1. © Crown copyright 2012 Met Office Meteorological Monitoring System (MMS) Aidan Green, 18 th October 2012.

2. © Crown copyright 2012 Met Office Talk Outline The past (pre-MMS) The present (MMS) The future? Summary Questions & Answers

3. © Crown copyright 2012 Met Office The past 19702010

4. © Crown copyright 2012 Met Office The present (MMS) Met Office, CSE Servelec, Campbell Scientific loggers. ~280 sites. Minute data from every sensor at every site. Automatic and manual observations Duty/Standby Central systems at Exeter HQ Mix of PSTN, GSM, IP. High system performance, timeliness & availability

5. © Crown copyright 2012 Met Office

7. Recent Developments Recently achieved UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) accreditation. 5-year refresh. New servers & operating system. Doubling capacity (cluster approach). Data Loading Simulator for improved system testing. Integration of new sensors: AGI RVR, Jenoptik laser snow depth, Lufft runway temperature, SWS100 visiometer, Meteolabor thygan hydrometer, Thies disdrometer. 19702010

8. © Crown copyright 2012 Met Office The future High demand for more observations, main driver being high resolution numerical weather prediction models Financial pressures to reduce costs A difficult equation to balance. Make greater use of 3 rd party data – not a zero cost option Weather Observations Website (WOW) Run sites & networks for others – e.g. Civil airports Upgrade communications to sites to retrieve more observations in real time, for sub-hourly assimilation. 19702010

9. © Crown copyright 2012 Met Office The future Integrating new sensors to address obsolescence & new data requirements. Site classification work Metadata / tracking restrictions on use / downstream systems Metrology Continue to reduce uncertainties and improve traceability 19702010

10. © Crown copyright 2012 Met Office Summary -The future poses some major challenges – in particular the requirement for more data, and more data types, while at the same time attempting to reduce costs. -MMS is our main solution to meet these demands. It is a flexible, scalable system, with extremely high levels of performance & reliability. -Another key challenge will be the increased use of 3 rd party data, including understanding the quality, as well as managing many new important supplier relationships.

11. © Crown copyright 2012 Met Office Questions & Answers

12. © Crown copyright Met Office http://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/ Global system – exciting collaboration opportunities. Successful use of cloud computing (Google infrastructure), removes any scalability issues. On shortlist for two UK IT Industry awards.

13. © Crown copyright Met Office Weather Observations Website (WOW) http://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/ http://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/ Over 61 Million observations received since June 2011 launch. Over 2,300 weather observation sites created. Over 375,000 visits from 164 different countries. Valuable new source of real-time meteorological information, particularly in severe weather events & their onset.