[aprssig] APRS as a Situational Awareness tool

[Russ Chadwick]

Ev Tupis wrote:
>
> So...why is APRS designed for situational awareness, yet is so under utilized?  A question that I will ponder over the next couple of days as the situation in Rochester abates.
>
>   
Ev,

With regard to weather, APRS is not under utilized.  If you enter 
"Rochester, NY"  here,

http://www.wxqa.com/search.htm

you will get information on a CWOP weather station in the area and 
multiple links to the surface weather data, meta data and quality data 
from that station.  If you then click under "Near stns", you will have a 
list of other weather stations in the area.  The weather data from most 
of these weather stations are being sent to National Weather Service 
Forecast Offices around the country in real-time and the data appear on 
their standard AWIPS workstations, not on a PC over in the corner.

In addition the data are being sent to over 500 user agencies around the 
world in real-time.  So, thanks to the volunteers who send the data and 
to those who operate APRS-IS and findU, the whole system is utilized by 
professionals and amateurs for weather situational awareness.

Russ Chadwick,  KB0TVJ