Michael F. Squires
The Air Force Combat Climatology Center's (AFCCC) mission is to provide weather impact information to DoD and various intelligence agencies. AFCCC quality controls and archives worldwide weather observations, which are used in customer driven
Michael F. Squires
The Air Force Combat Climatology Center's (AFCCC) mission is to provide weather impact information to DoD and various intelligence agencies. AFCCC quality controls and archives worldwide weather observations, which are used in customer driven studies. GIS is used to visualize, manage, and analyze climate data. Visualization applications include the display and mapping of climate information. Data management applications include the development and modification of various databases that support AFCCC operations. Analysis applications include verifying output from a numerical model and displaying climate statistics stored in a relational database. GIS has become an integral component of AFCCC.
Most of the projects done at AFCCC use weather observations that are routinely taken around the world to support aviation interests and operational forecasting. These observations are collected, quality controlled, and archived at AFCCC for use in climatological studies. These studies are used for everything from long-range mission planning to military construction projects. Climate data is also used early in the design stage of new military systems. AFCCC is currently archiving over two terabytes of conventional weather observations and three terabytes of modeled data.
Weather observations arrive at AFCCC through the "ingest process". On any given day, there are approximately 10,000 locations around the world taking and transmitting weather reports. The reports are transmitted in various formats and the amount of quality varies between regions. On a typical day,