We found that Hurrtrak users, busy at their workstations, desired a way to be alerted to new and changing conditions in the tropics. The "tray alert messaging" (TAM) system notifies our users, via pop-up tray messages, of several noteworthy conditions including: the formation of new storms, storm strengthening or weakening, the issuance of watches or warnings, updated storm data, issuance of the last advisory, new tropical weather outlooks or new tropical disturbance statements.

This module will initialize when Windows is started and depends on the Hurrtrak Online Timer program also running in the System Tray.

The options for this tray program (right click on the “I” bubble icon in tray) are: 

Redisplay last message. If you miss a message it will redisplay the last message displayed by the system. 

Display Tray Alert Log – This option displays, in a concise manner, all of the messages displayed since the last restart of your system along with the date/time they were displayed.

Options – This option presents the user with the following window, allowing them to change which conditions they should be alerted to and how to handle those conditions. 

Selections on this window include:

Tray Alert Active – This option will activate or de-activate the Tray Alert Function.

Tropical Basins to monitor – For Global or Advanced users this option allows the user to see messages only for tropical areas they are interested in.

Further Information with mouse click on message – This option allows a “helper” program to open when the message is clicked upon via the mouse. For example, if a new tropical weather outlook message is displayed, the Tropical Weather Outlook will display when the message is clicked.

Redisplay missed messages – This option will redisplay the message every 5 minutes unless it has been “clicked” on. This assures you will not miss any messages since the Windows operating system will often hide tray messages when there is other activity on the PC system.

Alert Selection – In this section you specify which alert you would like to see displayed. Uncheck any you do not want to see. When there is an active reconnaissance flight, the New RECON Data option will result in many tray messages.

Exit – This option closes the program. No more messages will be displayed.