WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION Weather Climate Water WMO Information

WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION Weather – Climate - Water WMO Information System (WIS) Managing & Moving Weather, Water and Climate Information in the 21 st Century CIMO December 2006 World Meteorological Organization 1

Overview • What is the WMO Information System (WIS)? – Why is it being developed? – What services will it provide? • What will the NMHS gain from WIS? • What is the overall WIS plan? • How far has its implementation progressed? • What are the major challenges still to be met? World Meteorological Organization 2

WMO Information System (WIS) Direction from WMO Congress (2003) • Develop: – – Over-arching approach for solving data management problems for all WMO and related international programmes A single, coordinated global infrastructure, the WMO Information System (WIS) for the collection and sharing of information World Meteorological Organization 3

Reasons for WIS • Various WMO Programmes developing information systems independently – Incompatibilities, inefficiencies, duplication of effort and higher overall costs • Continued systems development in an uncoordinated manner would: – Exacerbate these problems – Increase difficulty in sharing information between programmes – Further isolate WMO Programmes from each other and from wider environmental community World Meteorological Organization 4

Current situation: GTS WWW GTS Regional/Specialized Meteorological Centres Meteorological and R&D Satellite Operator Centres interconnects National Meteorological Centres World Meteorological Organization 5

Current situation: GTS For WWW GTS provides: • Information collection and distribution o Real-time push for WWW data & products (and some other programmes data) • Information management o Standard data formats o Implicit metadata & catalogs World Meteorological Organization 6

Current situation: GTS and Other WMO Programmes systems • Information exchange o Multiplicity of procedures o Real-time and non-real-time o Very limited pull • Information management o Multiplicity of data formats o Uncoordinated/lack of metadata & catalogs o No discovery World Meteorological Organization 7

WIS Vision Integrated approach for all WMO Programmes • Routine collection and dissemination of time-critical and operation-critical data and products: o Real-time “push” through dedicated telecommunication • Data Discovery, Access and Retrieval service: o “Pull” through the Internet (HTTP, FTP, …) • Timely delivery of data and products: o Delayed mode “push” through dedicated telecommunication means and public data networks, especially the Internet • Unified procedures o More efficient data exchange • Coordinated and standardized metadata o Interoperability between programmes o Improved data management o ISO 191 xxx series for geographic information World Meteorological Organization 8

Structure of WIS Functional centres interconnected by data communication networks: • National Centres (NC) – Links national data providers and users to regional and global data exchange nodes, and administrates access to WIS • Data Collection and Production Centres (DCPC) – Provides for regional and international exchange of WMO programmes’ data and products – Supports data and information push and pull • Global Information System Centres (GISC) – Provides for global exchange of data and products – Collects and provides metadata for all data and products – Supports data and information discovery and pull World Meteorological Organization 9

WIS World Radiation Centre International Organizations (IAEA, CTBTO, UNEP, FAO. . ) Regional Instrument Centres IRI, Hadley Centre, and other climate research centres; Universities; Regional Climate Centres (CIIFEN, etc. ) GAW World Data Centres GCOS Data Centres Global Run-off Data Centre DCPC NC Global Precip. Climatology Centre NC NC/ DCPC Commercial Service Providers NC NC GISC International Projects (e. g. GMES HALO) NC DCPC i n te r n e t NC DCPC GISC WMO World Data Centres GISC Satellite Two-Way Systems Satellite Dissemination (IGDDS, RETIM, etc) NC World Meteorological Organization NC NC Real-time “push” On-demand “pull” 10

WIS Data Policies • Complies with WMO data policies – Res. 40 (Cg-XII) and Res. 25 (Cg-XIII) • Will follow evolution of WMO data policy – Procedures for managing of access rights, control of data retrieval, registration and identification of users, etc can be defined, as and when required – Anonymous downloading is technically possible, but depends on whether a NC permits that feature – Has no system-inherent features that would violate international legal frameworks World Meteorological Organization 11

What will a NMHS gain from the WIS? 1. Improved forecasting/warning services • 2. Faster and more cost-effective exchange of operationcritical information; Improved and expanded range of services • Discovery and access to new data and products: o 3. Satellite data and products, ensemble prediction products, climate predictions, oceanographic data and products, operational, and research data and products, reports, publications Strengthened role as national service provider • Ability to “push” to national users critical information: o 4. Warnings, advisories, selected measurements, etc. ; (eg: national agencies dealing in disaster mitigation, agriculture, energy and water management, ) Better appreciation by partner agencies • Supports their “pulling” relevant information from WMO World Meteorological Organization 12

WIS contribution to GEO WMO Weather Domain Climate Domain Water Domain WIS Internet GEONet. Cast GTS IGDDS GEO Health Energy Disasters Weather Climate Ecosystems Water Agriculture Biodiversity World Meteorological Organization 13

WIS implementation • Phase A: GTS Evolution into WIS – Provides consolidation/improvement for timecritical and operation-critical data – Includes extension to meet operational requirements of WMO programmes in addition to World Weather Watch (including improved management of services); • Phase B: Migration to WIS – Provides for an extension of the information services through flexible data discovery, access and retrieval services to all users, as well as flexible timely delivery services; World Meteorological Organization 15

WIS Implementation – accomplishments ü Continued GTS upgrades (IMTN, satellite-based datacast, . . ) ü WMO Core metadata ü Internet portal ü Basic data acquisition, discovery and push-pull services ü GISC prototype: RA VI VGISC project ü DCPCs prototypes: ü ECMWF & EUMETSAT associated with VGISC project ü NCAR (Boulder) ü NODC (Obninsk) for JCOMM related data ü IGGDS (Space-based data) üAsia-Pacific VPN pilot project üTechnical Conference on WIS (Korea, 6 -8 November 2006); VGISC & DCPC prototype demo World Meteorological Organization 16

European Virtual GISC Project World Meteorological Organization 17

Key Future Milestones • Consolidate plans on development, governance and implementation of WIS: 2006 -2008 • Develop WIS regulatory documentation and guidance material for implementation, including specifications for the GISC interfaces and a unified user interface: 2006 -2008 • Develop scheme and practices for security, authentication and authorization procedures for WIS services : 2007 -2008 • Implementation of first operational GISC: 2008 • Implementation of other operational GISCs: 2009 - 2011 • Implementation of DCPCs, i. e. WIS interfaces at WMO programmes’ centres: 2008 -2011 World Meteorological Organization 18

Challenges • Good progress made in concept, technological solutions and prototypes for WIS, but much work to be done for an operational WIS • Understanding of WIS – both internal and external to WMO: – What it is, why it is important, what it does for NMHSs, what needs to be done, … • Active participation of WMO Technical Commissions and other bodies -- stating requirements, developing metadata and implementing WIS interface at their data centres, etc • Involvement of all NMHSs in the WIS development, including awareness of users communities • Adequate financial and human resources for WIS development into operations World Meteorological Organization 19

CIMO participation Benefit and coordination for IMOP activities, derived from the WIS: • Pursue CIMO’s involvement in development of WMO Metadata Core Profile with CBS/ Inter-Programme Expert Team on Metadata Implementation • Identify the specific CIMO requirements with respect to data management, data discovery and retrieval and non-real-time information exchange • Coordinate CIMO participation through the Meeting of the Presidents of the Technical Commissions World Meteorological Organization 20

Thank you World Meteorological Organization 21