World Meteorological OrganizationIntergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO Ship Observations Team ~ integrating and coordinating international ship-based observing programmes for JCOMM ~ SOT-IV April 2007, Geneva, Switzerland Sarah North VOSClim Real Time Monitoring Centre Report

Page 2© Crown copyright 2007 Real Time Monitoring Centre (RTMC) In accordance with its Terms of Reference the RTMC….  Extracts GTS observation reports  Associates the observed variables (pressure, air temp, humidity, SST, wind speed & direction) with co-located model field values and compile data set  Transfers the data set to Data Assembly Centre (DAC)  Provides monitoring statistics for observed variables SOT IV - VOSClim RTMC Report

Page 3© Crown copyright 2007 Monitoring Statistics Since SOT III/VOSClim V the RTMC has ….  Updated its list of project ships on basis of the list on the VOSClim website  Modified its software to include only ship reports made over model sea points when deciding if a ship is to be included in the ‘Suspect’ monitoring list  Replaced sending monthly statistics and suspect lists to the DAC by with placement on external FTP server  Stopped producing statistics for ‘candidate’ project ships (suggest list be deleted from the website)  Simplified the monitoring statistics by removing the ‘Normalised Standard Deviation’ and ‘True Bias’ from the monitoring data SOT IV - VOSClim RTMC Report

Page 4© Crown copyright 2007 Monitoring Statistics RTMC produces the following statistics ….  Monthly Monitoring Statistics -For all project ships -Placed on external FTP ready for DAC to retrieve  Monthly Monitoring Statistics - For project ships identified as ‘Suspect’ - on basis of agreed criteria for 6 variables SOT IV - VOSClim RTMC Report To do this it is essential that …..  addresses/Contact details for national focal points are kept up to date on project website  Call Sign details on project website are kept up to date (ideally any changes notified to both DAC and RTMC)  A clear uniform strategy for Masked Call Signs is developed

Page 5© Crown copyright 2007 While the criteria are generally set at correct levels RTMC considers that ….  A higher bias limit may be appropriate for Relative Humidity – suggest 12% SOT IV - VOSClim RTMC Report (1) Variable (2) Mean o-b limit (3) Std. Dev. o-b limit (4) Gross error limit Pressure (hPa) Wind speed (m/s) Wind direction (degrees) Air Temperature ( 0 C) Relative humidity ( % ) Sea surface temp. ( 0 C) Monitoring Criteria Details of Remedial Action are still not being fully reported or recorded !!

Page 6© Crown copyright 2007 SOT IV - VOSClim RTMC Report RTMC - Data Transfer  Since April 2003 project data (observations plus co- located model data) have been sent via GTS in BUFR format to Washington  Work is in hand to put a copy of the VOSClim data on the Met Office external FTP server in case of problems with GTS  BUFR elements have not changed since first agreed in 2002