1. WMO Standards NOAA System Of Systems Workshop October 06, 2009
World Meteorological Organization Working together in weather, climate and water
WMO
WMO Standards
NOAA System Of Systems Workshop
October 06, 2009
Fredrick R. Branski
President of CBS
WMO/OBS

2. What is the WMO? (World Meteorological Organization)
A specialized agency of the United Nations
The UN system's authoritative voice on the state and behavior of the Earth's atmosphere, its interaction with the oceans, the climate it produces and the resulting distribution of water resources
188 Member States
NWS is the U.S. representative
to the WMO

9. FM SYSTEM OF CODE FORMS - Traditional Alphanumeric Codes (TAC)
FM 12–XII Ext. SYNOP Report of surface observation from a fixed land station
FM 13–XII Ext. SHIP Report of surface observation from a sea station
FM 14–XII Ext. SYNOP MOBIL Report of surface observation from a mobile land station
FM 15–XIII Ext. METAR Aerodrome routine meteorological report (with or without trend forecast)
FM 16–XIII Ext. SPECI Aerodrome special meteorological report (with or without trend forecast)
FM 18–XII BUOY Report of a buoy observation
FM 20–VIII RADOB Report of ground radar weather observation
FM 22–IX Ext. RADREP Radiological data report (monitored on a routine basis and/or in case of accident)
FM 32–XI Ext. PILOT Upper-wind report from a fixed land station
FM 33–XI Ext. PILOT SHIP Upper-wind report from a sea station
FM 34–XI Ext. PILOT MOBIL Upper-wind report from a mobile land station
Rec. 22 (CBS-89), approved by the President of WMO and Res. 8 (EC-LI)
FM 35–XI Ext. TEMP Upper-level pressure, temperature, humidity and wind report from a fixed land station
FM 36–XI Ext. TEMP SHIP Upper-level pressure, temperature, humidity and wind report from a sea station

10. FM SYSTEM OF CODE FORMS - Traditional Alphanumeric Codes (TAC)
FM 37–XI Ext. TEMP DROP Upper-level pressure, temperature, humidity and wind report from a sonde released by carrier balloons or aircraft
FM 38–XI Ext. TEMP MOBIL Upper-level pressure, temperature, humidity and wind report from a mobile land station
FM 39–VI ROCOB Upper-level temperature, wind and air density report from a land
rocketsonde station
FM 40–VI ROCOB SHIP Upper-level temperature, wind and air density report from a rocketsonde station on a ship
FM 41–IV CODAR Upper-air report from an aircraft (other than weather reconnaissance aircraft)
FM 42–XI Ext. AMDAR Aircraft report (aircraft meteorological data relay)
FM 44–V ICEAN Ice analysis
FM 45–IV IAC Analysis in full form
FM 46–IV IAC FLEET Analysis in abbreviated form
FM 47–IX Ext. GRID Processed data in the form of grid-point values
FM 49–IX Ext. GRAF Processed data in the form of grid-point values (abbreviated code form)
FM 50–XIII WINTEM Forecast upper wind and temperature for aviation
FM 51–XIII Ext. TAF Aerodrome forecast
FM 53–X Ext. ARFOR Area forecast for aviation
FM 54–X Ext. ROFOR Route forecast for aviation

11. FM SYSTEM OF CODE FORMS - Traditional Alphanumeric Codes (TAC)
FM 57–IX Ext. RADOF Radiological trajectory dose forecast (defined time of arrival and location)
FM 61–IV MAFOR Forecast for shipping
FM 62–VIII Ext. TRACKOB Report of marine surface observation along a ship’s track
FM 63–XI Ext. BATHY Report of bathythermal observation
FM 64–XI Ext. TESAC Temperature, salinity and current report from a sea station
FM 65-XI Ext. WAVEOB Report of spectral wave information from a sea station or from a remote platform (aircraft or satellite)
FM 67–VI HYDRA Report of hydrological observation from a hydrological station
FM 68–VI HYFOR Hydrological forecast
FM 71–XII CLIMAT Report of monthly values from a land station
FM 72–XII CLIMAT SHIP Report of monthly means and totals from an ocean weather station
FM 73–VI NACLI CLINP SPCLI CLISA INCLI Report of monthly means for an oceanic area
FM 75–XII Ext. CLIMAT TEMP Report of monthly aerological means from a land station
FM 76–XII Ext. CLIMAT TEMP SHIP Report of monthly aerological means from an ocean weather station

