Report - CBS Technical Conference on WIGOS and CBS XIV, Dubrovnik, 2009

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Report on
Commission for Basic Systems (CBS) Technical conference on
WMO Integrated Global Observing System (TECO-WIGOS), 23-24 March, 2009
and
Commission for Basic Systems Fourteenth Session (CBS XIV), 25 March - 2 April 2009,
Dubrovnik, Croatia

This report, by B. Sumner and C. Charstone, focuses on items the HMEI Secretariat believes to be of particular interest for HMEI Members and is not intended to be definitive.

Attending as Representatives of HMEI
 Bryce Ford - Lockheed Martin; Gerhard Pevny - Logotronic;  Timo Roschier - Vaisala; Bruce Sumner - HMEI Executive Secretary; Chris Charstone - HMEI Administrator.

Exhibition
There was an exhibition of 17 manufacturers equipment and products during the period of the TECO and the first two days of CBS-XIV, 13 of whom were HMEI Members. The exhibiting HMEI members were: Campbell Scientific; Corobor; EEC; IBL Software; IPS Meteostar; Microstep;  Modem; Logotronics; Selex/Gematronik; Techsense Solutions; Theodore Friedrichs.

Some HMEI members were also sponsors of the event: Main Sponsor - Enterprise Electronics Corporation (EEC); Sponsors - Vaisala and Slex/Gematronic.

CBS TECO-WIGOS - 23-24 March 2009

Opening
The meeting opened at 10am Monday, 23 March by A. I. Gusev, the CBS President. In the opening remarks Igor Zhuminsky drew the attendees attention to the exhibition of instrument manufacturers on the entrance floor of the conference center. Conference attendees were encouraged to visit the exhibition and the available and new technology on display there. The participation of the Association of HMEI in organizing the exhibition was noted.

Dr J Rasmussen the Conference Director, outlined the goals of the conference. He gave the historical perspective of the road towards the WIGOS concept, a natural follow on from the WMO World Weather Watch. The WIGOS aims to broaden the inclusion of observations and information from several world wide systems covering all domains. With its new vision, requirements and aims, WIGOS is a challenging WMO initiative and a new phase of WMO's development.

Session 1 - Governance and Mechanisms for the Implementation of WIGOS Concept
This session commenced with the keynote address " WIGOS as a Challenging Initiative of WMO".

The subject of the TECO, WIGOS is widely known about amongst HMEI members, as the HMEI has attended and reported on several meetings on, or containing information about WIGOS. The papers presented at this TECO reiterated and brought up to date the progress on WIGOS.

Subsequently this session covered eight papers listed below:
Doc. 1(1) - WIGOS Development and Implementation Plan (WDIP) and WIGOS Concept of Operations (CONOPS) - Dr J Nash
Doc. 1(2) - Vision for the Evolution of the GOS in the context of WIGOS - Dr J. Eyre
Doc. 1(3) - WIGOS Requirements for Instruments and Methods of Observation - Dr J.Nash
Doc. 1(4) - WIS Project and Implementation Plan and WIGOS Requirements for Data Dissemination and Exchange - Prof G.-R. Hoffmann
Doc. 1(5) - WIGOS Requirements for end-products quality assurance - Dr A Zaitsev
Doc. 1(6) - WIGOS and the Co-sponsored Observing Systems (GOOS, GTOS and GCOS) - Prof J Zillman
Doc. 1(7) - EUMETSAT Integrated Contribution to WIGOS - L. Wolf
Doc. 1(8) - EUCOS - Concept, experiences, achievements - Dr. J. Dibbern

The TECO abstracts of the papers from sessions 1 & 2 are available here, give a good summary of the issues covered. The complete reports and presentations from CBS are available on request from the HMEI Secretariat, email: hmei@wmo.int.

Session 2 - WIGOS Pilot and Demonstration Projects-Contribution of Regional  Associations and Technical Commissions
Session 2 started with a keynote address by Dr S. Barrell on the concept of the WIGOS Pilot and Demonstration Projects (Doc.2(1)).

