© Crown copyright 2012 Met Office Meteorological Monitoring System (MMS) Aidan Green, 18 th October 2012.
© Crown copyright 2012 Met Office Talk Outline The past (pre-MMS) The present (MMS) The future? Summary Questions & Answers
© Crown copyright 2012 Met Office The past
© 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
© Crown copyright 2012 Met Office
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
© 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
© 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
© 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.
© Crown copyright 2012 Met Office Questions & Answers
© Crown copyright Met Office Global system – exciting collaboration opportunities. Successful use of cloud computing (Google infrastructure), removes any scalability issues. On shortlist for two UK IT Industry awards.
© Crown copyright Met Office Weather Observations Website (WOW) 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.