WIS Newsletter (2021-No.1)

WMO Information System (WIS) Newsletter

                                                                           November 2021 

WIS 2.0 Demonstration Projects Workshop

WIS 2.0 demonstration projects are used to illustrate, evolve, validate and/or refine the concepts, solutions, and implementation approach of WIS 2.0 – and also to demonstrate some of the key benefits that WIS 2.0 will bring to the WMO community.

The demonstration projects shall involve international cooperation between several WMO Members, and each project will demonstrate at least two of the WIS 2.0 principles providing the technical framework.

Virtual workshop 

The WIS 2.0 demonstration projects workshop held on 13-14 and 20-21 September 2021brought together more than 120 participants from all the Regional Associations and many different WMO Programme, to share their experience of several projects covering main 4 topic areas: Data exchange, Data Discovery, Earth system domain and supporting least developed countries.

The workshop demonstrates that the WIS 2.0 has developed beyond a vision and into something that can realistically be achieved. Each project aligned with the WIS 2.0 principles, with each one showing concrete solutions for seamless data and service access.

Materials 

All the presentations are available here.
All the videos from speakers can be found here.
The full video of each day can be found on Vimeo shown on the meeting page.

Outcomes, lessons and challenges

The use of free and open-source software in the projects was significant. The adoption of cloud native or cloud ready solutions was a constant theme. The workshop highlighted the effectiveness of ready-made software and turn-key solutions to simplify the adoption of WIS 2.0 standards and speed up the transistion from WIS/GTS to WIS 2.0.

The workshop concluded that a comprehensive WIS 2.0 component for LDCs and SIDs would be intrumental for the implementation phase. This component called "WIS 2.0 node in a box" should be ready to be used with minimal configuration (a turn-key solution) and based on cloud technologies to provide the options to be deployed indistinctively on cloud services or on-premises. Therefore, a new project will be started to develop such a component under an open-source license for the benefit of LDCs, SIDs, and countries willing to adopt and contribute to open-source software.

For the workshop report, please check here.

Manual on Codes Update

Adoption of Amendments to Manual on Codes (WMO-No.306) by the Fast-track Procedure

According to the Procedures for Amending WMO Manuals and Guides in Manual on Codes (WMO-No.306), the amendments to the Manual on Codes Volume I.2 and Volume I.3, by the fast-track procedure have been approved by the Expert Team on Data Standards and the President of the Standing Committee on Information Management and Technology (SC-IMT). The President of WMO has adopted the amendments on behalf of the Executive Council in accordance with the procedures. The implementation date of the amendments is 15 November 2021. Amendment details are available at here (https://community.wmo.int/wis-manuals).

The machine-readable tables of GRIB (v28), BUFR /CREX (v37), and Common Codes (v2021-11-15) are available at  here. The IWXXM 2021-2 schemas are available at here.

About the Fast-track Amendment Procedures

The are three options for updating the manuals, but the fastest method to amending the Manual on Codes (WMO-No.306) is by fast-track. This procedure occurs twice a year and the new amendments are implemented every May and November. 

The next fast-track of the amendments (Fast-Track-2022-1）is currently in progress and will become available for National Focal Point to review in January with the expected implementation date of May 2022. More details on the procedures are available here.

WMO Volume C1 Update

Stop of the Parallel Distribution of TEMP Reports in TAC 

Notification from the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) 

Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) will stop the parallel dissemination of TEMP reports in the Traditional Alphanumeric Code (TAC) after 6 December 2021 1200 UTC. Following this date, the TEMP reports for radiosonde soundings from its upper air station will only be disseminated in BUFR. 

In addition, the BUFR TEMP reports (currently sent using the ID 0-20000-0-48698) will be sent using a new WIGOS Station Identifier (0-702-0-48698) to differentiate the location of the upper air station from the surface station (0-20000-0-48698).  The synoptic surface and upper air stations have traditionally shared the same WMO ID.

The changes have also been communicated to the Region V data hub.

Published: 20 October 2021

Distribution of Ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Precipitable Water Vapor data in BUFR format via GTS 

Notification from the Japan Meteorological Agency(JMA)

As of the effective date, 25 June 2020, JMA started distribution of ground-based GNSS Precipitable Water Vapor data in the BUFR sequence 3 07 022 with the file name format Z__C_RJTD_yyyyMMddhhmmss_OBS_GNSSPWV_Rjp_Ppwv_bufr4.bin.

In addition, JMA will begin to distribute the same data under the header ISXC01 RJTD in parallel on 20 October 2021. With effect from 23 March 2022, JMA will stop the parallel distribution of data. There will be no data distribution with the file name format Z__C_RJTD_yyyyMMddhhmmss_OBS_GNSSPWV_Rjp_Ppwv_bufr4.bin after this date.

Published: 05 October 2021

Stop of Previous Versions of Maritime Safety Information (WWJP25, WWJP26) 

Notification from the Japan Meteorological Agency(JMA)

On 15 December 2021, the Japan Meteorological Agency has a plan to complete a transition to improved maritime safety bulletins, WWJP27/28 RJTD (from WWJP25/26 RJTD as noticed on 15 June 2018), and strongly recommends users to refer to WWJP27/28 RJTD hereafter.

Published: 05 October 2021

For more information about MET notification, please check here..

WMO Bulletin Vol 70 (2) 

Modernizing Data Exchange for Earth System Monitoring and Prediction  (Rémy Giraud, Jeremy Tandy, John Eyre, Tobias Spears, Tom Kralidis, Robert A Varley and Enrico Fucile ) published on WMO Bulletin Vol 70 (2) - 2021 is now available here.

The article sets out the history of the collaboration between WMO Members in making and exchanging observations in support of weather forecasting and climate monitoring. This article examines the infrastructure and technology supporting the WMO global data exchange – from its origins more than 50 years ago to the present day. It then looks ahead to how Internet-based technologies can bridge the capacity gap and open new opportunities to make global data more reliable, more accessible and more exploitable in support of building global resilience.

For the full WMO Bulletin Vol 70 (2) - 2021, please click here....

SC-IMT (Standing Committee on Information Management and Technology)

• SC-IMT entry point
• 16 November, SC-IMT held an online meeting to update the progress of the ET activities (SC-IMT-Telecon-2021-Nov-16)
• 25 October, all the Chairs of Expert Teams under SC-IMT were invited to update the progress of the ET activities (SC-IMT-Chairs-Telecon-2021-Oct-25)

Expert Teams under SC-IMT

WIS 2.0	Operations & Information Management
ET-W2AT ET-W2RAE  ET-W2WPE	ET-Data ET-Metadata ET-IM(Information Management) ET-IS (Infrastructure and Security) ET-OM(Operations and Monitoring)	ET-AC (Audit and Certification)