Docs. 2.(2), 2(4), 2(5), 2(6), and 2(7) report respectively on the WIGOS Pilot Projects (PP) including: Ozone and Aerosol observations; Integration of AMDAR; Crosscutting role of CIMO within WIGOS; Integration of Marine and Oceanographic observations; and the Global Spaced-based Inter-Calibration System PP for WIGOS.

Docs. 2(8) and 2(9) deal respectively with the Regional Association I (RA I)  WIGOS Demonstration Projects in Kenya and Morocco.

Docs. 2(10), 2(11), 2(12), 2(13), 2(14)and 2(15) are, respectively, reports on Contributions to WIGOS from RA II, RA III, RA IV, RA V, RA VI and China.

Doc. 2(16) - From Concept to Reality
This presentation by Dr Sue. Barrell Co-Chair of the CBS Management Group, was an excellent summation of the challenges facing the implementation of WIGOS and the key issues addressed by the papers that had been presented and that this conference needs to address. Some key points from Dr. Barrell's presentation were:

  • Do WMO members actually want WIGOS? - it needs to be clearly established that they do in order to achieve reality;
  • Identification of the stakeholders within WMO and without WMO;
  • WIGOS needs dedicated resources, especially people specifically working on WIGOS, to achieve its goal;
  • The relationship between GEOS (Global Earth Observing System) and WIGOS needs to be one of mutual help, so that they complement each other, but do not compete.
  • Other stakeholders outside of WMO and the NHSs (e.i. Hydrological Services etc.) need to be encouraged to contribute to WIGOS.

Question, answer and discussion session
The discussions emphasised the need for funding and resources support for WIGOS to be successful.

Some of the countries with Pilot Projects or other  regional developments towards WIGOS felt that there was a need for clearer guidelines for the WIGOS Pilot Projects and Developments.

The CBS director suggested that a continuing WIGOS trust fund be set up, so WIGOS could match the excellent work already achieved and in progress by WIS could be matched by WIGOS.

Conference Statement
The meeting finished in the early afternoon with the formulation of a Conference Statement for the final report.
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CBS XIV - 25 March to 2 April 2009

Participants
 Attending as Representatives of HMEI were: Gerhard Pevny - Logotronic;  Timo Roschier - Vaisala; Bruce Sumner - HMEI Executive Secretary; Chris Charstone - HMEI Administrator.
See the complete Participants List here.

Opening
The meeting was opened by the President of CBS, Mr A. Gusev at 10.30 on Wednesday 25 March 2009.

The Director of the Croatia Meteorological Service Dr čračić welcomed the conference attendees to Croatia. He emphasised the importance of the conference especially in regard to the WMO Information System (WIS) and The WMO Integrated Global Observing Systems (WIGOS).

The representative of the Mayor of Dubrovnik also welcomed attendees to the conference and to Dubrovnik.

Michel Jarraud the WMO Secretary -General welcomed attendees to CBS XIV. He summarized the components of CBS and indicated the new components that now needed to be incorporated, such as:

  • AMDAR data
  • Hydrology data
  • Marine services
  • Environmental data i.e. Air quality
  • Severe weather services

Doc. 3 - Report of the CBS President (Please see this report here)
The report of the President noted:

  • the work done in the intersessional period by the CBS OPAG Expert Teams:
  • that Cg-XV confirmed the leading role of CBS in the further development of the WIS, and also re-affirmed that WIS was serving all WMO Programmes;
  • that EC-LX emphasized the leading role of CBS in the
    implementation of the WIGOS concept.

Doc. 5(1) - Status of the World Weather Watch (WWW) Implementation and Operation (Please see this report here)
Pierre Kerhevé presented this report which outlined the observation details of the data monitoring of WWW during the previous intersessional period.
Some comments responding to the report:

  • Egypt announced to the meeting that to help least developed countries (LDC), they would host a workshop for all African countries to help them with data collection and to upgrade the meteorological equipment. This would be convened under the Voluntary Cooperation Programme (VCP) and with the support of CIMO.
  • China suggested that CBS investigate a means to increase data availability worldwide, as there are still many regions with inadequate observational coverage.

