Suitability of Unidata Metapps for Incorporation in Platform-Independe ntUser-Customized Aviation Weather Products Generation Software

摘要

Due to multiple factors, including an increase in military operations tempo and the improved resolution of meteorological models, demand for access to customized aviation weather products has increased exponentially. This has given rise to a need for a multi-purpose interactive aviation weather product generation software solution. This software solution must be platform- independent, multiple data source access configurable, robust, extensible or upgradeable, user-friendly, and an improvement over current visualization applications used in the operational military aviation weather community. This thesis determines whether Unidata MetApps meets these criteria. A software reuse and component-based engineering approach was taken in this thesis. Two experimental applications were constructed using a software design approach resembling the Facade software design pattern. The first application used existing MetApps stand-alone prototype applications, while the second exploited capabilities of the MetApps component library. Both experimental applications were measured against the above set of criteria to determine their suitability for incorporation in platform-independent user-customized aviation weather products generation software. The results prove that a Facade software design approach can be effectively used to build applications. It was determined however that, even though MetApps shows promise, it may not be suitable for incorporation into an operational application.