ANDOVER, MA, April 28th, 2009 — WSI Corporation, a weather decision support provider in the aviation industry, announced the latest release of Hubcast™, featuring a new lightning alerting capability.
The internet-based service alerts ramp employees via SMS text message or e-mail of a lightning hazard without the need to install and maintain on-site sensors. When a strike is detected in either of the user-defined caution or warning ranges, Hubcast sends an alert to the mobile phones of employees indicating the range and bearing to the strike.
Operations managers can monitor and manage disruptive weather events using Hubcast’s intuitive user interface. The service also provides visual and aural alerting of weather hazards when viewed on any internet-capable PC, yet can be safely closed and alert monitoring will continue to run uninterrupted.
Featuring WSI’s powerful Interactive Map technology, Hubcast provides direct access to WSI’s industry standard aviation products including WSI NOWrad® radar imagery, 100 NM radius real-time lightning, Radar Summary with Echo Tops, IR Satellite imagery, as well as plain English current conditions, hourly and 10-day forecasts, METARs, TAFs, TFRs, Tropical Storms and NWS Watch Boxes. Hubcast delivers a high resolution map display centered on the airport, clearly showing the location and movement of disruptive weather to take the guess work out of decision making.
WSI Hubcast leverages real-time lightning detected by WSI’s North American Precision Lightning Network (NAPLNSM), a stroke detection network that detects and reports each lightning stroke (as opposed to summarizing multiple strokes as a single flash event) for improved safety and decision support. A flash event is comprised of multiple strokes that may be several nautical miles apart, in some cases farther. WSI’s NAPLN is capable of 95 percent or better ground stroke detection efficiencies.
“WSI Hubcast is just the latest in a series of products that leverage our Interactive Map technology to deliver a comprehensive station management solution”, states Paul Hathaway, director of product management. “Hubcast’s combination of lightning alerts, WSI’s award-winning aviation products such as NOWrad, and plain language forecasts provides airport operations personnel with one-stop weather analysis and warning capabilities that are unmatched, but which can be securely accessed from any internet browser”.
“Winter or summer, snow or convection, this intuitive and affordable internet-based tool enables year-round proactive management of disruptive weather events”, states Mark D. Miller, VP and general manager of WSI’s Aviation Division. “WSI Hubcast enables station managers to stay ahead of changing operational conditions and take positive action to reduce operational impacts.”
Introductory pricing for Hubcast is $149.95 per month. For more information on Hubcast call (800) USA-2FLY, or visit: www.wsi.com
