RSS has developed a Python and IDL based data distribution and visualization system for viewing data collected from instrumentation on the NOAA aircraft. This novel system is currently being evaluated by forecasters and scientists at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) and Hurricane Research Division (HRD) as well as NOAA Weather Field Offices (WFOs) and various research institutes across the country. This system dynamically configures and transmits data from aircraft based instrumentation over satellite links with as little as 300 bps throughput to a ground-based relay server. Processes onboard the aircraft and within the ground-based server monitor the flow of data and link to the aircraft, reporting the status of the satellite link and data transmission. The transmission subsystem determines the available bandwidth of the satellite links and dynamically changes the rate of data sent so that it fits within the available bandwidth to continue providing information in real-time. The ground server maintains a list of subscribers which it publishes this data to via the internet. Each subscriber specifies the type of data it wishes to receive, and the relay server complies by publishing only that data which was subscribed for, further boosting the efficiency of the system.

An IDL based user interface was created for NHC to display the critical parameters their forecasters are most interested in. This display presents a GIS map showing the aircraft track, flight level wind vector, flight level wind speed, SFMR wind speed, surface pressure estimates, boundary layer wind ratio and vertical wind speed. It also displays these parameters in real-time and historical mode XY plots.

In 2005 for the first time, aircraft were able to send continuous reflectivity profiles measured by the Lower Fuselage Radar on NOAA aircraft. These profiles were sent in real-time to a ground-based server. From there they were distributed to users through a subscription relay server and were even sent back up to the NOAA aircraft. These data along with the 33 scientific measurements were sent using on a 9600 baud satellite link. The latency measured from the time the data was acquired on the aircraft to the time it was displayed on the ground was only 1.5 seconds. For each subsequent hurricane season this application has been expanded; see Figure 8, to provide the user with GIS viewing capability of parameters along with single and multiple parameter X-Y plots for comparison. This application included a novel feature allowing hurricane researchers to display parameters overlaid on the actual flight path of the aircraft. The user was also given the ability to manipulate these flight tracks into a storm relative mode, whereby the rendering of the flight tracks were plotted as though the storm remained stationary. This feature along with the capability of point-and-click interaction between the X-Y plots and GIS display and simple measurement functions allowed researchers to better estimate the hurricane wind radii. By clicking on a data point within an X-Y plot, its actual location on the GIS plot appeared. The user was then able to mouse drag from that point to the perimeter of hurricane force winds, and thereby measure the wind radii.