The National Weather Services' NCEP Central Operations AWIPS II development team has begun Forecaster Integration Testing (FIT), according to Chief of Systems Integration Michelle Mainelli.
"The month of February was spent configuring the NCEP AWIP II Test Bed to begin Forecaster Integration Testing," says Mainelli. "During this past month, forecasters and developers from the National Hurricane Center, Storm Prediction Center, Aviation Weather Center, Climate Prediction Center, Ocean Prediction Center, Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, and NESDIS had an opportunity to spend two to three days testing the functionality, data display, and product generation on the system."
This is only the first round of three FITs for each Center to take part in prior to the start of the NWS National Field Operational Test and Evaluation (OTE) period beginning this summer.
At the current time, NCEP Central Operations has not set up an automated data flow into the system. "We hope to have non-SBN data flow into the Test Bed by late March/early April," says Mainelli. "While the software development of the National Center Perspective is not fully complete, the feedback we have received from the Centers who have taken part in the FIT has been invaluable."
