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HMEI Report on
WMO/CBS OPAG ISO
EXPERT TEAM ON REQUIREMENTS FOR DATA FROM AUTOMATIC WEATHER STATIONS
FOURTH SESSION
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 20 MARCH – 24 MARCH 2006
For full
details of this meeting please see the WMO Final Report of the meeting, available at:
http://www.wmo.ch/web/www/CBS-Reports/IOS-index.html
Participants
Mr
Rainer Dombrowsky - ET Chairman,
NOAA, Chief, Observing Services Division
Mr Carl Monnik - Bureau of Meteorology, Australia
Mr Michel Leroy - Meteo France
Dr Igor Zahumenský
– Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute
Mr Heng ZHOU - Deputy Director-General of the China Meteorological Administration, Department of Observations and Telecommunication
Mr Mohamed Al Sareeri - United Arab Emirates
Mr Syed Khalid Masood - United Arab Emirates
Dr William Wright – Representative for Commission for Climatology, Bureau of
Meteorology, Australia
Dr Jitze P. van der Meulen - Representative of CIMO, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute
Dr Miroslav Ondrás
– CIMO Secretariat
Dr Alexandre Karpov - Chief OSY
Mr Bruce Sumner – Consultant to OSY
Mr Thomas Frolich - HMEI representative from Logotronic
Mr Yann Sultan – HMEI representative from Degreane Horizon
Ms Christine Charstone - HMEI Secretariat
Opening of
meeting
Prof. Yan Hong –
Assistant Director WMO, opened meeting at 10 am.
Item 2 - Doc 2 Chairman’s Report
The Chairman emphasized the need to update BUFR
descriptors issue of necessary standardization of AWS platforms and quality assurance. The need for recognising and catering for the diverse range of
users of AWS and the need for cooperation between all sectors of users to ensure the
creation of the Global Observation “System of Systems”. To facilitate this representatives from various WMO Commissions have been invited to
participate in the work of this ET. Likewise this ET has invited the participation of manufactures via the HMEI in order to have their input on what is
available, possible and viable in the manufacturing of AWS.
Item 3 - Doc 3(1) Report of the Representative to the ET-DR&C
This report from Igor Zahumenský outlined the status of collaboration between the ET-DR&C and the ET-AWS; a report on
the need for the development of new BUFR/CREX descriptors and for update of BUFR templates for AWS data; and the proposal for a new BUFR descriptor for
quality control identification.
The meeting was invited to consider the follow-up actions needed to meet the requirements for transmission of
AWS data and metadata in TDCF; to examine the proposal for a new BUFR/CREX code table; and to submit recommendations for consideration by ICT IOS-4 and
CBS-Ext (2006).
Please click
here to see this document.
Recommendation:
Synop
code template is recommended not to be used for AWS, rather the BUFR code template for AWS should be used. Synop would only be used where
there is fully manual or part manual input. This standardization and lack of duplication of coding should reduce costs.
Item 4 - Doc 4(1) Report on the Development of Guidelines in Quality Control Procedures for
Data from Automatic Weather Stations by Igor
Zahumenský
This
document contained the progress report on the development of the Guidelines on QC Procedures for data from AWS as well as a new version of the
Guidelines.
Action:
The meeting considered
the new version of the proposal for the Guidelines on Quality Control Procedures for AWS data and agreed on the future steps needed for meeting the requirement stated by
CBS-XIII.
Draft copy of changes to be circulated to members of ET
and to climate community. Finalized documents will be sent for recommendation to CBS.
Item 4 - Doc 4(2) Integrated Quality Management System from Logotronic
Thomas Fröhlich presented this document that outlined the
development by Logotronic of a Data Logger with in-built Quality Management System conforming to the guidelines suggested by WMO, as specified in the
Annex 1 of Document 4(1) referenced in this report.
Please click here for the report on Logotronic's
Integrated Quality Management System
Item 4 - Doc 7(3) Report by HMEI
on Obtaining Instrument Metadata from Manufacturers
The report stated that following on a request from the previous meeting of this ET, the HMEI Secretariat had asked their
members to respond as to whether and to what extent they (the manufacturers) were willing to make algorithm information on their products, available to
WMO.
The HMEI Secretariat reported to the ET that only two responses had been
received from their members. These responses were reported to the ET. HMEI reported that the lack of response was probably due to the sensitive proprietal
nature of such algorithm data.
