Oguzhan Sireci Turkey WMO CBS WORKSHOP ON RADAR DATA EXCHANGE April April 2013 R EPORT ON THE STATUS OF WMO R ADAR D ATABASE AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ITS FURTHER USE

CONTENTS Background Focal Points Current status of WRD WRD Web Page To do’s in WRD Web Page CBS/OPAG-IOS/WxR_EXCHANGE, EXETER, UK, APRIL 2013

Radar networks have been created in many countries mainly by National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) and by different organizations like universities, TV stations, militaries, aviation administrations, power administrations and radar manufacturers. New radars are being added to the existing networks and upgrades of radars are going on in those networks. At the same time new radar networks are being established continuously. Some networks have been established by the countries newly faced to the radar technology and also new types of weather radars have been installed by experienced countries. BACKGROUND CBS/OPAG-IOS/WxR_EXCHANGE, EXETER, UK, APRIL 2013

In this context, a global survey on weather radars has been conducted by WMO to establish a “fully comprehensive up- to-date web-based metadata database” of the global use of weather radars between 2008 and Main reasons for establishing this database were : Presenting a comprehensive web-based database for radar network planning information and resource allocation for all members, Assisting a wide spread international exchange of radar data, Gathering radar information to protect radio-frequency spectrum allocation, Presenting common issues/problems and potential solutions gathered by questionnaire.

CBS/OPAG-IOS/WxR_EXCHANGE, EXETER, UK, APRIL 2013 A questionnaire composed of a questionnaire (word document) and a spread sheet (excel document) developed by CIMO ORS Expert Team. The questionnaire has four main sections on the following themes: Radar site(s) information, Radar hardware characteristics, Owner information, Data, products and applications. ( )

At the beginning of the project 48 NMHS replied questionnaire. 517 Radars had been registered to DB. Following decisions had been taken in the Joint meeting of CBS Expert Team on Surface-Based Remotely-Sensed Observations and CIMO Expert Team on Operational Remote Sensing in 2009 : Spreading the excel sheet to the operators of Weather Radars except of NHMSs also, Gathering new replies from the NMHSs had not responded yet (especially having large networks), Establishing a web page which supports adding and updating radar via focal points in a secure way. CBS/OPAG-IOS/WxR_EXCHANGE, EXETER, UK, APRIL 2013

In the Joint meeting held in December 2011, a Report for Weather Radar Survey had been submitted to WMO. ( ) In this meeting: Experts evaluated first version of Web-based WMO Radar Database (WRD) developed by Turkish Meteorological Service (TMS). Principles of the Operation and Maintenance of the WRD which includes upgrade, update and export rules of WRD, had been defined and started its service. (526 radars)

CBS/OPAG-IOS/WxR_EXCHANGE, EXETER, UK, APRIL 2013 FOCAL POINTS To gather data from all NMHSs that operate Weather Radars, WMO sent letters to all PRs in 2011 and 2013 to request an appropriate expert that will act as a Focal Point (FP) for Weather Radar Metadata, whom WMO can contact directly regarding the provision of weather radar metadata. The Focal Point has been thought as responsible for initial metadata entry and routine maintenance of the database under instruction from WMO and the database administrator. Details of assigned Focal Points can be found at WMO Weather Radar Observations page. (

CBS/OPAG-IOS/WxR_EXCHANGE, EXETER, UK, APRIL 2013 “Responsibilities of FP for Maintenance of Weather Radar Metadata” have been defined in WMO Weather Radar Observations Page. “WMO Radar Database Procedures For Updating Weather Radar Metadata” can be accessible for focal points after log in to the WRD web page. Currently 50 FPs have been assigned by PRs.

Current status of WRD *Red colour indicates added radars online.

CBS/OPAG-IOS/WxR_EXCHANGE, EXETER, UK, APRIL 2013 Owners of Weather radars other than NMHSs in DB

Number of weather radars is changing continuously as seen below. So a survey which is carried out in a certain period represents only that time’s condition. With the help of a web- based database keeping the DB up-to-date can be possible by adding an updating radars. For example, 7 radars have been added in last three weeks. Currently there are 659 radars of 72 NMHS and 105 radars of other owners. Totally 764 weather radars have been included in WRD.

WRD Web Page URL address of the web page is and there is a link for WRD in WMO Weather Radar Observations page. Features like basic search, search based on countries, parameters of individual radars, materials, statistics with graphs are active currently. Basic search can be done by following parameters: Country, Band, TX Type, and Polarization. The web page can run with all platforms with current infrastructure. Executability with all platforms and being simple were main principles during development of the web page.

CBS/OPAG-IOS/WxR_EXCHANGE, EXETER, UK, APRIL 2013 Statistics in the web page dynamically use up-to-date in database. Images of the radars can be seen by the links of radar images, if they are added by focal points. (links added to virtual earth too) English and Turkish Languages are active currently. Language is selected automatically according to used operating system. Other languages can be able to add later by help of focal points or WMO. (by filling an excel sheet with corresponding ones for each word in their language) Data transfer from OPERA have been carried out manually (excel sheet) so far.

CBS/OPAG-IOS/WxR_EXCHANGE, EXETER, UK, APRIL 2013 Accounts for each FP have been created since November (580 radars) Updates and adding new radars by FPs have been started successfully. Networks with the large number of radars have been added by requesting excel spreadsheets. This method is easier at the beginning for that kind of large networks. Around 39 radars have been added by using radar adding tool of WMO WRD web page by FPs. (Argentina, Korea, Mali, New Zealand, Ireland, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, UAE) Update tools also have been used by FPs commonly.

CBS/OPAG-IOS/WxR_EXCHANGE, EXETER, UK, APRIL 2013 FPs can access their own network by user name and password. They can update their present network and add new radars to the network by and online options. They can change passwords. Currently when FPs make updates and add new radars, those updates and new radars are checked by WRD web page administrators, after that database is changed by using online update and adding new radar tool. This tool can be used by FPs after some experience since effects DB directly. WMO Information Systems (WIS) will be able to download up to date DB regularly from web page.

CBS/OPAG-IOS/WxR_EXCHANGE, EXETER, UK, APRIL 2013 Milestones of WRD Preparing questionnaire + distribution (2009) Gathering first replies (2010) Establishing database web page + report (2011) Organizing focal points + establishing accounts (2012) Updating and adding new radars together FPs (2013- ) New functions

To do’s in WRD Web Page Country networks can be seen on Virtual Earth application (added in February 2013 and Google map will be added too). Weather Radar Survey performed in 2009 was very comprehensive. Some parts of the survey can be focused and new online surveys can be done by help of focal points via WRD web page and related parts of the survey report can be updated. A test survey is going to be created in 2013 for FPs. New statistics from DB can be added. More materials can be added.

CBS/OPAG-IOS/WxR_EXCHANGE, EXETER, UK, APRIL 2013 WRD Web Page can be used to communicate within Weather Radar Community Forums about different subjects can be added. Data transfer process can be automatized after OPERA DB is transferred to a new server. More FPs should be assigned by PRs. Although number of radar in DB has been increasing rapidly, there is a gap to be filled. New parameters can be added to DB to assist radar data exchange like data formats.

Thank you CBS/OPAG-IOS/WxR_EXCHANGE, EXETER, UK, APRIL 2013