FAQs General

This page is no longer maintained. Please go to https://community.wmo.int/activity-areas/wis. ~3 March 2021~ 

 

Frequently Asked Questions
 
Current WWW centres WIS Centres
National Metrological Centres (NMC) National Centres (NC)
Regional or Specialised Meteorological Centres (RSMC) Data Collection or Production Centre (DCPC)
World Meteorological Centres (WMC) Global Information System Centres (GISC) and/or DCPC
Regional Telecommunication Hub (RTH) DCPC
RTH on Main Telecommunication Network (RTH-MTN) DCPC and/or GISC
Others NC and/or DCPC
 
3. How does WIS relate to you?
WIS provides access to WMO’s monitoring and forecasting systems for land water, ocean and atmosphere. It includes search via the internet of WMO catalogues and access to WIS contributors' sites (eg EUMETSAT, ECMWF,… ).
WIS includes access to GEOSS catalogues and data (including ESA, NASA, …).
WIS framework is based on ISO19115 metadata and supports web services
Search in WIS is based on ISO23950 and supports Catalogue Search for Web (CSW)
Furthermore, ISO23950 supports pattern recognition based search
WIS enables non-WMO systems to participate in WMO dedicated networks, including (if approved) ability to publish via WIS
 
4. Will the WIS complement/facilitate connectivity to Spatial Data Infrastructure initiatives (eg INSPIRE)?
WIS is based on interoperability standards being used by many organizations including metadata and search. This includes ISO19115,  ISO19139 and ISO23950 for metadata, its xml representation and for search.
 
5. What is the time frame?
WIS is now in its implementation stage and we expect the first GISC online this year. Once a WIS catalogue is up and running, people can start to find WMO products and services. 38 countries have identified their commitment to implementing WIS centres, which include 13 GISCs and over 90 DCPCs nominations already received.

Most time critical operations supporting World Weather Watch activity should be fully WIS compliant by 2011 and less critical components by 2015. View the list of current centres.