Preserving key NWSRFS Software for re-use in CHPS (models) |
NEWS AND ACTIVITIES (in reverse chronological order)April 2010 HSEB developers continue to work on non-model related CHPS BOC features. These will be tested and delivered as part of future CHPS builds. They include:
During a meeting in March, the CAT agreed to suspend work on the CHPS-based calibration until Deltares has developed enough of an Application Programming Interface (API) that will permit OHD to add user interfaces on top of FEWS without impacting FEWS itself. Deltares took an action to form a small API team, create a plan, and do some development. FEWS already addresses the vast majority of the calibration requirements; OHD is in the process of learning FEWS and identifying the relevant capabilities before defining the remaining requirements. January 2010 HSEB developers finished migration and testing of the legacy models required for BOC II. The models were formally tested in December. With the conclusion of the December SAT, the initial model development for BOC is complete. Any future development for BOC models will be in response to bug fixes or enhancements. Below is the final list of OHD's BOC models:
In addition, the BOC implementation of various baseline ensemble programs was also completed and tested, including ENS_PRE, ENS_POST, and ESPADP Input Generator. HSEB folks continue to support the CAT RFC migration efforts in conjunction with HSD and Deltares. We investigate each operational support problem which might be related to a problem with the legacy models. When a software problem is identified and corrected the fixed software is packaged and released through the HSD and Deltares. HSEB developers started working on non-model related BOC features. These will be tested and delivered as part of future CHPS builds (e.g. March or June CHPS Release). They include
Porting the parts of the Site Specific Hydrologic Predictor (SSHP) that were responsible for extracting data from the NWSRFS data base to extract data from the FEWS database. October 2009 HSEB developers finished migration and testing of the legacy models required for BOC II. These models are planned to be formally tested in December. HSEB developers also worked with Deltares developers to improve the performance of CHPS model runs, especially for ensembles. The improvements were formally tested during the September SAT in Silver Spring. Deltares held several IFD joint design meetings with some of the CAT forecasters. The focus of the design is to maximize forecaster efficiency (minimize mouse and button clicks) when navigating the user interface, while providing access to all functionality. Some AWIPS-like use of screen "real estate" has been included in the design. In mid-June Deltares delivered to the CAT representatives a demonstration version of the CHPS IFD for evaluation and testing. January 2009 HSEB developers have been finishing migration and testing of the legacy models required for BOC II. These models are planned to be formally tested in September. HSEB developers have also been working with Deltares developers to improve the performance of CHPS model runs, especially for ensembles. Initial results of these efforts have been encouraging. HSEB folks have also been supporting the CAT RFC migration efforts in conjunction with HSD and Deltares. We investigate each operational support problem which might be related to a problem with the legacy models. When a software problem is identified and corrected the fixed software is packaged and released through the HSD and Deltares. During this quarter, HSEB hosted CHPS formal testing sessions in April and June. These tests demonstrated that the CHPS BOC I models produced equivalent results as the NWSRFS counterparts. At the conclusion of the June tests, CHPS OHD release 1.1.1 was disseminated to the CAT RFCs for their use in migrating to CHPS. Deltares held several IFD joint design meetings with some of the CAT forecasters. The focus of the design is to maximize forecaster efficiency (minimize mouse and button clicks) when navigating the user interface, while providing access to all functionality. Some AWIPS-like use of screen "real estate" has been included in the design. In mid-June Deltares delivered to the CAT representatives a demonstration version of the CHPS IFD for evaluation and testing. April 2009 The first official release of the migrated legacy models (CHPS 1.0.0) was used to support the migration training in early February and then installed at the CAT RFCs the following week. This software is being used as the CAT RFCs migrate their operational segments to CHPS. As problems are uncovered, the development is investigating and supplying fixes. This quarter HSEB developers completed the implementation of the CarryOver Transfer function for the legacy models in the BOC. This software will be part of the CHPS formal testing in April and should be released as 1.1.0. A few minor changes to provide enhancements