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April 2022 Volume 8, Number 2
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1. Task Team on GBON Implementation established and work initiated
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Following Extraordinary World Meteorological Congress decisions (Cg-Ext.(2021)) in October 2021 with regard to technical regulations of the Global Basic Observing Network (GBON) taking effect on 1 January 2023 per Resolution 2 (Cg-Ext.(2021)), the president of the Infrastructure Commission (INFCOM), in consultation with the management group, decided to establish a Task Team on GBON Implementation with the mandate to oversee and coordinate implementation of GBON during 2022. An important part of the work will be to guide the WMO technical support of the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF), which will formally open for business on 1 July, 2022, and some of the tasks will therefore need to be completed by 30 June, 2022.
At this stage, the TT-GBON met three times, in March, April and May 2022 and developed and agreed on its operating plan focusing on the following 11 activity areas and a number of associated deliverables:
- Initial composition of GBON and GBON gap analysis
- Definition of Members GBON compliance
- Delivery of an updated global GBON gap analysis
- Required adjustments to OSCAR/Surface to address GBON requirements
- Required adjustments to WDQMS to address GBON requirements
- Guidance on Tender Specifications for GBON stations
- Required update of the Guide to WIGOS
- Definition of reporting practices for GBON hourly observations
- Guidance for the SOFF peer advisors
- Technical contribution to SOFF programming
- WIS 2.0 technical regulations reflecting the requirements for the exchange of GBON data
The second meeting also agreed on its priorities, the process and timeline for proposal, review and adoption of initial composition of GBON. The third meeting made good progress on the definition of GBON compliance criteria for surface and upper air stations, and clarified the roles and responsibilities of main stakeholders in establishing the initial composition (January 2023) of GBON. In particular, the following was agreed with regard to the initial seeding of GBON:
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Only Members will have the authority to nominate stations in GBON, on the basis of the global gap analysis or one performed by them. Decision on the composition of GBON is then made by Congress on the basis of INFCOM recommendation.
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Small changes to the composition of GBON can be decided by the President of WMO on the basis of Members proposed commitment.
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All existing surface and upper air stations (including RBSN then RBON stations) which are considered to meeting GBON requirements closely enough, and are actually operating and reporting (i.e. stations that are shown as green and orange dots in the WIGOS Data Quality Monitoring System (WDQMS) maps for data availability) should be initially seeded into GBON, with possible subsequent adjustments (or objections) by Members. The Secretariat will therefore write to Members in due course to seek their consent or appropriate action (e.g. to upgrade stations to meeting GBON requirements), giving them some time to possibly object (no reply will be regarded as consent).
Good progress was also made on (i) the national GBON gap analysis, setting national GBON targets and developing a national GBON contribution plan (with template for Members to use), and (ii) guidelines for the reporting of GBON hourly observations in BUFR format.
The Task Team will continue to work closely with the Secretariat to deliver its tasks. The next TT-GBON meeting is planned in early June 2022.
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2. New Regional WIGOS Centre established in Casablanca, Morocco
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According to the WIGOS initial operational plan (2020-2023) the Regional WIGOS Centers (RWC) play a critical role in advancing the implementation of WIGOS at the national and regional levels by providing regional coordination, technical guidance, assistance and advice to Members and Regional Associations (RAs) in accordance with the WMO Technical Regulations. In 2021 Morocco has formally applied to establish a RWC in Casablanca (RWC-Casablanca), to be hosted by the National Meteorological Service of Morocco (Direction Generale de la Meteorologie – DGM). The application was endorsed by the President of WMO RA I, in September 2021, following which initial training on RWC functions and tools was organized and delivered to the Members that became affiliated with RWC-Casablanca (see dedicated article on this edition of the WIGOS Newsletter).
The DGM has deployed necessary resources for the operations of the RWC-Casablanca, including qualified human resources and appropriate advanced infrastructure resources. The area of responsibility of the RWC-Casablanca includes Morocco and the following 14 countries in West and Central Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Gambia, Togo, Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo.
The RWC-Casablanca committed to carrying out the mandatory as well as the optional functions for RWCs, thus ensuring the establishment of partnerships with all affiliated countries, focusing on the WDQMS functions, including providing technical assistance, coaching and training to the corresponding National Focal Points (NFP), towards the improvement of availability and quality of data and metadata from the sub-regions covered by the RWC-Casablanca.
The inaugural ceremony of the RWC-Casablanca took place on 31 March 2022, at the headquarters of DGM, in Casablanca, Morocco, with the participation of the President of the RA I, the Director of the WMO Regional office for Africa, the WMO Permanent Representatives of six African countries and members of the RA I Committee on Infrastructure. At the ceremony the WMO Secretary-General delivered a speech, via a previously recorded video message, that highlighted the role of the RWC in the implementation of WIGOS at the scale of the region. The Secretary-General thanked Morocco for its role of sustained support to the countries of the Region and for its commitment to play a leading role in the Region, e.g. by hosting several WMO Regional and Global centers, such as a Global Information System Center (GISC), a Regional Climate Center (RCC), a Regional Instrument Center (RIC) and a Center of Excellence for training in Satellite Meteorology. He also stressed the importance of the South-South cooperation approach as a lever to raise the level of national meteorological services within the region.