Action:
HMEI extended an invitation to the ET Chairman, to attend a future HMEI meeting in order to personally address manufacturers in
regard to this matter and to outline the reasons for needing this sort of information and the conditions under which it might be used.
Item 5 - Doc 5(1) Issues
Related to the Development of Standards for the Standardization of AWS Platforms
This document, presented by Dr van der Meulen, addressed a
number of issues on the development of the standards . Fn the design of AWS platforms, for consideration as background material
for further development of regulations and guidelines to be published in the relevant Manuals and Guides.
Issues considered by the document included:
1.
Design of a weather station
2. Definition and selection of variables
to be measured at weather observing stations, such as optical extinction profile
3. Position of a station
4. Siting, exposure and representativity
of a station (only those issues, not typically part of CIMO), and/or Finding a suitable location for a station
5. Averaging
measured quantities
Action:
The meeting decided that further development and research was needed to achieve agreement on a standard for basic AWS platforms, suitable for all users.
Item 6 - Doc 6(1) The Development of Practical Examples for the Standard Set of Metadata for AWS
Igor Zahumenský presented this document containing the proposal related to the
development of the standard set of metadata for AWS for all Automatic Weather Station Installations.
Action:
The meeting reviewed and revised the proposal submitted by Igor Zahumenský. This revised
proposal will be submitted as a recommendation for
consideration by ICT IOS-4 and CBS-Ext.(2006).
The draft proposal of a Standard Set of Metadata for AWS is available
with the WMO report at: http://www.wmo.ch/web/www/CBS-Reports/IOS-index.html Consultation with
Etienne Charpentier from JCOMM
Mr Charpentier was invited to the meeting to provide input in regard to the particular problems involved with using AWS on ships, as the metadata may well
need to cater for the variable introduced by ship use of AWS systems. Mr Charpentier noted that JCOMM was already looking at metadata requirements, that
IOC was the partner with WMO in JCOMM and that their requirements for metadata were of course part of JCOMM perspective on metadata.
Mr Charpentier will look at the proposal this ET is drafting and will consult with other JCOMM colleagues, at workshops to be held shortly, to make some
recommendations, to this ET, on the draft proposal on metadata requirements.
Item 4 - Doc 4.3(2) The
State-of-the-Art of Instruments and Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS)
For the information of the meeting, Dr van
der Meulen presented this document to the meeting, which contained information from the meeting of the CIMO ET
on Surface Technology and Measurement Techniques held in October 2004 and reports on guidance
material on siting criteria and metadata for weather stations.
Intercomparisons
The Chairman asked the ET to consider the importance of Intercomparisons, in that their results can inform or be included in metadata to give
information on the differences between variously used systems.
Action:
The Chairman suggested that the ET could ask CBS to organise the capability to do AWS Intercomparisons each year.
Item 10 - Presentations by William Wright, Representative for Commission
for Climatology
These presentations considered the usefulness of AWSs for climate purposes, drawn from the experience of the
Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and the costs versus benefits from a climate viewpoint.
In Australia, current AWSs are viewed as falling short of the quality requirements of measurements for the
climate programme, especially in regard to rainfall measurement.
The Australian standards established for Australian AWSs to meet climate
programme standards, were presented to the ET.
Mr Wright’s presentations also gave an insight into AWs in Region V developing countries, where AWSs are not widely used usually for a variety of
reasons, including the high initial cost of AWSs and the high cost of and lack of expertise in technical maintenance.
In developed countries the costs of AWSs can be lower, compared to manual stations. However the climate community perceives that there can be losses in
data quality and homogeneity, unless higher quality and more expensive equipment are used in AWSs.
Item 8 - Doc 8(2) AWS BUFR representation of nominal values
Milan Dragosavac (ECMWF) submitted this, in absentia. The meeting accepted this document to
be used in formulating their proposals.
Item 10 Doc 10.5(1)
Functional Specifications for AWS – the corrections
This document contained a
proposal for the corrections of the Functional Specifications for AWS for the parameter Water vapour pressure, with a new
descriptor in class 8 of the BUFR Table B proposed to indicate the cause of nominal value.
Action:
The meeting examined the proposal and made the appropriate corrections, as invited by the author.
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