Report on CT-MTDCF & ET-DRC, Geneva, September 2008
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HMEI Report Report
Joint Meeting Coordination Team on Migration to TDCF and Expert Team on Data Representation and Codes (CT-MTDCF & ET-DRC),
Geneva, Switzerland, 1 September to 5 September 2008

The document plan, with links to the agenda and the documents presented at the meeting, is available at: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/ISS/Meetings/CT-MTDCF-ET-DRC_Geneva2008/DocPlan.html

This HMEI report , by the HMEI Secretariat, is not intended to be definitive, but rather highlights items considered of interest for HMEI Members.  

Attendees
The full provisional list of attendees is available here. For HMEI, Bruce Sumner (HMEI Executive Secretary) and Christine Charstone (HMEI Administrator)., attended the parts of the meeting seen as relevant to HMEI Members.

Documents and Discussion Items

Docs. 3 - BUFR and CREX

Review of BUFR Descriptors Docs 3.1. Please see the respective documents from the link to the document plan at the beginning of this report, for detailed information.
The meeting addressed the various BUFR descriptors to be reviewed that are awaiting validation for becoming Pre-Operational.
Documents 3.1.1 to 3.1.16 address respectively:

  • Reporting correctly radiation
  • Template for synoptic reports from sea stations suitable for ship observation data from VOS stations
  • Reporting Air Chemistry
  • IEEE representation (for BUFR Edition 5)
  • Templates for surface observations for one-hour period and for n-minute period with national and WMO station identification
  • "Merged” AWS BUFR template for surface observations for one-hour period and for reporting SYNOP data in BUFR
  • Template for buoy and wave data, BATHY and TESAC data
  • CREX templates for tide elevation - DART- Sea level data
  • Template for synoptic reports from fixed land stations suitable for SYNOP data and for maritime data from coastal and island stations
  • EUCOS template for representation of Radiosonde data with geopotential height as the vertical coordinate
  • Reporting passive remote sensing by star occultation
  • New descriptors for GFA (Graphical Forecast AIRMET) data
  • Entries for volume (3-D) radar data
  • Reporting the encoding of the JASON2 OGDR data
  • Proposal for WAVEOB data
  • Proposal for Universal BUFR template for representation of Lightning data

CREX SYNOP for RA I (Africa) Docs 3.2. Please see the respective documents from the link to the document plan at the beginning of this report, for detailed information.
These documents brought to the attention of the meeting the requirements for an an intermediate code CREX for African countries, due to the low level of automation (particularly in regard to GOS and GTS) in many parts of Africa.

New Additions for Satellite Data Docs. 3.3. Please see the respective documents from the link to the document plan at the beginning of this report, for detailed information.
Documents 3.3.5(1) to 3.3.5(3) address respectively:

  • CGMS/WMO Task Force on Satellite Data Codes
  • Designation of sub-centres (Common Table C-12) for RARS system
  • SMOS satellite data
  • GOME Ozone data
  • Other needed additions for satellite data

Docs. 4 - Modifications to Traditional Alphanumeric Codes Please see the respective documents from the link to the document plan at the beginning of this report, for detailed information.
Items addressed in the documents:

  • Various corrections and clarifications for aviation related reporting in the Manual on Codes;
  • Notification that ICAO no longer has any requirement for ROFOR and proposed that a note be added to this effect in the Manual on Codes;
  • Modification to Regulation 12. 4. 10. 1 - reporting instrument detected cloud layers;
  • Proposed Corrigendum to the Manual and a possible Supplement for operational implementation in November 2009.

Eva Cerena - Correction to Metar This is to be produced as a corrigendum to be sent by Eva to all European members. Eva has also given this information to HMEI for its aviation equipment manufacturer members. See this information here.

Docs. 5 - Manual on Codes Please see the respective documents from the link to the document plan at the beginning of this report, for detailed information.

Manual on Codes Doc. 5.1
After discussion on how to deal with changes to the Manual between versions, a sub-group from the meeting was set up to make a document on the procedures for adoption of changes to Manual on Codes, including validation processes. The resulting document will be included in the final report of this meeting. 

Electronic Form of Manual Doc. 5.2(1)
Updates to codes tables/descriptors will only be issued electronically on the WMO server. However these may be password protected. The Manual is currently available at: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/WMOCodes/ManualCodesGuides.html
There is now a need to convert the current codes handbook, but resources are lacking.

Docs. 7 - Review Status of Migration to WMO TDCF Please see the respective documents from the link to the document plan at the beginning of this report, for detailed information.
Items addressed:

  • WMO Secretariat produced a migration guidance document;
  • Report on the status of information sharing (Doc. 7.1(1));
  • Report from the Rapporteur for WMO RA VI (Europe) (Docs.7.1(2) and 7.1(3));
  • Report from Canada  (Doc. 7.1(4)) - development of a BUFR library at the Meteorological Service of Canada;
  • Report from China (Doc. 7.1(5)) - the status of migration and information sharing in the China Meteorological Agency (CMA);
  • Report from RA I (Africa) (Doc. 7.1(6)) - training initiatives on TDCF for developing countries in Africa
  • Report on status of the migration to TDCF in Brazil Please see this document here

Results of questionnaire on Migration to TDCF Doc. 7.2(1) Please see this document here
This document lists the results of the WMO questionnaire on Migration to TDCF distributed at the end of year 2007 to WMO Members. Contained within the document is information on coding, types of data, hardware and software currently being used by the countries who responded to the questionnaire.

Docs. 8 - Tasks for Migration Please see the respective documents from the link to the document plan at the beginning of this report, for detailed information.

Facilitation of operational Implementation and pre-operational testing Please see this document here
This document by Yves Pelletier from the National Prediction Operations Division, Meteorological Service of Canada, is a primer for writing BUFR templates. 

Review of the migration plan in view of ICAO requirements Doc. 8.5(1)
This document outlines the argument put forward by ICAO that they would prefer to receive coding data in XML format, contrary to WMO, which wishes to use coding in BUFR.

OPMET traffic (METAR SPECI & TAF) is required to be delivered to ICAO in XML. WMO will probably use BUFR to transmit between met services. A means needs to be found to convert OPMET traffic to XML for delivery from WMO Members to ICAO.

Thus for the aviation manufacturers may need to allow for the use of both formats in the software. However there are WMO and ICAO task teams looking into this issue.

Follow up of the migration Doc. 8.5(2)
This WMO Secretariat produced document contains information on the status of the migration to TDCF and includes proposals to facilitate the migration.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESULTS
The WMO report of this meeting is expected to contain a summary of these discussions, with recommendations, for consideration by the Commission for Basic Systems (CBS) at CBS-XIV, meeting in Dubrovnik, March/April 2009.

The WMO report on the meeting is expected to be available from the CBS website: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/BAS/CBS-meetings.html, by November 2008.