Weather Archive and Visualization Environment (WAVE)

Weather Archive Visualization Environment (WAVE) is an online tool used by NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters to create consistent, understandable graphics for use in decision support, on social media, and in presentations. WAVE is being developed in partnership with the NWS, and can be accessed with NOAA credentials.

WAVE News

⁕  WAVE v1.5 was released 9/20/2022 https://hwp-viz.gsd.esrl.noaa.gov/wave/ replacing WAVE v1.0 ⁕

WAVEdev v1.6 can be found at https://hwp-viz.gsd.esrl.noaa.gov/wavedev/
Both v1.5 and v1.6 were identical in Sept 2022 but WAVE 1.6 is already advancing. It is best to use v1.5, /wave/.
 
⁕ ⁕ ​​​​​​​We set WAVE 1.0 aside for interim use.
WAVE 1.0 can be found for NBM, NDFD, MRMS, by writing to WAVE Support.

 

 

- Details of WAVE 1.5 changes (beyond WAVE 1.0) are found at https://vlab.noaa.gov/web/wave/new-in-wave-1.5 sections What is New and FAQ.
- GSL's Development of WAVE, see https://gsl.noaa.gov/news-media/news/gsl-advances-wave 
- WAVE is a tool for the NWS and CWSU forecaster for making professional content for briefings and impact-based decision support (IDSS) content, quickly and easily.
(Log into see the WAVE VLab Community  webpage.)

 

WAVE Looking for Developer

GSL is planniing to post a NOAA L•A•N•T•E•R•N position for a developer or two from the NWS community to help with WAVE development
Here is a link about the program (not specific to WAVE development) https://sites.google.com/noaa.gov/lantern/

WAVE Presentation Links Examples

A cloud-native software solution has been developed for WAVE 1.5.

If you have been using the /wavedev/ link, you were already using the new service.  It has numerous fixes and performance upgrades.  It also has an API allowing direct access to the image (and movie) generation service aka custom downstream products as seen here. 

Using WAVE presentation links, the latest graphics for a model run can be inserted directly into a presentation without the need for a user to access the user interface each update. The following examples are using WAVE's "Animated GIF for Latest Date" presentation links to display up-to-date information automatically. 

 

AIRMETsGraphical AIRMETs 

An AIRMET (AIRman's METeorological Information) advises of weather that may be hazardous (other than convective activity) to single engine, other light aircraft, and Visual Flight Rules (VFR) for pilots. This is a graphical AIRMET.

 

 

HRRR - Vertically Integrated Smoke

 

The High-Resolution Rapid Refresh Smoke (HRRRSmoke) is a three-dimensional coupled weather-smoke model that allows simulation of mesoscale flows and smoke dispersion over complex terrain, in the boundary layer and aloft at high spatial resolution over the CONUS domain. Below is an example of the vertically integrated smoke model forecast.

 

 

NAM Winds and Heights

 

Below is an example of the NAM (12km) model's Winds and Heights (mph) fields at 300mb surface. This is near 30K ft or 9000 meters, a level where many long-distance commercial jet aircraft fly. This level also corresponds to the level of the upper tropospheric jet stream, a region of very fast winds that move across the country.

 

WAVE on facebook

Facebook NWS Sacramento, California

NWS Sacramento

Twitter #poweredbyGSL

Twitter #wxWithWAVE

How to training video

Here is a 10 minute overview video showing the highlights of WAVE. 

 

Other videos are located here, Video Training Page