The Development and Application of a Very-Short-Range Interactive Prediction System

For the purpose of providing high temporal and spatial forecast for 2008 Olympic weather service, a new system named as Very-short-range Interactive Prediction System (VIPS) for weather warning making and dissemination was developed. The design，development, and function of VIPS system were introduced. Based on the opening concept, VIPS was developed using open source community resources like Java and OpenMap, and it is easy to migrate and upgrade. Also, it is possible to combine data from observations like regional Doppler Radar mosaic, automatic weather stations, lightning detection system, and forecasting products from radar echo extrapolation and storm cell tracking, together with 3 km resolution Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) products with layered data technology support. VIPS can be used to help forecasters to review realtime weather information with the detail GIS(Geographic Information System) information as a background and make a rational composite analysis according to the data sources focusing on nowcasting warning issues. Forecasters can then make a warning based on the analysis. After circling the warning area, venue information can be easily extracted from GIS layer and then with the support of XML(eXtensible Markup Language) templates predefined, different kinds of warning and specified products (like webpage, PDF file, text file) can be generated according to users requirement. Effective actions can then be taken with combination of accuracy and specificity in time and space. VIPS system played a successful role in the 2008 Olympics weather service and was used as an operational platform after the Olympics.