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Refer to Exhibit 2.1.6.7-1 for a display of the NCEP/Hydro menu.

The NCEP/Hydro menu is subdivided into sections that contain related products. These sections are described below:

SPC: Severe weather plots, Storm Prediction Center (SPC) Watch and Warning information and Outlooks, as well as fire weather information are all contained in this portion of the NCEP/Hydro Menu. Severe Weather Plots are extracted from the STADTS and STAHRY text products and plotted to time-match the current display. The severe weather plots data set in the NCEP/Hydro Menu can be interrogated (sampled) for more detailed information by pressing Mouse Button 1 over a site. Also included in this section are plots of local warnings and local storm reports.

Local Storm Reports: The Local Storm Report (LSR) plots are generated from the spotter reports that were entered into the LSR text database and decoded into the correct NetCDF point data format. (For more information on the stand-alone LSR GUI, please refer to the Local Storm Report User's Guide. The spotter reports can be displayed on D2D on the office, local, or regional scales, and use the following symbols:

TPC: Contains the hurricane submenu which comprises graphic products that display the Marine/Tropical Cyclone Advisory (TCM), Public Tropical Cyclone Advisory (TCP), hourly forecasts, model guidance, and 12- and 48-hour strike probabilities.

HPC: This section contains a variety of national precipitation products such as the daily precipitation and snow plots, precipitation outlooks, several stability index charts, radar summary and legends products, and drought and moisture index charts. Also in this section are the max/min and normal temperature charts, temperature anomalies and outlooks, weather depiction charts, frontal analyses, and forecasts.

Exhibit 2.1.6.7d - The Precip and Stability Submenu	Exhibit 2.1.6.7e - The Temps and Weather Submenu

Exhibit 2.1.6.7f - The Sounding-derived Plots Submenu	Exhibit 2.1.6.7g - The National Centers Models Submenu

MPC: This section contains marine analyses and model guidance.

CPC: This section contains threat charts including drought monitor and heat index forecasts.

Hydro: Under the Hydro subsection of the NCEP/Hydro Menu, County and Zone Flash Flood Guidance may be displayed using this option at the Regional or smaller scale. The area for which the data are displayed is limited, but the site system manager may configure a larger area.

River Forecast Centers (RFC) issue Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts (QPF), indicating how much precipitation will occur in a particular grid. They display as contours by default, but from the pop-up menu you can convert them to image form. The particular grid is identified by the Station ID in the pull-down menu.

Mosaic images of RFC-generated QPE, QPF, and FFG, plus FFG images from each RFC are available.

NESDIS produces two types of Satellite Precipitation Estimates (SPE) based on GOES imagery series: Auto SPEs and Manual SPEs. Auto SPEs, which can be displayed directly from the main Surface menu, are produced on an hourly basis based on the most recent one-hour series of IR GOES imagery. This product is mapped to a CONUS grid and is displayable in five default AWIPS scales (all except the NH scale). The Auto SPE estimates are displayed in units of inches of precipitation that fell during the specified one-hour period.

Manual SPEs are accessible through the “Manual SPE” submenu. Generation of these products requires substantial manual intervention by NESDIS personnel and, consequently, these products are generated and distributed to AWIPS at variable frequencies, as significant precipitation events warrant (i.e., their frequency is variable). The duration (or valid period) of the Manual SPEs is also variable. Whereas the duration of Auto SPEs is always one hour, the duration of the Manual SPEs ranges from 1-12 hours. Furthermore, although each Manual SPE product is mapped to a CONUS grid, the area of analysis is usually regional (focusing on the significant precipitation event). Apart from these important differences, the Manual SPEs are very similar to the Auto SPEs. See Exhibit 2.1.6.7-2.

Note: Refer to documentation prepared by the Office of Hydrology--NWS for more information on hydro products.

Other: There is also an assortment of pregenerated model products, sounding derived plots, NCEP products, MOS and LAMP products, and forecasts in this section of the NCEP/Hydro Menu. The model packages are summarized as follows:

Sounding Derived Plots: The Sounding Derived Plots Submenu contains options to display model soundings (sometimes called "BUFR soundings" since they are packaged in BUFR format for transmission). These are soundings extracted directly from the model, including all levels, not generated from the pressure-level grids used elsewhere in the system. The "Availability" menu items display the sounding locations (shown with asterisks) available from the latest model run; typically these locations coincide with TAF locations. The plot will update with each model run. Because the sounding data are quite voluminous, only soundings over your State(s) scale are saved. The "Sfc Plots," which mimic the METAR Surface Plots, are taken from the model-derived soundings and provide hourly forecast surface plots. Since you can't see all forecast projections in a 32-frame loop (e.g., displaying the entire Eta run would require 61 frames), you will probably want to use the Time Option Tool (refer to section 2.1.6.3 Options) to view a subset of the forecast -- perhaps a continuous run of hours or every other hour for the whole run. The Precip Plots show hourly amounts at each location.

LAPS: The LAPS analysis component is currently included in D2D, but the predictive component is planned for a later build. The LAPS analysis grid is 10 km and covers an area slightly larger than the WFO scale. The contour intervals are not specifiable, but you can use the Density function to increase/decrease the number of contours.

LAPS fields, see Exhibit 2.1.6.7-3, are available on the State and WFO scales through the NCEP/Hydro pull-down menu or through the Volume Browser.

The LAPS application runs via cron from 20 minutes to 45 minutes after the hour.

The LAPS modules included in AWIPS are surface, temperature, humidity, cloud, wind, derived parameters, and soil parameters. These modules use a mixture of required and optional data to prepare their products. If a LAPS module's required data are not present, that LAPS module does not run. If a LAPS module's optional data are not present, that LAPS module will run.

LAPS uses the following data:

• Model data (Rapid Update Cycle [RUC] is first choice; the Eta model is used if RUC is not available)
• Satellite imagery (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite [GOES]-East or GOES-West)
• METAR observations
• Profiler data (only used by midwest sites)
• Surface buoy/ship reports
• Radar reflectivity

Table 2.1.6.7-1. LAPS Modules with Required and Optional Data

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