and address issues uncovered by continued testing or problems discovered by the CAT RFCs will also be included. Developers have begun addressing the migration of legacy models which are used by the CAT-II RFCs. Those six models, along with a new SAC-SMA model implementing improved heat transfer and soil moisture algorithms, will be completed in time for the initial CAT-II CHPS installations in the Fall of 2009. January 2009 This quarter HSEB developers completed the initial migration of all the NWSRFS models selected to be part of the CHPS Baseline Operational Capability (BOC). Formal testing of the migrated models in the CHPS environment was begun the week of December 15 in Silver Spring with participation from Deltares folks and Harold Opitz and Joe Intermill (NWRFC) and Ron Horwood (NERFC). The one major capability which remains to be implemented for most models is the CarryOver Transfer (COX) function which the developers are currently implementing. Minor changes are also being made to provide enhancements and address any issues uncovered by either internal or formal testing. The migrated models will be ready for the start of the RFC migration process. The testing in December was the first formal testing of CHPS with the migrated legacy models integrated with the FEWS system. Analysis of the results of individual model tests is not yet complete but the testing revealed a few problems with the configuration files which have already been addressed; no problems with the migrated model software itself was uncovered. The testing of more typical complete segment forecasts revealed some issues with both the test design and the system and more testing will be undertaken. In early December HSEB also delivered data transfer scripts for testing at ABRFC and CNRFC. These scripts fulfill two tasks: making data extracted from the IHFS database by the OFSDE program available to the FEWS ingest process and transferring input data to a Deltares server to support testing and transition. Policy issues were raised with the latter function which delayed the use of the scripts. July 2008 Joe Gofus assumed leadership of the OHD CHPS software development team, which grew from 2 to 11 developers within 2 months. The OHD team focuses on re-casting existing NWSRFS modeling applications ("operations") to work in a Delft-FEWS environment. A total of 44 operations have been identified as requiring conversion from NWSRFS to CHPS for the BOC, of which 15 will be addressed by OHD; the remaining operations will become available via the Delft-FEWS infrastructure, which provides most of the needed functionality already. HSEB is currently investigating some temporary resource re-alignments to cope with some unforeseen CHPS software tasks that resulted from the most recent workshop. The goal is for OHD to deliver all migrated modeling software to Deltares in December 2008 for the BOC. The NWSRFS models are, in most cases, ‘surgically’ removed from the NWSRFS environment in their current form to run directly from the Delft-FEWS infrastructure as an external module. The migration of nine of the 15 model operations is currently underway. The OHD team holds weekly technical conference calls with a Deltares software architect to answer in-depth questions. HSEB is about to begin converting the NWSRFS application espadp (ensembles displays) for use in CHPS; this is a CHPS BOC requirement. HSEB will also begin preparing a modified version of ofsde to facilitate the transfer of data from the IHFS database to the CHPS database for the BOC. Sudha Rangan will be leaving the NWS on Monday July 7 before traveling home to her native India. Sudha originally led the way for OHD’s software development activities on the "FEWS for CHPS Pilot" project, where she successfully demonstrated how the new software and architectural concepts would work; she has subsequently shared her best practices by teaching the growing HSEB/CHPS team how to build software in the Delft-FEWS environment. Lee Cajina will be assuming team leadership. OHD owes a huge debt of gratitude to Sudha for her technical leadership during the critical decision making activities. May 2008 A list of NWSRFS baseline "operations" in use at RFCs can be found here (other NWSRFS operations exist, but are not used for forecasting) Operations being adapted by OHD for use in CHPS:
As of May 2008, NWSRFS pre-processors, time series operations, and other functional capabilities are still undergoing analysis to determine the level of effort required. The NWS will begin an analysis of Calibration, Verification, and Ensembles needs later this year (2008). Run-time "MODs " – enhancements to the FEWS framework are currently underway by Deltares; work related to model-specific MODs is on hold until the FEWS framework enhancements are made available to OHD. Science-into-operations projects:
|
|
Main Link Categories: Home | HL | OHD | NWS |
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on YouTube
OWP RSS Feed