Three Columns
The Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) is a tri-agency cooperative effort for transitioning new techniques from the research arena to improve operational weather forecasting and analysis in support of the space shuttle and the National space program.
It is operated by ENSCO, Inc. under contract to NASA and is co-located with the 45th Weather Squadron at Range Weather Operations (RWO) on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
The AMU supports RWO forecasters who provide weather support for shuttle and expendable vehicle ground processing and launches, the National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters in the Spaceflight Meteorology Group at Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX who provide weather support for Shuttle on-orbit and landing operations, and the NWS Office in Melbourne, FL that provides daily regional forecasts.
The AMU has recent experience in mesoscale model verification, development of statistical forecast tools and analysis of observational data from rawinsondes, wind sensors, radar and lightning detection systems. The quarterly reports on-line here highlight the current work performed by the AMU.
MISSION
- The AMU develops, evaluates and transitions technology to operations for weather support to America's space program.
VALUES
- Excellence, integrity and responsiveness to customers.
THE TEAM
- The AMU team evaluates research conducted at universities, public and private laboratories, and the private sector, then acts as a bridge, transitioning those research results into applications used for operations by the Spaceflight Meteorology Group, the 45th Weather Squadron, and the National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida.
- The AMU is funded and managed by NASA and hosted by the U.S. Air Force, co-located with Range Weather Operations on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. It is tasked by its customers through a cooperative effort of NASA, the USAF and NWS. The AMU is currently operated by ENSCO, Inc. under a competitively-awarded contract.
PRODUCTS
- The AMU develops products that exploit weather technology to increase safety, reduce cost, and lessen weather impacts to space operations such as:
TOOLS
- The AMU uses local and national data sets, state-of-the-art computing hardware, sophisticated software packages and rigorous and effective analysis techniques in the execution of tasks.
NEWS FEATURES
- January 2011 - American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting
- John Madura of the KSC Weather Office authored a paper titled The Applied Meteorology Unit: Nineteen Years Successfully Transitioning Research into Operations for America's Space Program. AMU member Bill Bauman was a co-author on the paper. Other co-authors included Frank Merceret from the KSC Weather Office, Bill Roeder of the 45th Weather Squadron (who presented the paper at the meeting), Frank Brody from the Spaceflight Meteorology Group and Bart Hagemeyer from the Melbourne, Florida National Weather Service Forecast Office.
- October 2010 - National Weather Association (NWA) Annual Meeting
- AMU members Joe Barrett, Winnie Crawford and Bill Bauman prepared technical papers for the Annual NWA Meeting. Bill Roeder of the 45th Weather Squadron presented the papers for the AMU.
- September 2010 - AMU Published in NASA Tech Briefs
- Work completed by Bill Bauman and Winnie Crawford on the Situational Lightning Climatologies task was published in the Software Edition of NASA's Tech Briefs magazine.
