Wmo Ra Iv Wigos Implementation Workshop

WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION

WMO RA IV WIGOS IMPLEMENTATION WORKSHOP

(English-speaking countries)

Willemstad, Curacao, 1 - 3 December 2015

FINAL REPORT

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RA IV WIGOS WORKSHOP, CONTENTS

CONTENTS
Executive Summary
General Summary
List of Participants (Appendix I)
Workshop Programme (Appendix II)

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RA IV WIGOS WORKSHOP, EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Executive Summary

The RA IV WIGOS Workshop (English-speaking countries) was held in Willemstad, Curacao, from 1 to 3 December 2015. On behalf of Dr A. Martis, Permanent Representative of Curaçao and Sint Maarten with WMO, Vice President of RA-IV, Ms Pedzi Girigori opened the workshop.

The Workshop Programme is reproduced in Appendix II and presentations are available at the WIGOS web site: https://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/WIGOS-WIS/meetings/RA-IV_WIGOS_Curacao-Dec2015/RA-IV_WIGOS-Workshop-Programme.html .

Based on the presentations delivered by invited speakers and follow-up discussions, the participants formulated their recommendations for actions; see Item 7 of the General Summary.

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RA-IV WIGOS-Workshop, GENERAL SUMMARY, p. 4

General summary

1.  OPENING THE WORKSHOP AND KEYNOTE SPEECH

1.1.  The RA IV WIGOS Workshop (English-speaking countries) was held in Willemstad, Curacao, from 1 to 3 December 2015. Participants from the English speaking RA-IV members, Haiti, Guyana, and Suriname attended the workshop. Appendix I provides the list of participants.

1.2.  On behalf of Dr A. Martis, Permanent Representative (PR) of Curaçao and Sint Maarten with WMO, and Vice President of RA-IV, Ms P. Girigori opened the workshop and welcomed the participants. She wished a productive a successful workshop aimed at better understanding of WIGOS in the Region and setting the stage for its national implementation.

1.3.  Representing Secretary-General, Dr W. Zhang, Director of the WMO Observing and Information Systems Department, welcomed the participants on behalf of M. Jarraud, Secretary-General of WMO, and extended his gratitude to PR of Curaçao and Sint Maarten and his staff for hosting the workshop. He further emphasized the importance of WIGOS as one of seven WMO priority areas for the next financial period.

1.4.  In his introductory presentation “WIGOS – WMO Foundation for Meeting the Observing needs of Weather, Climate, Water and Environment Services” and “Role of the WMO Secretariat in the WIGOS Implementation”, Dr. Zhang highlighted the importance of WIGOS for WMO Members as well as for all WMO priority areas, such as Global Framework for Climate Services, Disaster Risk Reduction and Global Cryosphere Watch. He further provided a quick overview of the WIGOS Pre-operational Phase and expected deliverables and the role of the Secretariat to support implementation of WIGOS at the global, regional and national levels.

2.  WIGOS PRE-OPERATIONAL PHASE IMPLEMENTATION

2.1.  Dr Lars Peter Riishojgaard, Project Manager of WIGOS delivered the presentation “Regional and National WIGOS Implementation planning”, in which he paid attention to the implementation of WIGOS at the global level and in the RA IV. More details were given on the activities planned for the WIGOS Pre-operational Phase.

2.2.  Mr R. Grumbine, representing the United States of America, discussed the latest activities for the development of the WIGOS Data Quality Monitoring System (WDQMS) and the US’s role in a pilot project to demonstrate the concept.

2.3.  Mr D. Thomas, Chief of the WMO Information and Telecommunication System Division, discussed WIS’s role in implementing WIGOS, the state of its implementation in RA-IV; he also explained what Members need to do to be compliant with WIS technical regulations.

2.4.  Dr L. P. Riishojgaard and Ms Shanna Pitter (seconded expert from the US, NOAA) provided some information on upcoming impacts on national operations as a result of WIGOS and discussed tangible actions to be undertaken by each Member to implement WIGOS metadata, Station identifiers; they provided more information on national WIGOS implementation planning, and Regional WIGOS centre concept.