12. FM SYSTEM OF CODE FORMS - Traditional Alphanumeric Codes (TAC)
FM 81–I SFAZI Synoptic report of bearings of sources of atmospherics
FM 82–I SFLOC Synoptic report of the geographical location of sources of atmospherics
FM 83–I SFAZU Detailed report of the distribution of sources of atmospherics by
bearings for any period up to and including 24 hours
FM 85–IX SAREP Report of synoptic interpretation of cloud data obtained by a meteorological satellite
FM 86–XI SATEM Report of satellite remote upper-air soundings of pressure, temperature and humidity
FM 87–XI SARAD Report of satellite clear radiance observations
FM 88–XI SATOB Report of satellite observations of wind, surface temperature, cloud, humidity and radiation

13. FM SYSTEM OF CODE FORMS – Table Driven Code Forms (TDCF)
FM 92–XI Ext. GRIB edition 1 Processed data in the form of grid-point values
(gridded binary) expressed in binary form
FM 92–XIII Ext. GRIB edition 2 General regularly-distributed information in binary form
FM 94–XIII Ext. BUFR Binary universal form for the representation of meteorological data
FM 95–XIII Ext. CREX Character form for the representation and exchange of data

14. What is the WIS? (WMO Information System)
An overarching approach to meet information exchange requirements of all WMO Programmes
Data centric vs communications centric (legacy approach)
Aid WMO to avoid data incompatibilities & problems in sharing valuable data across various programmes
Ensure interoperability of Information Systems between WMO Programmes and those outside of the WMO community

15. What is the WIS? (WMO Information System)
WMO Data Representation Systems (DRS) were historically developed with an inward looking approach to meet Member needs for utilization and exchange of information
Beside legacy exchange systems the WIS offers a Data Discovery, Access & Retrieval (DAR) service
The WIS DAR will open WMO Member data services and stores up to a wider COI
The WIS DAR will expose data services and stores of the wider COI across the community

16. WIS Standards WMO has been developing DRSs for many decades
Work precedes ISO and many other standards bodies
Over 50 legacy DRS
Tremendous “richness” of capability already exists
WMO has captured this “richness” in its Binary Uniform Format for Representation (BUFR)

17. WIS DRM BUFR was developed with an inherent data model
From this data model all other DRS needs will be driven
ISO compatible feature catalogues
Legacy formats
OASIS, OGC, JMBL other requirements

18. ISO 19000 Modelling process for BUFR Full BUFR Model
BUFR is too big to be represented in a single ISO Feature Catalogue, which should be small enough to be useable by external communities.
No external community uses the full BUFR model, and most communities use a small subset, augmented with extractions, aggregations, and compounds of this subset.
The ISO model is intended for this sort of use.
Full BUFR Model
Aviation
Feature
Catalogue
Public
Weather Service
Hydrological
Feature Catalogue
Other
Catalogues ?
Weather
Service
Hydrology
Other Needs
Aviation Feature Catalogue
Aviation community names linked to
(one or more) BUFR table elements
Hydrological Feature Catalogue
Hydrological community names and common aliases
Public Weather Service
Feature Catalogue
Common names, aliases and language variants linked to relevant BUFR table elements

19. WIS DRS Development
WMO Expert Teams are tasked with working directly on DRS standards in the following areas
Maintenance and update of existing DRS including BUFR
Developing and maintaining WMO metadata standards and improving interoperability
Migrating off legacy systems to new standards
Addressing the DRS requirements of aviation meteorological needs
Assessing all DRS requirements of the wider WMO COI and developing policy recommendations regarding how to meet those needs.

