1. 1 Activities of Working Group for Meteorological Codes (WG/MC) Jeff Ator DOC/NOAA/NWS/NCEP Chair, WG/MC 4/13/2006

2. 2 Summary of Topics Status of Updates to Federal Meteorological (FMH) Handbooks Update on National Code Migration Plan Other Issues

3. 3 Federal Meteorological (FMH) Handbooks FMH #1 (Surface Observations, e.g. METAR) FAA representative and Executive Secretary will review to determine what, if anything, needs to be changed to bring it into compliance with ICAO Annex 3 FMH #3 (Upper Air Observations, e.g. radiosonde) Table 6.1 (PIBAL Height vs. Time) to be modified Executive Secretary will convene ad-hoc group of experts to review remainder of document and recommend any additional updates, especially re: ongoing deployment of Radiosonde Replacement System

4. 4 Federal Meteorological (FMH) Handbooks (cont’d) FMH #12 (U.S. Codes and National Practices) PIREP /OV section will be modified (at request of DOD/USAF) to include lat/long as an official reporting option Pending further FAA review, there may be additional future modifications to PIREP as well (e.g. aircraft effect on icing) Other U.S. Codes (e.g. RECCO) to be documented via URL links to corresponding WMO documentation Publication I6 (BUFR) was deleted Considered to be duplication of existing WMO documentation and therefore of no real benefit

5. 5 National Code Migration Plan Response to WMO Plan for Migration to Table-Driven Code Forms Summary of WMO plan can be viewed at http://www.wmo.int/web/www/WMOCodes/MigrationTDCF/SummaryMigraPlan_en.pdf Focus is on data exchanged internationally Migration to be driven primarily by data producers (vs. data users) Fred Branski (DOC/NOAA/NWS) is U.S. focal point WG/MC was tasked to develop U.S. national migration plan WG/MC members are currently taking stock of own agency infrastructures and reviewing with upper management in order to determine expected agency impacts Information to be collected into comprehensive tabular format for input to development of national plan Possible need to coordinate with other agencies (e.g. DHS, DOE) Fred Branski and Jeff Ator will attend upcoming meeting of WMO migration team in Montreal (8-12 May 2006)

6. 6 Other Issues WG/MC approved proposed changes to Section 5 (National Section) of WMO FM-13 (SHIP) code form, at request of NOAA National Data Buoy Center and Tropical Prediction Center To be implemented following official change notification procedure initiated by above agencies WG/MC Chairman will also notify WMO via NOAA/NWS International Affairs office WG/MC would like to expand membership to include other organizations producing or working with meteorological data (e.g. NASA, NESDIS, FHWA) Could CEISC assist in obtaining appointments of members from these agencies?