32 Forecast Product Information Panel

Contents

Overview

The forecast product information panel allows the user to create, edit and view product information associated with forecast time series. When the user views a forecast time series (simulated or external) in a Spatial Display or Time Series Dialog which has a product associated with it, the product information panel will show all product information added to the forecast being viewed. If the viewed product was created in a forecast which used other products as input, the product information panel will show this through its comment from user "System". In this case, the product information for the input products will be shown as well. The user can also turn this "automatic filtering" on product information associated with the viewed time series off, after which the forecast product information panel will show all forecast product information present in the system.

Concepts

What is a Product?

Often models will produce several output time series, or in the case of external forecasts several time series are provided together as a single "product". For example, a weather forecast product would include a temperature and precipitation forecast time series. When time series are viewed as part of the same forecast, they should also be linked to the same product through the product configuration. In the case of the weather forecast, both the temperature and precipitation time series would be linked to the same product, for example "NWP Medium Range". The user would then see all product information on the "NWP Medium Range" product when viewing the temperature time series in the spatial display. If the user switches to the precipitation time series, FEWS will show the product information for "NWP Medium Range" as well. If the user creates a new comment, this would be linked to the "NWP Medium Range" product (for the chosen forecast time), and be shown for both time series as well. 

What is an input product?

When a worklow which is marked as a forecast (through its workflow descriptor) runs, FEWS will check whether each of the time series read while running the workflow is linked to a product. If so, it will record the combination of the product id and the forecast time of the read time series, and store this as a used input product. So an input product is a combination of a product and forecast time, corresponding to a time series (or several time series) used to produce a new forecast. 

For example, a system could import an external weather forecast consisting of a precipitation and a temperature time series. Both of these series are linked to the product "NWP Medium Range". They are imported every six hours and the most recent forecast has a forecast time of "Thu 25-7-2019 12:00:00". The system then produces water level forecasts for several locations through a simulated forecast using the (most recent) precipitation time series as input. All of the water level time series are linked to a product called "HPC G2G Medium Range". While running the forecast, FEWS will record that an input product was used: "NWP Medium Range - Thu 25-7-2019 12:00:00" and store this information in the database. Now if a user views the water level time series for a certain location, the forecast product information panel will show the product information for product "HPC G2G Medium Range" relevant for the forecast time of the time series being viewed. It will also show a comment from the "System" for the "HPC G2G Medium Range" stating: "Created using NWP Medium Range - Thu 25-7-2019 12:00:00". Finally, the panel will also show all product information for "NWP Medium Range" relevant for the forecast time of "Thu 25-7-2019 12:00:00". 

Motivation

Why add a Forecast Product Information Panel?

The forecast product information panel can be used to allow users to communicate about forecasts, their reliability and reasoning behind the creation of modifiers. It allows users to gain insight into what products are used to create other products. Finally, it allows users to allow communicating about the quality of these input products.

For example, one user of the system might look at a new precipitation forecast and judge this forecast to be largely reliable. However, this user believes that the forecast is not reliable for a particular small region, and expects the precipitation will be much lower than the forecast states. Therefore, the user creates a new product information and states his opinion on the forecast in his comment. This precipitation forecast is used as one of the inputs to create a forecast on the water level. A different user views this water level forecast and since the precipitation forecast was used as an input product, she also sees the product information added by the first user. The water level forecast crosses a threshold in one of the rivers located in the small region where the precipitation forecast was unreliable. The second user now knows that this water level forecast is also unreliable for that reason and can take this information into account when deciding on further actions.

Forecast Product Information vs. Forecaster Notes

FEWS already contains a similar panel where users can add comments and view comments of other users: the forecaster notes. More information on forecaster notes can be found in the User Guide on Interactive Forecasting Displays. There are some key differences between these to panels:

Which comments are shown

The forecast product information panel filters the product information present in the system based on the time series the user is viewing. In contrast, the forecaster notes filter the shown forecaster notes based on the selected node in the forecast tree. Similarly, if a new forecaster note is created, this note is created for the node currently selected in the forecast tree. While if a new forecast product information is created, the user can select which product this information should be created for from a list of products currently visible. The product information is therefore directly linked to one or more time series.

Acknowledging messages

In the forecaster notes system, users can acknowledge messages from other users. Thus showing that they read and/or handled the note made by the other user. There is no similar functionality present in the forecast product information panel.

Showing information on input used

When running a forecast workflow, FEWS will register which input products where used to create the output product. This allows the forecast product information panel to show information on the input used, as well as comments added to these products. There is no similar functionality present in the forecaster notes.

Configuration

The forecast product information panel is a predefined display that needs to be configured as an ExplorerTask in Explorer.xml:

		<explorerTask name="Forecast Product Info">
			<predefinedDisplay>forecast product info</predefinedDisplay>
			<toolbarTask>false</toolbarTask>
			<menubarTask>false</menubarTask>
			<allowMultipleInstances>false</allowMultipleInstances>
			<toolWindow>true</toolWindow>
			<loadAtStartup>true</loadAtStartup>
		</explorerTask>

To let FEWS know which time series should be linked to which product, there needs to be a Products.xml in the RegionConfigFiles. More information on this configuration can be found in the Configuration Guide > Regional Configuration > 32 Products.

FEWS will only record the input products used in a workflow if the workflow is marked as a forecast through its workflow descriptor. So, the forecast attribute of the workflow descriptor needs to be set to "true":

	<workflowDescriptor id="Water_Level_Forecast" name="Water Level Forecast" visible="true" forecast="true" allowApprove="false"/>

Using the Forecast Product Information

What information is shown when?

• when viewing product in spatial display / TSD
• when viewing product that had input products
• when viewing several products in a dashboard
• when filter button is deactivated
• when using manual filtering (double-click)

Creating Forecast Product Information

Table columns

Showing Forecast Product Information in the Time Series Dialog

also include it will follow sorting, filtering and selection of info in panel

Showing Forecast Product Information in the Spatial Display

also include it will follow sorting, filtering and selection of info in panel

Exporting Forecast Product Information through the PI REST Web Service

When sending a GET time series request to the PI REST Web Service, the product information for the time series can be requested by passing the showProducts request parameter. When this parameter is set to true, the returned pi time series xml file will contain a section with the product information for that time series. An example of this can be found on the FEWS PI REST Web Service wiki page in the GET timeseries section.