The SBN is the primary vehicle through which hydro-meteorological forecasting products are provided to the National Weather Service‘s (NWS) Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS).

   Raytheon said the SBN expansion is critical to the performance of AWIPS, which gives forecasters access to data and imagery from an array of weather sensors and satellites through interactive workstations.

   “AWIPS provides complex analysis and data integration for more than 130 weather forecast offices and river forecast centers across the nation. The driving force of the bandwidth expansion and hardware upgrade is to support the dissemination of additional data products over the SBN/NOAAPort such as dual polarization radar products, GOES and POES satellite products, and analysis and forecast products,” Raytheon said in a company statement.

   Separately, Raytheon also announced that it transitioned the SBN to a DVB-S2 service, and provided for the incorporation of NOAA Weather Wire Service broadcasts into the SBN as part of the Weather Radio Improvement Program.

   Raytheon has been NOAA’s partner for the operations, maintenance and evolution of AWIPS since 2005, providing integrated mission services required to sustain and enhance system performance. AWIPS is used by the NWS to ingest, analyze and disseminate operational weather data including time-sensitive, high-impact warnings that save lives and safeguard property.  

   The company said it is now testing next-generation AWIPS software that it designed and developed to feature a service-oriented architecture. “AWIPS 2 will improve weather operations by bringing enhanced functionality to forecasters and help guide environmental decision-making at the national, regional and local levels,” Raytheon said.