Inaugural ceremony of the RWC-Casablanca, Morocco, 31 March 2022
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3. RA I (West/Central Africa) Training Workshop on Regional WIGOS Centres functions and tools (online)
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Following the endorsement, of the Moroccan application to host a Regional WIGOS Centre (RWC – Casablanca) for the West and Central Africa sub-regions of WMO RA I, a training Workshop on RWC functions and tools was organized by the National Meteorological Service of Morocco (DGM). The training targeted the Members affiliated with RWC-Casablanca on the RWC functions and on WIGOS tools that will be used for the RWC operations. It was organized on Friday, 28 January 2022, as an online workshop, in coordination with the WMO Secretariat and with financial support by the CREWS (Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems) initiative that allowed having simultaneous interpretation in English and France.
The main objectives of the workshop were that the NFP on WDQMS understand their roles and functions, and that they be able to use the WIGOS tools to perform their tasks related to the RWC operations. As planned by the RWC-Casablanca for their initial pilot phase operations, the workshop targeted the NFPs on WDQMS from 14 countries of West and Central Africa.
Experts from the RWC Casablanca, from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and from WMO Secretariat delivered presentations with training materials on WIGOS priority activities, on RWC functions and on WIGOS tools, and an expert from the RWC Southern Africa shared its experiences in carrying out their RWC functions for Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. At the discussion session, the participating Members shared their challenges in nominating the WIGOS related NFPs and in improving their data availability. RWC-Casablanca also informed Members about the plans to arrange for follow up bilateral discussions with each affiliated Member putting the priority focus on assisting Members, via their NFPs on OSCAR/Surface, in reviewing/updating the observational/WIGOS metadata from their countries.
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4. OSCAR/Surface: New tutorial videos
In the context of further developing and making available additional and updated learning material on the use of OSCAR/Surface, two new tutorial videos have been produced and published on Vimeo.
With many thanks to Luisa Ickes (WIGOS consultant) and several WMO Secretariat colleagues, the new tutorial videos on OSCAR/Surface that are now available online, address the recently launched features of "Station templates" and "Webclient".
Below are the links to access them:
https://vimeo.com/692188458 (station templates)
https://vimeo.com/692187140 (webclient)
Providing subtitles in various WMO languages is planned to be made available for these tutorials.
It is hoped that these videos will be useful for those registering/updating stations metadata in OSCAR/Surface. Your comments/questions and especially your suggestions on how to improve OSCAR/Surface and its learning materials will be very much appreciated - please use the discussion forum in the WIGOS Learning Portal here:
https://etrp.wmo.int/course/view.php?id=146
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5. The 38th GAWTEC Training Course, 7-18 March 2022
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The 38th GAWTEC Training Course took place from 7th to 18th March 2022 with nine participants from six different countries. The course is part of the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) programme and was organized by the German Environment Agency in collaboration with the WMO, the State of Bavaria and the German Meteorological Service (DWD). The participants came from GAW Global Stations like Mount Kenya and Bukit Kototabang in Indonesia and also from regional stations like Chacaltaya in Bolivia or Marcapomacocha in Peru.
Lecturers were also supported by the Scientific Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases (SAG GHG), the DWD, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, the Atmospheric Environmental Research (IMK-IFU), the German Environment Agency and the GAW Global Station Zugspitze, Germany.
The course focused on greenhouse gases related measurement and instrument calibration techniques as well as on data evaluation, quality assurance and data interpretation. The participants visited the Meteorological Observatories at Zugspitze Summit and Hohenpeißenberg operated by the DWD and the GAW Global Station at Schneefernerhaus.
 
A hand-on training session and group-photo of the participants to the 38th GAWTEC course
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6. Expert Team of Atmospheric Composition Measurement Quality Spring 2022 Meeting
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The first meeting of the Expert Team of Atmospheric Composition Measurement Quality (ET-ACMQ) in 2022 was held online last 6th and 7th of April. The agenda included presentations from the European Research Infrastructures: Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS) and Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS).
ACTRIS is focused on short-lived atmospheric constituents and on the processes leading to the variability of these constituents, and ICOS in the carbon cycle, including measurements from the atmosphere, ecosystems, and oceans. Both are GAW contributing networks, providing extremely high-quality measurement data.
ACTRIS comprises 8 central facilities and 80 national facilities: 60 observing platforms and 20 exploratory platforms. ICOS comprises 150 stations coordinated and run by the ICOS National Networks, including 12 Member countries and one Observer country.
Those networks overlap the GAW but on a much larger scale due to their larger funding. The links with GAW were analysed: data submission to common facilities, harmonisation of recommendations, traceability to the WMO, overlapping centres and several Members sharing responsibilities, e.g., ICOS Carbon portal director is the Chair of the WMO/GAW SAG-GHG.
After the presentations, the group workplan was reviewed, in Work Package 1 (WP1) there was a debate about the level of detail in the Standard Operations Procedure (SOP), and in particular the specification of analytical instrumentation when there is a small number of manufacturers.