3.  INTRODUCTION TO OSCAR AND TRAINING

3.1.  Ms S. Pitter provided an overview of the Observing System Capabilities and Analysis Review tool (OSCAR) and explained the details of the database. She explained the transition from Volume A to OSCAR/Surface and various tasks that the Members will need to execute in the near future. She led a practical training session on OSCAR/Surface (searching for various information contained within the database, and entering/modifying the observing system metadata contained within OSCAR/Surface). OSCAR/Surface can be accessed via http://oscar.wmo.int/surface.

4.  REGIONAL AND NATIONAL WIGOS IMPLEMENTATION

4.1.  Dr Glendell De Souza, Chair, RA-IV WIGOS Task Team, provided an overview of WIGOS activities in the current RA-IV Implementation Plan (R-WIP-IV) and the progress achieved.

4.2.  Each member country gave a presentation on the national WIGOS implementation status. Most countries have records of their existing observing stations with few silent stations. Most countries have not drafted their national WIGOS implementation plans, however, do have strategies in place to plan, install, and quality assure their observing stations. Most of them reported the need for additional assistance and support from the WMO Secretariat to develop their WIGOS implementation plans and to help them to coordinate regional projects. It was noted that there are several databases within the Region to interface with OSCAR on a machine-to-machine basis, mainly in the United States and Canada.

5.  AUTOMATED WEATHER STATION (AWS) ISSUES

5.1.  Dr Jitze Van Der Meulen, representing the Netherlands, presented the overarching issues facing all Members when planning, installing, and maintaining their AWS networks.

5.2.  Mr Marvin Forde, Technical Officer at the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, contributed by a presentation of AWS issues in the Region. The main problems are the maintenance of the AWS networks, protection against vandalism, and availability of AWS data to the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) and the regional GISC in the US.

5.3.  Dr Igor Zahumensky, WIGOS Project Office, gave a presentation on the AWS relevant WMO regulatory and non-regulatory material to be used by Members when developing their AWS capabilities.

6.  RADAR ISSUES IN RA-IV

6.1.  Dr Glendell De Souza discussed the progress made in the development of a regional radar mosaic. He showed the current coverage in the Region and pointed out the gaps in the Spanish speaking countries of the Greater Antilles and the US territory within Cuba (Guantanamo Bay), and a lack of coverage in Central America. Though radars exist in countries such as in Mexico and El Salvador, they are not used for the mosaic due to data availability/compatibility issues.

7.  OUTCOME OF DISCUSSION ON REGIONAL WIGOS IMPLEMENTATION AND OBSERVING ISSUES

7.1 Automated Weather Station (AWS) discussion and decisions

Most of the National WIGOS Focal Points indicated that the procurement, installation and maintenance of AWS networks are problematic to their NMHSs. The AWSs are usually provided by multilateral lending or donor agencies and/or regional organizations through projects developed with little or no initial input from the NMHSs concerned. Further, the project may be providing the AWS to a different (non-NMHS) national entity, which may later approach the NMHS for assistance in maintaining the AWS after the manufacturer’s warranty has expired, but not involve or alert the NMHS to the existence of the AWSs at all. Typical problems identified in operating AWSs are:

·  The transmission of AWS data is not always in real time to the NMHS, in which case the data cannot be used for monitoring or forecasting of hydrometeorological events, but can be used for climatological records;

·  The frequency of data reported to the NMHS, e.g. once per hour, may be significantly lower than what is allowed by the actual performance of the hardware;

·  The sensors which are provided may not be suitable for the environment in which they are installed (e.g. high-saline locations);

·  The performance characteristics of the AWSs equipment that were installed at different stages may not allow for easy interoperability.

