDM) system, which gives airport and airline personnel the information they need to plan and conduct aircraft deicing operations, as well as better coordinate flights and runway plowing operations during winter storms • a prototype Maintenance Decision Support System that guides winter road maintenance operators as they treat the nation's roadways Harnessing the power of the Internet, NCAR scientists developed and implemented an Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS). This tool provides route-specific graphics of aviation hazards such as turbulence, icing, and thunderstorms to pilots, dispatchers, and other decision makers. Applied scientists have also made breakthroughs in the arena of high-resolution modeling, coupling complex mesoscale models like MM5 (see above) to models of the land surface, atmospheric dispersion, and wildland fire. Scientists and engineers have made it possible to run these complex models on hand-held devices such as personal digital assistants, even in remote regions of the world.
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Some of NCAR's tools range beyond the community of atmospheric scientists.
Land managers, urban planners, air traffic controllers, congressional
staff: these and other professionals need reliable ways to find out
how the atmosphere might affect the people they serve.