Doc. 11(3) - Quality Management Framework (Please see this report here)
This document discusses the Implementation of the WMO Quality Management Framework. The currently being drafted Volume IV on “Quality Management” of the WMO Technical Regulations is to generally describe the WMO QMF as a coordinated approach to the delivery of data, products and services. Apropos WIGOS, the appropriate quality management system (QMS) shall operate at all components of WIGOS. The Commission noted that WMO is now recognized as an international standardizing body by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Some comments responding to the report:

  • Several delegates noted that it is very important that WMO is an international standardizing body in collaboration with ISO. This, is was considered, will help members achieve compatibility and conformity much easier and quicker than was possible in the past.
  • The achievability of adopting such compatibility and standards will be dependent on the WMO members who have implemented a good QMS, helping those wanting to adopt similar Quality Management.

Doc. 6(3.1) - Summary- Data Processing and Forecast Systems (DPFS), including Emergency Response Activities (ERA) (Please see this report here)
This report summarized the progress of these activities. Noting that DPFS and ERA are core components of the Members’ operational infrastructure, the World Weather Watch System. It stated that Ensemble Forecasts are increasingly being used for predicting severe or high-impact weather.

The report gave details of the Severe Weather Forecasting and the Severe Weather Forecasting Demonstration Project in Africa, which is focused on improving weather forecasting and warning services for heavy rain and strong winds and involved global and regional centres, and to build the forecasting capacity of the NMHSs of Botswana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

In regard Very Short-range Forecasting the Commission noted that the: “Table of possible blending approaches with model and observational data combinations for very short-range forecasting” developed by CBS experts should be made available to Members as a guide.

Key tasks of the OPAG on DPFS for the intersessional period 2009-2012 were agreed on including:

  • Implementation Coordination Team on Data-Processing and Forecasting Systems;
  • Coordination Group on Forecast Verification;
  • Expert Team on Ensemble Prediction Systems;
  • Rapporteur on Infrastructure for Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP);
  • Expert Team on Extended- and Long-range Forecasting;
  • Coordination Group on Nuclear Emergency Response Activities;
  • Expert Team on Modelling of Atmospheric Transport for Non-nuclear ERA;
  • Rapporteur on the Application of NWP to Severe Weather Forecasting.

A list of tasks for the OPAG’s Implementation Coordination Team, its Expert Teams and Rapporteurs, was also agreed on this can be found as the Annex in the report here.

Doc. 6(3.2) - The Manual on GDPFS and its Future Evolution (Please see this report here)
Some comments responding to the report:
New Zealand recommends that the Manual on the GDPFS requires an urgent review and major update, as it is severely out-of-date. This was strongly supported by Australia, UK, USA and France. WMO acknowledged this need, but noted that resources would be required, probably from a member country, as WMO has no funds for this in the current budget. It was also noted that the Manual would need to conform to ISO standards, and this would take some time.

Doc 11(4) - World Weather Research Programme including the THORPEX Programme (Please see this report here)
The progress of THORPEX and its relationship to CBS was particularly discussed in a presentation by David Parsons and David Burridge. The THORPEX Interactive Grand Global Ensemble (TIGGE) was discussed in detail. It is to help improve multi-model ensembles, using model data from 10 countries. Archive data is currently available for the last two years. Currently looking at upper air forecasting, heavy rain forecasting and cyclone track forecasting. TIGGE will extend into other forecast areas.

Doc 11(2) - Disaster Risk Reduction (Please see this report here)
Some points of interest from this report were:

  • Emphasis now is on preparedness rather than post disaster activities;
  • Initiatives for development of guidelines for standardizations of flood, drought and storm surge databases, metadata and mapping tools were underway by other WMO technical commissions.
  • Development of guidelines for other meteorological hazards is needed A report will be available in April 2009, documenting the needs and gaps, with initiatives and examples of meteorological hazard analysis methodologies.

