Final Report - ET-WISC-V, p. 1

WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION

COMMISSION FOR BASIC SYSTEMS

FIFTH MEETING OF ET-WISC

THE CBS EXPERT TEAM ON WISCENTRES

(Known prior to CBS-XIV as the Expert Team GISCs and DCPCs)

FINAL REPORT (Revision 1)

Melbourne,13-16 March 2012

Disclaimer

Regulation 42

Recommendations of working groups shall have no status within the Organization until they have been approved by the responsible constituent body. In the case of joint working groups the recommendations must be concurred with by the presidents of the constituent bodies concerned before being submitted to the designated constituent body.

Regulation 43

In the case of a recommendation made by a working group between sessions of the responsible constituent body, either in a session of a working group or by correspondence, the president of the body may, as an exceptional measure, approve the recommendation on behalf of the constituent body when the matter is, in his opinion, urgent, and does not appear to imply new obligations for Members. He may then submit this recommendation for adoption by the Executive Council or to the President of the Organization for action in accordance with Regulation 9(5).

Revision History

Revision 1. 3 July 2012 – Correction to item 3.5.8 of Annex to Paragraph 3.6, (Based on ICT-ISS feedback)

Contents

FINAL REPORT

Disclaimer

Contents

Executive Summary

1.Organization of the meeting

2.Outcomes of Congress XVI and CBS

3.Review of the manual and guide on WIS

4.Status report (overview of WIS implementation, including the interim metadata management service)

5.Overview of ET-WISC activities

6.Review of the WIS core network

7.GISC Status Reports and Review of AMDCNs

8.WIS centre nomination and endorsement process (GISC, DCPC and NC)

9.Status or WIS implementation from participants

10.Preparation for CBS-XV

11.ET-WISC action plan

12.Other business

13.Closure of the meeting

Appendix 1 - Annexes to Paragraphs

AGENDA

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

RECOMMENDED AMENDMENTS TO THE MANUAL ON WIS

Appendix 2 – DOCUMENT PLAN

Executive Summary

  1. The fifthmeeting of the CBS Expert Team on WIS Centres (ET-WISC), known prior to CBS-XIVas the Expert Team on WIS GISCs and DCPCs, was held at the Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, Australia from 13 to 16 March 2012
  1. ET-WISC was tasked by CBS to:(a) further develop technical and operational specifications for the different components of the WIS Centres and criteria for interoperability and certification for actual implementation;(b) further develop specifications for the GISC, DCPC and NC interfaces, including a unified user interface for WIS components;(c) coordinate related pilot projects;(d) determine the monitoring requirements for the WIS and develop the WIS monitoring scheme, and (e) advise and assist ICG-WIS on the relevant technical aspects of the Manual on WIS.
  1. The meeting, taking into consideration the instruction from the latest Congress, EC and CBS sessions reviewed many contributions including those from participants, other CBS expert teams, Regional Associations and WIScentres. It reviewed decisions taken by ET-WISC task teams in the period leading up toWISbeing operational in January 2012, and in the various demonstration exercises that had been provided to CBS, EC and Congress.It reviewed the Manual on the WIS and made recommendations for amendments based on the implementation experience and decisions.Considering that ICG-WIS was discontinued by EC-64 and that its role is now undertaken by ICT-ISS, the meetingnoted thatit would be sufficient to share its recommendations with relevant CBS expert teams and report them to ICT-ISS for consideration and escalation if required.
  1. Important outcomes of this meeting were the review of the Manual on WIS and the establishment of sub groups to address the priority activities identified by Congress XVI. The meeting also provided some guidance to other CBS expert teams addressing issues that had been presented to ET-WISC and, in turn, established some questions to be addressed by other expert teams in preparation for ICT-ISS and CBS-XV.
  1. The chair and participants were extremely grateful to the Bureau of Meteorology for hosting the meeting and to the Bureau staff who made them feel very welcome and supported the meeting throughout the event.

