International Satellite Communications System (ISCS) April 2, 2011 Robert Gillespie Program Manager for the ISCS National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration U.S. National Weather Service

WMO Region Association IV (RA-IV) Meteorological Telecommunication ISCS-G2e SERVICES WMO Region Association IV (RA-IV) Meteorological Telecommunication Network (RMTN) Extends the distribution of required Global Telecommunication System (GTS) products into RA-IV Facilitates the exchange of hyrdo-meteorological products within RA-IV Point-to-multi-point transmission service is used to disseminate product from the Regional Telecommunication Hub (RTH) to RA-IV member States Point-to-point circuits are used for RA-IV member State to send products to the RTH World Area Forecast System (WAFS) , International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Provides World Area Forecast System (WAFS) data products to user States in conformance with ICAO Annex 3 requirements, and per the 1982 COM/MET Divisional meeting report: ‘The provider State be responsible for the generation of area forecast products, and making them available in a uniform manner to user States”

ISCS Broadcast Coverage Map Next 3 slides on broadcast tells how the data flows &/or disseminates correct? 3 3

ISCS RMTN & WAFS STATIONS Atlantic Ocean Region (AOR) Pacific Ocean Region (POR) **RMTN** INTELSAT 903 **WAFS** INTELSAT 701 **WAFS** INTELSAT 906 **WAFS** Caribbean: Antigua Aruba Bahamas Barbados (Met Service) Cayman Islands Cuba (Met Service) Curacao Dominican Republic Grenada Guadeloupe Haiti Jamaica Martinique Saint Lucia Sint Maarten Trinidad & Tobago Central America: Belize Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Mexico (Met Service) Nicaragua Panama South America: Colombia Ecuador French Guiana Guyana Caribbean Anguilla Azores Barbados (CMI) Bermuda Cuba (Aeroport) Dominica Montserrat St. Kitts St. Vincent Tortola Central America Mexico (Aeroport) South America Argentina Bolivia Brazil (Aeroport) Chile Paraguay Peru (Met Service) Peru (CORPAC) Suriname Uruguay Venezuela (2) North America Canada (3) United States (4) Europe Exeter, England Saint Pierre, France Zurich, Switzerland American Samoa Australia Brunei Caroline Island China (4) Cook Island Democratic People's Republic of Korea East Timor Easter Island Fiji French Polynesia Indonesia (5) Japan Johnston Island Kiribati Mariana Islands Marshall Islands Nauru New Zealand (2) New Caledonia Niue Island of Korea Papua New Guinea Peoples Republic of China Philippines (2) Republic of Korea USA - Honolulu, Hawaii Vanuatu Wallis Island Malaysia Thailand Viet Nam

Regional Telecommunications Network

Network Characteristics ISCS-G2e Characteristics Media C-band Satellite Transponder User Interface: Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) Satellite Ground Station (SGS) Channel Capacity: 128 kbps ISCS Broadcast Metrics: 99.9% Operational Availability Protocol: Broadcast – Internet Protocol (IP) Broadcast Compression: Broadcast – PDSend / PDReceive Software IT Security Posture: US Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) compliant OPSnet Characteristics Media Terrestrial telecommunication circuits User Interface Juniper Edge Router / Firewall Channel Capacity: 64 kbps dedicated channel per site Metrics: 99.9% Operational Availability Protocol: FTP over Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) circuits IT Security Posture: US FISMA Compliant

Data Broadcast Management Both WAFS and RMTN Data transmitted to all stations simultaneously Data is in TAR files managed by the PDSend /PDReceive software Stations filter products for their particular need/application WAFS Workatations1 employ software to ingest, manipulate, and transmit WAFS data products; effectively used in a similar manner for the RMTN GTS data products in RA-IV Other computer configurations (with PD Receive software) can/are being used ISCS Broadcast Product Baseline is managed by NWS and is available for review: http://www.weather.gov/iscs/baseline.html 1 – See < http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/sadis/software/index.html > for further information.

Broadcast Prioritization Priority 1: Tsunami Text Priority 2: Alphanumeric Text Priority 3: RMTN-AOR RADAR Priority 4: GRIB I Priority 5: BUFR/T4 FAX Priority 6: GRIB 2

ISCS Daily Network Traffic Totals 9

ISCS Daily Network Traffic Profile (GRIB 2 is not shown) 10

ISCS Broadcast Performance Monitoring 11

ISCS Data Collection & Performance Monitoring 12

The Future of ISCS… The current Verizon ISCS broadcast service terminates 30 June 2012. NOAA’s NWS is identifying future ISCS alternatives, to be made available for use by WMO RA-IV users within the next 12 months. NWS File Service: The primary method for product availability will be through an Internet based, NWS File Service Registered WMO RA-IV users will download [pull] products from the server Service is similar to the existing US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) World Area Forecast Service (WAFS) Internet File Service (WIFS) The NWS RA-IV GTS Internet File Service (GIFS) will make available to users the suite of products broadcast by the ISCS. Backup for the NWS File Service : NOAA’s NWS is considering a satellite based broadcast service GEONETCast-Americas (GNC-A) is under consideration. The NWS is working with NESDIS to fully understand and investigate the GNC-A’s ability to adequately address an ISCS broadcast role in the future. 13

ISCS References ISCS Web Page: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/iscs/ ISCS Points of Contact: Program Leader Patrick Gillis NWS/ISCS 301-713-1743 x 104 patrick.gillis@noaa.gov Satellite Systems Program Manager Robert Gillespie NWS/ISCS 301-713-9478 x 140 robert.gillespie@noaa.gov

ISCS Questions?