Station Identifiers WMO; OBS

WIGOS station identifiers  WHY do we need station identifiers?  WHAT is proposed?  WHO is involved?

Why do we need station identifiers?  To link observations and their metadata  Time series  Systematic errors  Avoid transmission of unchanging information  World Weather Watch  IIiii – have run out  Non-WWW  How refer to “partner” systems? A 1 b w n b n b n b ** I A...I A I6I6I6I6I6I6

What is proposed? Principles  No implicit meaning in station identifiers  All contributing observations must have station identifier  Unique – no station identifier refers to more than one station/platform  Applicable to all observing systems operated by anyone  Extensible – so do not need to issue new identifiers if system needs to be expanded  Absorb existing systems for identifiers

Proposed structure – WIGOS Station Identifier ComponentRoleInitial Range (?) WIGOS Identifier Series Allows future expansion 0-3 Issuer of identifierAllow delegation of issuing identifiers Issue numberSub-delegation, or absorb historic ids Local IdentifierNumber for WIGOS Mixed for imported 0-999, characters

Examples – “import” WWW identifiers ExampleWIGOS Id Series Issuer of Identifier Issue Number Local Identifier Land, SI= U/air, SI= Buoy Ship XY123AB 040XY123AB

Examples – new identifiers ExampleWIGOS Id Series Issuer of Identifier Issue Number Local Identifier UK station Canada ?CTBTO? WIEN 08010WIEN

Who is involved?  Secretariat – transfer WWW into system  Operators – provide WIGOS observation metadata for each registered station  Permanent Representatives – issue (and record in WIGOS metadata “index”)  Perhaps (for discussion by ICG-WIGOS)  Approved international operators (eg CTBTO)  Self-registration of amateurs (eg Met Office WoW)  Self-registration of other operators

Summary  Single system of station identifiers  Unique  Can absorb existing systems  “meaningless”  Extensible  Can  Delegate issuing numbers  Who can issue numbers?

Thank you for your attention