Final Report - ET-WISC-V, p. 1

1.Organization of the meeting

1.1The fifth session of the CBS Expert Team on WIS Centres (ET-WISC) was held in Melbourne, from 13-16 March 2012. The meeting was opened by the ET-WISC Chair Mr Heinrich Knottenberg (Germany) and Dr. Sue Barrell, Vice President of CBS and Assistant Director, Bureau of Meteorology, Observations and Engineering Branch.

1.2Dr. Barrellwelcomed all participants on behalf of the Director of Meteorology and wished all a successful meeting and a pleasant stay in Melbourne. She noted the importance of the work of this group for the implementation of WIS by all Members and for the support of other priority activities of WMO including WIGOS and GFCS. Dr. Barrell highlighted that WIGOS developers were closely monitoring the lessons learnt from implementing WIS. She emphasised that WISis the important interoperability component of WIGOS for the moving of information around between WIGOS contributors and users. The chair thanked Dr. Barrell and the Bureau of Meteorology on behalf of WMO and the expert team.

1.3The meeting adopted the agenda as reproduced in the annex to this paragraph in Appendix 1. Items for other business were identified during the meeting. It agreed on working arrangements and working hours, including a visit to the National Meteorological Oceanographic Centre and computing facilities.

1.4The chair led a round table introduction of the 15 meeting participants. A “List of Participants” is annexed to this paragraph in Appendix 1. The meeting noted the apologies of Mr. Samuel Machua (Kenya), Mr. Lap Shun Lee (Hong Kong, China) and Mr. Ian Senior (Australia) who had planned to attend but had been unable due to other factors.

1.5The meeting reviewed the document plan, reproduced as Appendix 2 in this report. It agreed to move the Chairman’s Report to agenda item 4. The chair noted that some documents were still to be provided and encouraged participants to submit then as soon as possible. The meeting highlighted that some of the participants’status reports and presentations covered multiple items rather than providing a paper for each item. This was particularly relevant to item 5.4 on standards and practices.

2.Outcomes ofCongress XVI and CBS

  1. The meeting reviewed the relevant extracts of Congress XVI (Doc 2.1) and CBS Ext.(2010) (Doc 2.2). It noted that Resolution 4 (Cg-XVI) adopted the CBS Ext.(2010)recommendations relative to WIS. In particular this included: the Manual on WIS; amendments to the Manual on GTS and Technical Regulation WMO No.49 and; the adoption of the RMDCN as the MTN providing the WIS Core Net Work connecting all GISCs as well as being a major component of the AMDCNs. The meeting noted the instruction to align the manual on GTS with the performance metrics (to be covered under agenda items 4.6 and 6.2) for the provision of an “All Hazards Warning Network in WIS.” The meeting noted the role of satellite distribution and data collection systems in WIS AMDCNs to be discussed under 7.16.

2.2Other decisions impacting on ET-WISC included that WMO No, 9 Volume C1 is to continue to be the primary source for identifying bulletins on the GTS until 2015 but that the manual collation of amendments to Vol. C1 will gradually disappear during 2011 to 2015. This will impact on the migration strategy and the role of Vol. C1 and DAR metadata and is to be addressed along with the need to replace the METNO service under item 4.5.The meeting noted the recommendation of CBS for the WMO metadata profile to be updated, and the staged release of version 2.0. It also noted the requirement for maintaining backward compatibility through the interim version releases.

2.3The meeting considered Resolution 51 (Cg-XVI) that approved the initial WIS GISCs and DCPCs allowing WIS to go operational from January 2012. It noted that as a result of Resolution 51 (Cg-XVI) placing a timeline for centres to demonstrate their compliance with WIS to CBS, many of the centres listed in the Manual on WIS Appendix B1 and B2, are likely to be removed from the Manual if they have not demonstrated their WIS functionality to CBS before EC-65 to be held in June 2012. This was of some concern to those centres who are implementing WIS but due to financial and tender processes will not be able to reach preoperational readiness by EC-65 so will have their designation removed. It further noted that Congress had instructed RA II to review its distribution of centres and to ensure each national centre should be linked to a principal GISC and to a secondary GISC, taking into account the efficiency of options, the cost effectiveness for both NCs and GISCs, data distribution capacity of the GISCs, and the current structure of the GTS. It noted that these issues will be considered further when reviewing the WIS Manual and Guide under agenda item 3.