Doc 8 - Public Weather Services (Please see this report here)
Some points of note were:

  • There is a RA II Pilot Project on the Provision of City-Specific Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) Products to Developing Countries via the Internet.City-specific forecast time series products, provided by Hong Kong, China; Japan and Republic of Korea, have been launched on their respective websites since January 2006. By December 2008 8 RA II Members had joined the project. Forecasts for 160 cities are to13 WMO Members. Other developing countries from RA II were encouraged to participate in the project.
  • The WMO Website "World Weather Information Service (WWIS)" at: http://worldweather.wmo.int/ won the Stockholm Challenge Award - Environmental Category in 2008.
  • A concept called “Learning Through Doing” was introduced during the intersessional period, focusing on establishing a connection between weather providers and users, by building capacity of NMHSs using a coordinated training and mentoring programme.

Doc 13 - Election of President and Vice President of CBS
Nominations Committee reported that nominations had been received for President and Vice-President of CBS, namely:

For the office of president of the Commission:
Mr Fredrick R. Branski (United States of America)
Prof. Geerd-Rüdiger Hoffmann (Germany)

For the office of vice-president of the Commission:
Dr Susan L. Barrell (Australia)
Mr Peiliang Shi (China)

The results of the vote was:
Mr Fredrick R. Branski as the new President of CBS
Dr Susan L. Barrell as the new Vice-President of CBS

Doc. 6(2) Information Systems and Services (ISS)  (Please see this report here)
Some points of interest from this report are:

  • The migration from X.25 to TCP/IP is now almost complete, with only one international circuit remaining as X.25.
  • Each Region has at least one satellite broadcasting system in operation.
  • Migration from ISS to WIS has to be investigated and implemented. This is a crucial part of the work of CBS that needs to be done in the next few years.
  • It was recommended that the standards and recommended practices for the collection and transmission of data could be collected into a consolidated guideline for use by the Regions and by the manufacturers.
  • It was recommended that XML file format be investigated as a standard for metadata exchange, not just for WIS, but for other areas such as aviation, etc. This will be given to an Expert Team to develop.
Doc. 6(1) Integrated Observing Systems (Please see this report here)
This document reported on the evolution of the GOS, with new and enhanced surface-based and space-based observation systems being incorporated over coming years. This will also transform into the WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS). Some new and revised Expert Teams have been created. These will be of interest to the instrument sector, who may wish to join these teams.

A revised functional specification for AWS has been developed.

Doc. 10(1) and Doc. 10(2) WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS) (Please see this Doc. 10(1) here)
Doc. 10(1) gave the the status of the development and implementation of the WIGOS initiative.
Doc.10(2) is a summary report of the recne the Technical Conference on WIGOS was presented in Doc. 10(2) (Please see this report here). The status of the WIGOS Pilot projects was presented, and it was noted that some of the Pilot Projects may not achieve their predicted completion dates.

Doc. 7 WMO Space Programme (Please see this report here)
The Director of the WMO Space Programme, gave a presentation giving a general update of the current work and achievements of this programme.

Some comments on the report:

  • There was a call from Russia and Germany for more staff to be dedicated to the WMO Space Programme.
  • Oman gave details of training it had been doing in this area and asked that WMO give resources to such training.
Doc. 11(1) Group on Earth Observations (GEO) (Please see this report here)
It was noted that if countries were compliant to WIGOS they are also therefore compliant with the requirements of GEO.

Doc. 12(2) Future Work Programme (Please see draft final report here)
The CBS decided to re-establish the current OPAGs, being:
(a) The OPAG on Integrated Observing Systems (IOS);
(b) The OPAG on Information Systems and Services (ISS);
(c) The OPAG on Data Processing and Forecasting System (DPFS);
(d) The OPAG on Public Weather Services (PWS);

The terms of reference of Open Programme Area Groups (OPAG) Expert Teams and the Rapporteurs are revised; as are the designated Chair-people, Co-chair-people, Rapporteurs and Representatives. These are explained in the linked report above.

Closure of the sessions of CBS XIV
The session was closed by Dr Gusev at 10.50am on Thursday, 2 April 2009.