20. ICAO-WMO PILOT PROJECT FOR REPRESENTING OPMET DATA
OPMET data delivery via XML proof of concept - Representation and exchange of TAC OPMET data in XML, initially by wrapping the TAC data in XML and demonstrating the ability to exchange this data over aeronautical telecommunication systems. This phase also includes parsing the contents of the TAC OPMET data into XML and exchanging them as well;
Direct conversion of BUFR OPMET data into XML;
Development of an ISO compliant modeling process from which feature catalogues are derived. These will include OPMET data in XML/GML as an application of the ISO series of standards.
Support for conjoint development of future versions of WXCM, WXXM, WXXS Weather Information Models and Schema

21. WIS Data Dictionary
The WIS Data Dictionary is a conjoin of definitions from:
BUFR
WMO Core Metadata Profile
Services metadata
BUFR as the parent data model is the primary component
BUFR contains:
Over 450 Code tables
Over 370 flag tables
Over 7,000 total features, elements, codes and flags

22. WIS Tie in to Other Standards
WMO identified Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), OASIS, as a standard for dissemination of warning messages
Development underway through Members
WMO hosted a CAP Implementers Workshop December 9-10, 2008 in Geneva
WMO is assessing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) such as those based on OGC standards
Workshop on the use of GIS systems was held at the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) in Reading, UK from November 2006
This workshop reviewed the use of OGC standards to promote collaboration to define a set of common standards to enhance interoperability
WMO and ISO have developed an agreement on recognition of each other’s standards and are developing the administrative protocols

23. WIS Tie in to Other Standards
The WMO is continuing to assess other DRS standards some of which are already in use in the COI
Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) ,University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)
Hierarchical Data Format (HDF), National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
eXtensible Markup Language (XML), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (CAP is based on XML)
Abstract Syntax Notation One (ANS.1), joint ISO/IEC and ITU-T
Joint METOC Broker Language (JMBL), DoD
Usage recommendations are underway
Semantic interoperability being pursued with DRS “owners”
Syntactic interoperability being reviewed for development where needed

24. Summary - WIS DRM based on:
Full BUFR
Model
Services Metadata
BUFR Table
Descriptors
WMO Core Metadata Profile
Aviation
Other Needs ?
Hydrology
Other
Catalogues ?
Public
Weather
Service
WIS
Data
Dictionary
DAS is the official steward for two DRM Frameworks
The FEA DRM provides a framework of three key concepts to assist agencies and communities in their information sharing objectives.
Beginning with “How do I find the data and access it” – agencies and communities are encouraged to categorize and publish their information available for sharing. They can publish on their own web site or use core.gov. This allows other agencies to discover potential sharing opportunities.
Aviation
Feature
Catalogue
Hydrological
Feature Catalogue
Public
Weather Service
Feature
Catalogue
WMO Commission for Basic Systems (CBS) is the official steward for these standards

25. What are the advantages
ISO models are derived from the BUFR model
The maintenance process is fundamental and is not changed
References to BUFR entries from Feature Catalogues are invertible.
Relevant changes to the BUFR model can be mapped and notified to the user communities
The structure allows an automatic mapping from BUFR to XML/GML
Not necessarily the implementation (although likely to be possible using XML tools)
The structure allows servicing of data requests which include extraction of data subsets across sets of BUFR data.
e.g. query for all air temperatures within a space and time window.
All surface BUFR bulletins expanded into BUFR XML
All mappings of air temperature to BUFR elements selected (with relevant position and times)
The data returned in an XML/GML encoding under WFS.

27. Discovery Access and Retrieval (DAR)
Because DAR metadata must be homogeneous in form and in content, ISO and ISO 19139 are used for the description of discovery metadata.
Metadata could be:
Sent as a metadata file via WIS to a GISC prior to publishing the data or product,
Collected from the data / product producer (batch mode),
Manually edited and validated via a web based interface provided by the system,
Automatically generated from existing reference catalogues,
Possibly built on the fly during the data ingestion.

28. Example: Standardized Interface - Information Search and Retrieval (ISO 23950)
Standard used by libraries worldwide for searching online catalogs, and it also used for searching geospatial metadata.
Defines how to specify searches precisely for accurate results. Includes lat & long boundaries and scientific terms, as well as bibliographic citations.
Can be used simply with Internet search engines. But has the expressive power for complex data searches like chemical formulas and pattern-matching needed for images.

31. Summary
e_ver1_1_UML_ pdf
WMO has a long history of DRS development
WMO is committed to interoperability with the wider COI at semantic and syntactic levels
WMO will leverage its existing data model (BUFR) including an extensive data dictionary to implement ISO, OGC, OASIS and other standards as needed to support requirements
WMO & the NWS is interested in continuing standards development opportunities and relationships with other agencies

32. Questions
Contact info:
Fred Branski:
U.S. National Weather Service
Office of the CIO
International Data Exchange and Requirements Liaison
President, WMO Commission for Basic Systems