2.4The meeting noted the important role the WIS Project Office had played in supporting WIS implementation and that it has now ceased being a separate entity in the secretariat with its own resources. This makes it important for the ET-WISC to proactively ensure the continuation of activities that were undertaken by the project office on its behalf. It noted that Congress stated four prime activities for WIS in the 2012 to 2015 period as: (1) complete WIS implementation across all WMO Centres; (2) capacity-building to ensure support of all WMO Members; (3) leverage WIS advantages for all WMO Programmes; and (4) take advantage of WIS in all WMO Data Management. All are relevant to ET-WISC. In particular, this set of activities places a high priority on capacity building which will be addressed under item 4.3. The meeting further noted that the target dates set by Congress, such as the amendments to the Manual on WIS in 2014 need immediate action so they can be considered by CBS XV in September 2012. Thus the review of the manual on WIS is an important component of this meeting as isthe establishment of a capacity building sub team and strategy.

3.Review of the manual and guide on WIS

  1. The meeting reviewed the status report on the Manual on WIS and the Guide to WIS (Document 3.1) noting that the manual on WIS (WMO No. 1060) had been made available in all six languages[1], but that Appendix B1 and B2 providing the list of WIS centres was presently only available in the English version (Document 3.2). The full Manual on WIS will be released when Appendix B1 and B2 return from the translators. Appendix B3, the list of NCs, is in the preparation stage for consideration of CBS-XV. The meeting noted that the WMO Basic Documents had also been updated by Congress to replace the GTS section of Technical Regulation No. 49 Volume I, Section A3 to define WIS and to add the Manual on WIS as Annex VII (Manual on GTS is Annex III). These updates took effect from January 2012 and will be included in the next release of WMO No. 49 following EC in June 2012. The Guide to WIS was reviewed as an information paper at CBS-Ext.(2010). It will be reviewed at CBS-XV along with the required information on WIS metadata to be provided by IPET-MDI.

3.2The meeting reviewed the online database of WIS centres as available at the column headers of which are shown in Table 1,

Table 1. WIS Centres Database

Member/Org / Centre Type / Function / Region / Principal GISC / Secondary GISC / WIMMS / Const. Body / Endorsement CBS / Congress/EC / Manual on WIS

where the headers are defined as follows.

  • Member/Org - WMO Member or international organization that is responsible for the centre
  • Centre Type - The WIS category of a centre (NC, DCPC or GISC)
  • Function - The formal function of a centre as registered in WMO technical Regulations (eg RSMC-Geographical)
  • Region - WMO Region (I - VI or Antarctic)
  • Principal GISC - The primary associated GISC a centre will publish its metadata into. (Note that a centre should only upload its discovery metadata into one GISC in order to avoid replication issues)
  • Secondary GISC - Other GISCs associated with the centre.
  • WIMMS - The operational GISC that a centre will use for interim metadata management service pending the operational availability of their principal or secondary GISC.
  • Const. Body - The WMO Constituent body responsible for the programme that the centre is operating in. Normally a Technical Commission or Regional Association.
  • Endorsement CBS - Status of centre’s demonstration of WIS compliance to CBS (Not submitted to ET-GDDP, Under Review by ET-GDDP, Endorsed by ET-GDDP or Endorsed by CBS). Note that this does not apply (N/A) for NCs as the Member PR is responsible for NCs compliance with WIS.
  • Congress/EC - Date of World Meteorology Congress or Executive Council designation of centre as a component of WIS.
  • Manual on WIS - Reflects the status of details in the record displayed relative to the entry in the Manual on WIS. (To be considered by CBS, Approved by CBS, Approved by Cg/EC)

