The Rolling Review of Requirements process (legacy version)
This website describes the Rolling Review of Requirements process until May 2023. To find information on the new RRR process please follow this link.
The Rolling Review of Requirements process
(page updated on 16 July 2021 )
Using the Rolling Review of Requirements (RRR) process defined by the Manual on the WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WMO-No. 1160, under section 2.2.4), user requirements for observations are compared with the capabilities of present and planned observing systems.
User requirements are collated in a comprehensive, systematic and quantitative way in the WMO Observing Requirements database, which attempts to capture observational requirements to meet the needs of all WMO programmes.
The comparison of user requirements with observing system capabilities for a given application area is called a Critical Review. The output of this is reviewed by experts in the relevant application and used to prepare a Statement of Guidance (SOG), the main aim of which is to draw attention to the most important gaps between user requirements and observing system capabilities, in the context of the application. A wide range of applications within WMO programmes have already been addressed.
A more detailed description of the Rolling Requirements Review process is available for download (pdf)
Vision for WIGOS in 2040
The WIGOS Vision in 2040 provides high-level goals to guide the evolution of global observing systems in the WIGOS framework in the coming decades. It presents a likely scenario of how user requirements for observational data may evolve over the next 20 years, and an ambitious, but technically and economically feasible vision for an integrated observing system that will meet them. It anticipates a fully developed and implemented WIGOS framework that supports all activities of WMO and its Members within the general areas of weather, climate and water.
Evolving observing systems in response to WIGOS Vision 2040
Pending development by the Infrastructure Commission of high level guidance to WMO Members on the evolution of global observing systems in response to WIGOS Vision 2040, a number of actions are recommended to Members and identified implementation agents to respond to the Vision of the Global Observing System in 2025 (AR, EN, ES, FR, RU, ZH) and WIGOS needs, through the Implementation Plan for the Evolution of global observing systems (EGOS-IP) (EN, ES, FR, RU, ZH) is providing Members with clear and focused guidelines and recommended actions in order to stimulate cost-effective evolution of the observing systems to address in an integrated way the requirements of WMO programmes and co-sponsored programmes.
Statements of Guidance (SOG)
For each of the application areas considered, the SOG provides an assessment of the adequacy of observations to fulfill requirements and suggests areas of progress towards improved use of space-based and surface-based observing systems. Only the most significant variables in a given application area have been analyzed in the SOGs.
| No. | Applications area SoG (link) |
OSCAR link |
Contact point |
Authority ("owner") |
Date of approval |
| 1 | Global NWP |
Kazumori Masahiro (Japan) |
INFCOM |
April 2020 |
|
| 2 |
Alexis Doerenbecher (France) |
INFCOM |
April 2020 |
||
| 3 | Nowcasting and Very Short Range Forecasting (see note 1 below) |
Alexander Kann (Austria) |
INFCOM |
April 2020 |
|
| 4 |
Jeff Knight (United Kingdom) |
INFCOM |
June 2016 |
||
| 5 | Aeronautical Meteorology |
Jitze van der Meulen (Netherlands) |
SERCOM |
May 2018 |
|
| 6 | Forecasting Atmospheric Composition (see note 2 below) | Richard Eckman (USA) | RB | not yet available | |
| 7 | Monitoring Atmospheric Composition (see note 2 below) | Richard Eckman (USA) | RB | not yet available | |
| 8 | Providing Atmospheric Composition information to support services in urban and populated areas (see note 2 below) | Richard Eckman (USA) | RB | not yet available | |
| 9 | Ocean Applications |
Agnes Lane (Australia) |
INFCOM |
June 2016 |
|
| 10 | Agricultural Meteorology |
Robert Stefanski (WMO) |
SERCOM |
June 2011 |
|
| 11 | Hydrology |
Silvano Pecora (Italy) |
INFCOM |
July 2014 |
|
|
12 |
Climate Monitoring (GCOS) The following GCOS reports are considered as SOG : |
GCOS Secretariat (gcos[at]wmo.int) |
GCOS |
Status report: 2021 IP: 2017 |
|
| 13 | Space Weather | Larisa Trichtchenko (Canada) | INFCOM | Jan 2020 | |
| 14 | Climate Science | Michel Rixen (WCRP) | WCRP | Deprecated | |
| n/a |
Climate Applications (Other aspects, addressed by the Commission for Climatology) See note 3 below. |
William Wright (Australia) |
SERCOM |
May 2012 |
Although not formally an Application Area, the requirements for Global Cryosphere Watch (GCW) are split between all other Applications Areas. CBS is still discussing the status of the GCW within the Rolling Review of Requirements. Please contact GCW Project Manager, Rodica Nitu for related issues.The following GCW documents shall be noted:
- GCW Implementation Strategy
- GCW Implementation Plan
- Cryosphrere theme report for the Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS) partnership (WMO/TD-No. 1405 - August 2007)
National and regional examples of RRR related activities or approaches:
- EUMETNET Statements of Guidance (website)
- ECMWF - How to evolve global observing systems (ECMWF Newsletter No. 153 - 2017)
- Implementation of the RRR in China (pdf)
Notes:
1 - Synoptic Meteorology application area has now been merged into the Nowcasting and Very Short Range Forecasting Application Area.
2 - Atmospheric Chemistry application area has been replaced, and split into three new application areas, i.e. (i) Forecasting Atmospheric Composition, (ii) Monitoring Atmospheric Composition, and (iii) Providing Atmospheric Composition information to support services in urban and populated areas. Statements of Guidance for the three new application areas are under preparation. Meanwhile, the old version of the Statement of Guidance for Atmospheric Composition is available here.
3 -IPET-OSDE-3 (Jan. 2018) decided to discontinue the Climate Applications (Other aspects, addressed by the Commission for Climatology) Application Area, but to keep the Statement of Guidance up to date and link it from this Webpage. CCl will keep the document updated and assure whether important requirements are missing from a CCl/climate applications view. However, there is no intention to submit quantitative observational user requirements since it is assumed that such requirements are mostly captured by the GCOS 'Climate Monitoring' application area as well as by other existing application areas.