The following actions were proposed in order to alleviate the identified problems:

a) WMO Action:

·  Develop a brief document consolidating existing WMO guidance provided by CIMO, CBS and other entities on functional specifications and performance requirements. Such a document can then be used to support planning and procurement processes.

b) NMHS Action:

·  Bring together national stakeholders to better understand their observational requirements (for aviation, climatology, public weather services, hydrology, agriculture, etc.);

·  Identify appropriate observing sites (network design) to meet those requirements;

·  Draft technical specifications for the AWS that would provide observational data identified by stakeholders;

·  Draft AWS Network Implementation Plan and communicate it to all relevant partners/stakeholders.

c) Regional Office for Region IV Action:

·  Use National WIGOS Plans when developing regional/sub-regional projects, assisting NMHSs in fulfilling their national mandates.

7.2 Radar discussions and decisions

The participants were appreciative of the regional radar mosaic developed for the Greater and Lesser Antilles; however, they pointed to a lack of data over certain areas of the Spanish speaking part of RA IV Members. Though radars exist in countries such as in Mexico and El Salvador, they are not used for the mosaic due to data availability/compatibility issues.

Action:

Establish a Regional Task Team on Radar Data Exchange to coordinate the development of a RA-IV regional radar mosaic to be made available to all Members through WIS. The relevant RA-IV Permanent Representatives should be requested to nominate their experts.

7.3 Multi-sensor products and operational meteorological display of data

There were several comments made about the potential lack of continuity/ possibility of breaks in the current operational meteorological display systems in the Region. Concern was expressed regarding the “SmartMet” system used by many Members of the Region once the Finnish Meteorological Institute terminates its support. There are no current plans for how to switch to a new system once the support ends.

7.4 Regional WIGOS Centre/Facility

Although the participants understood the concept of the Regional WIGOS Centre/Facility and expressed their agreement that such entities would be needed to support regional and national WIGOS implementation efforts, they did not arrive at a particular recommendation regarding how such a centre might be implemented in RA-IV. Additional information was requested regarding possible implementation options, i.e. whether it should be hosted by a single Member or as a distributed virtual centre, how the work could be shared between Members, etc.

Action:

WIGOS-PO was requested to provide more details on the Regional WIGOS Centre/Facility concept.

7.5 National WIGOS Implementation

The participants requested assistance for the development of their national WIGOS implementation plans. In particular, information was requested regarding activities to achieve national “compliance” with WIGOS requirements.

Action:

WIGOS-PO to develop a template that illustrates the milestones and possible deadlines for implementation.

8.  CLOSURE OF THE WORKSHOP

8.1.  Dr W. Zhang and Dr L.P. Riishojgaard each had closing comments thanking the participants and the government of Curaçao for the successful execution of the Workshop. They also thanked the WMO staff responsible for the planning and execution of the workshop.

8.2.  The workshop closed on 3 December 2015, at 13:00 hours.

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RA IV WIGOS WORKSHOP, Appendix II

Appendix I

List of Participants

Surname / First name / Country / Email
BEST / Sabu / Barbados /
BROWN / Lawrence / Jamaica /
DANNY / Haymawattie / Guyana /
DE SOUZA / Glendell / BCT /
GIRIGORI / Pedzi / Curacao /
GORDON / Carshena / St Maarten /
GRUMBINE / Robert / USA /
JOYEUX / Andre / Saint Lucia /
MARTIS / Albert / Curacao /
MEULEN / Jitze van der / Netherlands /
PASCAL / Fitzroy / Dominica /
PIETER / Haime / Curacao /
PITTER / Shanna / WMO-Switzerland / ;
POWERY / Kerry / BCT- Cayman Islands /
RIISHOJGAARD / Lars Peter / WMO-Switzerland /
SIMMONS / Jeffrey Wellington / Bahamas /
SIMON / Donald / Antigua and Barbuda /
THOMAS / Bryan / Trinidad and Tobago /
THOMPSON / Roy / Belize /
WALDO / Colas / Haiti /
WARSODIKROMO / Truusje S. / Suriname /
ZAHUMENSKY / Igor / WMO-Switzerland /
ZHANG / Wenjian / WMO-Switzerland /
ZUCCONI / Alexander / Canada /

RA IV WIGOS WORKSHOP, Appendix II