3.3The meeting noted that the online database maintained by the secretariat on behalf of ET-WISC reflectedthe information provided by Members or expert teams. Relevant circular letters and questionnaires are available online[2].The meeting emphasized that the Manual on WIS appendixes B1, B2 and B3 are the authoritative list of centres designated by Congress or EC. Changes to the online database are the responsibility of ET-WISC and are provided to allow Members to monitor the status of the centre designation process. The meeting established a WIS Centre Database Subgroup consisting ofMr. Al Kellie and Mr. Markus Heene to be the focal point for the WIS online Database and for identifying centres for referral to ET-GDDP.

3.4The meeting reviewed the concept of the WMO interim metadata management service (WIMMS) noting that ET-WISC and ET-GDDP (see documents 5.1 and 5.2) had both provided advice prior to the establishment of WIMMS by GISCs Beijing and Tokyo. It noted that the principal aim of WIMMS is to provide NCs and DCPCs access to a GISC’s metadata service pending the availability of their principal GISC to allow centres to manage their metadata, including reviewing the GTS startup metadata developed by Météo France. The chair thanked China and Japan for providing this service.

3.5The meeting noted the concern from the European VGISC partners about the distribution amongst the GISCs of NCs and DCPCs reflected in Annex B2 and that this will be discussed at the next VGISC Steering Committee. The meeting highlighted that the distribution of DCPCs for GISCs was based on the GTS RTH topology as described in document 4.1 as proposed by the RA VI WIS Implementation Workshop (Sophia). It further noted that the final arrangement of principal and associated GISCs may be quite different to that depicted in the initial release of the Manual on WIS and current WIS centre database. It noted that CBS will be reviewing the list of centres, including the draft Appendix B3 of the Manual on WIS identifying NCs. Appendix B3 will be based on the results of the initial GTS analysis and information provided by Members in response to the request from the secretariat of the 10 February 2012. It also noted that RA II is in the process of reviewing its distribution of GISCs and WIS centres, including requesting RA II Members to identify which GISC interim metadata service (Beijing or Tokyo) they will be using and that results from this process are being recorded in the online database.

3.6The meeting agreed to review the Manual on WISin detail including the language for consistency of meaning and to identify additional content that needs to be included. This was undertaken near the end of the meeting to ensure that all contributions were fully considered. Recommended changes to the Manual on WIS are provided in the annex to this paragraph. Further details on amendments and review of the Manual and Guide on WIS are included under the relevant agenda item.

4.Status report (overview of WIS implementation, including the interim metadata management service)

  1. The chair presented his report (document 5.1) noting the important role ET-WISC has played in taking WIS to its next level of maturity to bean operational system. He noted that ET-WISC had identified the need for a consultant in order to have the Manual and Guide on WIS ready for CBS-Ext.(2010) and approval of Congress XVI. He thanked the secretariat for their contribution, in particular Mr. Eliot Christian and Mr. Jean Michel Rainer (consultant) who undertook much of the drafting.He reported that the ET-WISC had formed ad hoc working groups to successfully undertake priority tasks such as the demonstrations to CBS, EC and Congress. He thanked the WIS demonstration sub group as well as the “wissync” sub group whose test-bed for metadata-exchange was a driver in adopting a suitable metadata exchange standard between GISCs which is now the kernel of WIS.

4.2The chair reported that although ET-WISC member centres had established role and user management, no standard had been agreed upon to share user information across centres.This will need to be addressed in the future. He noted that asWIS is operational, centres should be registering their services in GEOSS. The secretariat should assist in ensuring that WIS metadata is discoverable in GEOSS and that WIS centres can discover information in GEOSS through the GISCs. The meeting agreed to discuss this issue further under other business.