NOUS41 KWBC 201830 AAA

PNSWSH

 

Technical Implementation Notice 11-46 AAA

National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC

120 PM EST Fri Jan 20 2012

 

To:       Subscribers:

          - Family of Services

          - NOAA Weather Wire Service

          - Emergency Managers Weather Information Network

          - NOAAPORT

          Other NWS partners, users and NWS employees

 

From:     Tim McClung

          Science Plans Branch Chief

          Office of Science and Technology

 

Subject:  Amended: Implementation Date Delayed: Changes to

          Localized Aviation Model Output Statistics

          Program (LAMP) Products  

 

Amended to delay the implementation. On a date to be determined

the NWS Meteorological Development Laboratory (MDL) will update

the Localized Aviation Model Output Statistics Program (LAMP) system.

 

The LAMP changes include:

 

1. Replacing the current LAMP total sky cover guidance with

new opaque sky cover guidance dependent on cloud opacity. 

 

The LAMP sky cover guidance predicts an estimate of the total

percentage of the sky covered by clouds in terms of the five

categories reported in the METAR observations: clear, few, scattered,

broken or overcast. The current LAMP total sky cover guidance does

not distinguish between opaque and translucent cloud cover. 

 

The new LAMP sky cover will produce an estimate of opaque clouds.

The anticipated effect of this change will be to decrease the

number of broken or overcast forecasts and to increase the number

of clear or few forecasts when only cirrus clouds are expected. 

This change will make the LAMP guidance consistent with both the

NWS definition of sky cover, as well as the Global Forecast System

(GFS)-based MOS definition of sky cover. See TIN 07-34 for details

on GFS-based MOS opaque sky cover change.

 

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/notification/tin07-34juncloud.txt


The LAMP total sky cover currently available in the LAMP public

text bulletins (known by their AWIPS ids LAV) and labeled as CLD,

will be replaced with the LAMP opaque sky cover. The CLD label

will not change. Likewise, the LAMP total sky cover available

in the BUFR message will be replaced with the LAMP opaque sky

cover. This change to the LAMP BUFR message will be transparent

to users since will be no changes to the descriptors in the

BUFR file. 

 

2. Redeveloped ceiling height and conditional ceiling height

equations to produce improved forecast guidance.

3. NWS will add 119 stations to the LAMP text bulletins and

BUFR products. These changes will be reflected in the new

equations for opaque sky cover, and the redeveloped ceiling height

and conditional ceiling height equations. These changes will also

 

be reflected in the guidance for the following elements:

 

Precipitation occurring on the hour

Precipitation in a 6-hour period

Precipitation in a 12-hour period

Thunderstorms in a 2-hour period

Precipitation type

Visibility

Conditional visibility

Obstruction to vision

 

These changes will alter slightly the format of the LAV text

products because new lines will be added to the existing bulletins

to accommodate the new stations. In addition, some stations might

not have had guidance for all of the above elements before this

change. With this change, guidance will now be produced for those

elements at those stations.

 

These changes will also alter the contents of the LAMP BUFR

messages because new guidance will be available. The communication

identifiers for the text and BUFR products are shown in

Tables 1 and 2 below.

 

Table 1: Communication identifiers for the GFS-based LAMP products 
in ASCII format. Listed below are the WMO heading and the 
AWIPS identifier. 
 
WMO heading     AWIPS ID
-----------     --------
FOUS11 KWNO     LAVUSA

 

Table 2: Communication identifiers for the GFS-based LAMP products 
in BUFR format.  Listed below are the WMO headings.  
 
WMO heading     Region
-----------     ------
JSMF10 KWNO     LAMP BUFR Pacific Region
JSMF11 KWNO     LAMP BUFR Northeast Region
JSMF12 KWNO     LAMP BUFR Southeast Region
JSMF13 KWNO     LAMP BUFR North Central Region
JSMF14 KWNO     LAMP BUFR South Central Region
JSMF15 KWNO     LAMP BUFR Rocky Mountains Region
JSMF16 KWNO     LAMP BUFR West Coast Region
JSMF17 KWNO     LAMP BUFR Alaska Region
 

A Web page providing more details of these changes, including

a link to the list of new stations, is online at:

 

www.weather.gov/mdl/gfslamp/docs/change_notice_01242012.php

 

If you have technical comments or questions, contact:

 

Judy Ghirardelli

National Weather Service

Meteorological Development Laboratory

Judy.Ghirardelli@noaa.gov

301-713-0056 x194

 

Links to the LAMP products and descriptions can found at:

 

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/gfslamp/gfslamp.shtml

 

National Public Information Statements are online at:

 

   http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm

 

$$