WP2 discussion on the evaluation of the existing Quality Assurance/Quality control (QA/QC) procedures and terminology was postponed to May by the task members.
The evaluation and update of the GAW Measurement Guide (GAW No. 143 Report) was discussed in WP3, a streamlined approach was agreed, maintaining the skeleton of the original document, providing a compact guide with low level of detail, and references to the literature for further extended information.
The topic about Near Real-Time (NRT) data provision was discussed, the results from a recent survey to World Data Centres will be circulated among members, and connections with the Expert Team on Atmospheric Composition Data Management (ET-ACDM) and the European Union – Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (EU-CAMS) were proposed to understand the state of the art of present NRT data delivery, and the QA tools required.
The next topic was the implementation of uncertainty into the data archives. The group’s first impression was that the uncertainty was not calculated accurately or not even documented at all. A survey was proposed to understand the current state of the art.
A suggestion to resume the reporting of the annual activity of GAW central calibration facilities was made, those would be publicly available in the WMO website.
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7. Generic Automatic Weather Station (AWS) Tender Specifications – providing guidance on procurement and instrument specifications
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Generic Automatic Weather Station (AWS) Tender Specifications were recently published as IOM-Report No.136. This publication consists in a set of documents intended to support the tendering process for AWSs. It primarily aims at guiding National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) and other stakeholders to ensure their requirements align with international best practice and helping equipment vendors to provide required products that are applicable around the world.
The document layout broadly steps through the procurement process including establishing requirements, guidance on lifecycle management, meteorological information processing system, and automatic weather station and sensors requirements, guidance on evaluation of procurements, with example of procurement documents and requirement/tender clauses illustrated at the end sections. It can be used as a base for tendering processes and amended as needed to fit needs and local tendering process regulations rather than as a fix set of specifications.
The development of the generic AWS tendering specification document was initiated by the Association of Hydro-Meteorological Equipment Industry (HMEI) with support from the World Bank. It was then further developed through close collaboration of experts from WMO and HMEI.
Any feedback on experiences made by Members in using this documentation would be most welcome in view of possibly developing additional documentation on the procurement of other observing systems.
Cover page of the IOM-Report No.136
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8.WIGOS related Events/Meetings
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8.1. Recent Events/Meetings
- Standing Committee on Measurements, Instrumentation and Traceability (SC-MINT) meeting (online), 25 January 2022
- Online Training workshop on WIGOS tools for Regional WIGOS Centre for West Africa [Un Atelier de Formation sur les Outils du WIGOS], 28 January 2022
- The Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites Working Group III – Forth Risk Assessment Workshop, 22-24 February 2022 (online)
- INFCOM Management Group meeting, 25 and 28 February 2022
- GAWTEC training course on greenhouse gases at the Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus, Germany, 7-18 March 2022
- Standing Committee on Earth Observing Systems and Monitoring Networks (SC-ON) full committee meeting, 14, 16 and 18 March 2022
- 23nd EMEP Task Force on Measurement and Modelling Meeting, 3-5 May 2022
- WMO GHG/Carbon Monitoring Workshop: The case for a coordinated Global Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Infrastructure, 10-12 May, Geneva, Switzerland (Hybrid)
8.2. Coming Events/Meetings
- Hydrological Coordination Panel - 4th Meeting, 9-12 May 2022, Geneva, Switzerland
- Second meeting of the RAIV Infrastructure Committee 18 May 2022, Hybrid
- GCOS Surface Reference Network (GSRN) Lead Center Kick-off Meeting, 23 May 2022, Online
- International UV Filter Radiometer Comparison (UVC-III) 13 June - 29 August 2022
- The 50th Plenary session of the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS-50), 15-17 June 2022, Geneva, Switzerland/Hybrid
- 75th Session of the Executive Council (EC-75), 20-24 June 2022, Geneva, Switzerland/Hybrid
- 27th Session of Atmospheric Observation Panel for Climate (AOPC-27), 27-30 June 2022, Maynooth, Ireland
- International Radiation Symposium 4-8 July 2022 Thessaloniki, Greece
- WMO Upper-Air Instrument Intercomparison, Lindenberg, Germany, Laboratory phase: December 2021-April 2022, Field phase: 8 August - 17 September 2022
- XVII Intercomparison Campaign of the Regional Brewer Calibration Center-Europe at Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium (Davos, Switzerland) from 22 to 31 August 2022. Registration form is available at the RBCC-E web page. Please register before 31st March 2022.
- 39th GAWTEC training course: reactive gases, at the Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus, Germany, 19-30 September2022
- Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM)-WMO Workshop on Metrology for Climate Action, 26-30 September 2022 (online)
- WMO Technical Conference on Meteorological and Environmental Instruments and Methods of Observation (TECO 2022), Paris, France, 10 - 13 October 2022 (hybrid)
- 2nd Session of Infrastructure Commission (INFCOM-2), 24-28 October 2022, Geneva, Switzerland (Hybrid)
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9. New WIGOS related publications
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Rabia Merrouchi (Morocco)
Sonja Böll (Germany)
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