WMO Information System (WIS)
The WMO Information System 2.0 (WIS 2.0) is the framework for WMO data sharing in the 21st century for all WMO domains and disciplines. It supports the WMO Unified Data policy, the Global Basic Observing Network (GBON) and makes international, regional, and national data sharing simple, effective, and inexpensive. The idea that no Member should be left behind and the objective of lowering the barrier to adoption has been at the core of WIS 2.0 development. These objectives inspire the principles underpinning the WIS 2.0 technical framework, such as adopting open standards and Web technologies to facilitate sharing of increasing variety and volume of real-time data.
The Commission for Observation, Infrastructure and Information Systems (INFCOM) approved the technical specifications of WIS 2.0 and its implementation plan in October 2022. Therefore, the implementation of WIS 2.0 has started, and the new data-sharing infrastructure will gradually replace the Global Telecommunication System (GTS). The users of WIS 2.0 will be able to access data in real-time by subscribing to a Global Broker and receiving notifications when new data are available for download from a Global Cache or from the data provider. They will also access data directly through Web APIs (application programming interfaces), connecting their software (or their browser) and processing or visualising data of their interest.
WMO has developed the open-source software “WIS2 in a box” (https://docs.wis2box.wis.wmo.int ) to support LDCs and SIDS in implementing WIS 2.0. WMO Members can adopt “WIS2 in a box” voluntarily, and some countries have already familiarised themselves with it to rapidly implement WIS 2.0 (live demonstration can be found at https://demo.wis2box.wis.wmo.int ).
Several WMO Members have already started implementing WIS 2.0 and participated in a demonstration exercise building the first WIS 2.0 infrastructure to share real-time data. A video explaining how WIS 2.0 works and showing the first data-sharing experiment can be seen at https://youtu.be/r6fmKC508BA
