AWIPS - (Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System) - computer system used by the NWS for integrating graphics, satellite and radar imagery. AWIPS is a state-of-the-art computer system deployed throughout the NWS in the late 1990s. Forecasters use this system to view numerous meteorological data-sets simultaneously. The system allows forecasters to compare observations, satellite, and radar data to computer model forecast data, in order to produce more accurate forecasts.
The computer processors used by AWIPS and the 88D Radar takes up an entire room. The processors handle billions of bits of data per second.