1. OSCAR/Surface, Vol. A, and the WMO Members
… helping WMO adapt to the 21st century   OSCAR Side Event at RA-IV  
Timo Pröscholdt, WIGOS Project Office
WMO Secretariat

2. Web-based platforms for the WIGOS
Covering land, air, ocean and space
Documenting stations and observations, and their histories
Enabling comparison of requirements and capabilities (RRR)
Facilitating network planning
Applicable to all WMO Application Areas
Supporting your service to society.

3. OSCAR The RRR is supported by three key databases of OSCAR:
OSCAR/Requirements, in which “technology free” requirements are provided for each application area, expressed in units of geophysical variables (260 in total currently), not measurands; not just atmosphere, also terrestrial, ocean, cryosphere, …
OSCAR/Space, listing the capabilities of all satellite sensors, whether historical, operational or planned
OSCAR/Surface, list surface-based capabilities; developed by MeteoSwiss for WMO, in beta-testing

4. Please visit OSCAR

5. OSCAR/Surface
Repository of metadata for all surface-based observational assets under WIGOS (WMO and co-sponsored observing systems)
Highly heterogeneous system with multiple owners and operators, including surface stations, upper-air stations, aircraft, ships, buoys, radars,…
OSCAR/Surface replaces WMO Pub. 9, Vol. A
Complex, resource-intensive undertaking, developed in collaboration between WMO and MeteoSwiss; most of the resources provided by the latter

6. Data integration # stations GAWSIS WMO Pub 9 Vol A JCOMMOPS
1’053
13’026
11’387
762
GAWSIS
Metadata for the Global Atmosphere Watch
WMO Pub 9 Vol A
Catalogue of synoptic and upper-air stations of GOS
JCOMMOPS
Marine element of GOS / GOOS
WMO Radar DB
World-wide radars
Amdar
Coming soon …

7. OSCAR quick access & reports
Map filter
+ click =
Detailed station report

8. Various search targets
OSCAR search
Various search targets
Instruments (soon)
Finely tuned search

9. Download for further analysis Integration with GoogleEarth
OSCAR search results
Download for further analysis
Integration with GoogleEarth

10. OSCAR as geospatial source
Information in OSCAR can be used by Geospatial Tools
Integration with QuantumGIS
Mashup for online maps
Integration with GoogleEarth

11. OSCAR management console
Stations
Basic characteristics
Photos
History
Observations
Location
Variable
Methods
Instruments
Quality and uncertainty
Contacts
Bibliographic references

12. Mass changes / batch processing
OSCAR will have a Machine to Machine (M2M) interface
M2M interface allows OSCAR to be connected to existing national or regional station databases
Exchange format is based on the WIGOS metadata standard
OSCAR
API
National DB
RegionalDB

13. Security and user management
Authentification by identity provider (Swiss Government)
Authorization within application based on «trust-relationships» and various «user roles»
Register
Edit all stations in country
Also: register new contact
Admin
NFP
Edit assigned stations
Also: register new contact
Station contact

14. Web Application Industry-standard technology stack
Oracle DB, ArcGIS
J2EE, AngularJS
Safe and secure, traceable
Publicly available for anonymous use
Management console for registered users

15. Plan for transition from Vol.A to OSCAR/Surface
OSCAR/Surface is now the official repository of WIGOS metadata, and is the source for Vol. A
Uploads can be done by:
user editing via the web interface, and
machine to machine interfaces/web service
Transition period: May April 2018.
In transition period National Focal Points can either
provide their WIGOS metadata directly via OSCAR/Surface
provide their metadata through existing WMO procedures

16. Plans for transition from Vol.A (Cont.)
OSCAR generates reports similar to the historic Vol. A flat-files available on the WMO website. The new “Vol. A report” has all current column headings but does not contain information in all columns.
Station information provided to WMO via current Vol. A procedures are used to update WIGOS metadata in OSCAR.
Protocol and format for feeding information by batch-process into OSCAR to be completed by April 2017
By beginning of 2018, transition to OSCAR completed; Vol. A will officially cease to exist and related procedures used to maintain station information will be discontinued

17. What Members will need to do:
Comply with the WMO Technical Regulations; WMO-No. 49, Volume I, Part I – WIGOS and the Manual on WIGOS:
Keep records of WIGOS metadata
For those observations that are exchanged internationally:
Exchange also the associated WIGOS metadata
Review the information in OSCAR/Surface
Keep entries in OSCAR/Surface up to date
The more accurate and up-to-date the information in OSCAR/Surface is, the more useful it will be!

18. Outlook Phase I (OSCAR/Surface)
Operational processing of machine-based sources (GAW and related archives, JCOMMOPs, WMO Radar DB)
Development and implementation of WMDS exchange format for machine-to-machine import/export
OGC/ISO-compliant
XML, JSON, CSV?
“Vol A”-legacy export format
Phase-out of Vol A (by beginning of 2018)

19. Outlook Phase II (subject to available resources)
ABOS/AMDAR interface
Interface OSCAR/Space with OSCAR/Surface
Other data sources for OSCAR/Surface, e.g.
OSCAR/Analysis (“critical review”) component
Upper air soundings from ships (ASAP)
Road weather stations
Tide gauges (all)
Remote sensing profiling stations
Urban stations
Aerosol Optical Depth
Lightning detection systems
Research Vessels
Ground-based space weather observing stations
All hydrological Stations (WHOS)
Rigs & Platforms, Automatic Sea Stations
Partner AWS
Ground water stations
Profiling gliders
Webcams

20. OSCAR Gap analysis module (still in design phase)
Quantitative tool that matches observational data requirements against observational capabilities
Based on selection of requirement and pertinent observational capabilities, tool can illustrate whether or not different levels of requirement is met (by area or region)

21. Surface pressure measurement capabilities against WMO requirements
(“capability” based on data received by ECMWF)

22. Thank you
Merci
Gracias