1. Regional WIGOS planning and a Regional WIGOS center for RA-IV
World Meteorological Organization Working together in weather, climate and water
WMO
Regional WIGOS planning and a Regional WIGOS center for RA-IV
Fred Branski, USA
29 March, 2017

2. RWC Concept, Purpose & Background
The concept was developed by the WMO ICG-WIGOS. EC-68 endorsed basic principles and functions for (RWCs) & agreed with their establishment as needed under the guidance of Regional Associations.
RWCs are intended to support need for improved availability and usability of observations as a function of WIGOS through metadata management and monitoring.
EC-68 Decision 5.1(1)/1 on RWCs and the RWC Concept Note are in the document EC-68-d05-1(1)-WIGOS-approved
RA-IV RWC concept was briefly discussed at the RA-IV Management Group meeting during January AMS Conference in Seattle 2 2

3. RWC Concept, Purpose & Background
RWCs are already under development in RA-I (Africa), RA-VI (Europe) and RA-II (Asia). They are being discussed in all other regions including ours.
RECCOMENDATION made at RA-IV MG in January:
Need further study and development of RA-IV RWC architecture.
Encourage a distributed functionality and architecture approach sharing responsibilities within and across the region.
Task RA-IV WIGOS-TT to develop an RWC concept paper with potential architecture options, roles and possible responsibilities for review initially at an EC-69 Management Group meeting following up as needed. 3 3

4. RWC Concept, Purpose & Background
Functions of an RWC are mostly already being done by many NMHSs. However, the sharing of information and coordination of issues for resolution is disjointed, primarily ad-hoc and mostly periodical such as through the WMO quarterly monitoring .
There is potential for significantly improving observations availability and usability for the RA-IV Members.
WMO monitoring of observations regularly shows that although RA-IV is near the top for availability of international observations we are also regularly below the availability in Europe.
Implications for data assimilation and other uses of international data.
Availability across RA-IV likely lower than for U.S. & Canada , But we don’t actually know. 4 4

5. RWC Key Issues
What would the architecture of an RA-IV RWC look like, virtual, distributed, lead center?
The U.S. & Canada already perform RWC functions nationally primarily due to the central availability of observations to support data assimilation for global modelling.
What about the infrastructure in other RA-IV Members?
Maintain individual Member responsibility for maintenance of metadata and improving availability and sharing of observations - paramount.
RWC could/should focus on monitoring-based coordination and issue resolution.
How/who would provide the monitoring function, either solely or jointly with or without overlap of responsibility? 5 5

6. RWC Key Issues What role could Members play?
U.S. already provides the CBS Lead Centre for GCOS (operated by NCEI) and the Lead Center for Aircraft Based Observations (via MADIS) which cover RA-IV, and often provide support for other regions.
The two key functions of an RWC are metadata management and monitoring. Because of the size of the U.S. observing contribution, we effectively do this already for most of RA-IV to serve our national interests. Canada is in a similar position.
In a distributed functional architecture the NWS could focus on the observation monitoring component perhaps jointly with Canada or other Member organisations.
The NWS is already part of the RA-IV WIGOS TT. 6 6

7. RWC Key Issues Effort and resource versus return?
Difficult to determine without a better understanding of the RWC architecture and Members’ role.
Early engagement would be focused on coordination and development of roles, responsibilities and procedures.
This would drop off with implementation, but be replaced by reporting and operational coordination.
Reporting ideally should be automated and self-serving where possible and done much as possible through web interfaces.
Operational coordination shouldn’t be looked at as additional workload. This would be needed any way to resolve issues with missing or unavailable data. 7 7

8. RWC Key Issues Effort and resource versus return?
An RWC should improve coordination and ideally reduce the effort and time required to resolve problems.
Our monitoring should be able to tell us how much observation availability has improved.
An early baseline would be useful. Could possibly use existing monitoring.
U.S. is working with the NSF to improve availability of polar observations. 8 8

9. RWC Key Issues
WIGOS metadata unlike WIS metadata is not designed for finding and exchange observation products.
It is a detailed description of the observations themselves. Parameter being measured, precision, instrument algorithms, geo/temporal location, quality, etc.
It helps determine the usability of an observation for purpose and how to interpret or process it.
OSCAR, the primary repository for WIGOS metadata. 9 9

10. RWC Functionality Possible main tasks for RWCs:
Coordination between Members and with WMO and other organizations
Improved communication through provision of contact points
Education and training concerning WIGOS implementation
Technical support
Observational network design / management - RBON
Data quality and quantity monitoring
Assistance with metadata management
Linking to external entities and establishing of partnerships with or among regional groupings
Improving oceanography, climate, hydrology, instrument calibration 10 10

11. RWC Architecture Brick and Mortar vs virtual and distributed:
Difficult to see any single Member taking full responsibility for all functions for entire region.
RWC functions could be distributed geographically, functionally or both.
It would likely be more attractive and feasible for Members to take on responsibility for one or more functionalities with regional or sub-regional scope.
Some RWC sub-centers (RWsCs) could be implemented as virtual centers, a group of NMHSs who would share functions between them under coordination of one of them or through a shared process.
RWsCs need not cover the Region as a whole; functions could be split among the RWsCs with areas of responsibility aligned with existing geographic , linguistic or other boundaries within the Region.
Coastal areas of the world face a range of risks related to climate change (IPCC 2007).
Anticipated risks include an accelerated rise in sea level, an intensification of cyclones,
and larger storm surges among others. 11 11

12. RWC Architecture A virtual and distributed RWC network (RWCN) would :
Provide overarching coordination and communication among all RWCs in the Region and with the WMO Regional Office, relevant RA Working Groups and Task Teams , and the WMO Secretariat
Act as a Regional information resource for Members both for aspects of WIGOS implementation and for operational observation matters
Collect and document regional experience with WIGOS implementation and benefits including best practices
Support WIGOS education & training especially concerning WIGOS metadata management (OSCAR)
Support the establishment of partnerships 12 12

13. Possible RWCN Architecture
RWsC Spanish
Obs Monitoring
Data Assimilation
RWsC Canada
Obs Monitoring
Data Assimilation
WMO Secretariat
&
OSCAR
RWsC U.S.
MADIS, NCEI
Data Assimilation
NRC
NRC
NRC
NRC
RWCN Coordination Mechanism
RWsC CMO
CIMH
Obs Monitoring
Data Assimilation
National RC
NRC
Distributed functionality
Distributed responsibility
Leverage existing centers
NRC
RWsC French
Obs Monitoring
Data Assimilation
National RC
RWsC Dutch
Obs Monitoring
Data Assimilation
Incremental implementation
Community shared monitoring
Build on OSCAR, WIS, Data Assimilation
NRC
NRC
NRC
NRC
NRC

14. RWC Next Steps & Considerations
RA-VI Task Team will consider architecture models and propose options and at least one recommendation to the RA-VI MG for consideration.
Insure National and organizational responsibility is maintained and supported
Catalogue existing centers and efforts that could be leveraged.
Consider an architecture whose implementation could be flexible in build out.
Identify initial targets for improving observation sharing and usability
Identify an initial coordination mechanism, , wiki, web, ??? 14 14

15. RWC Next Steps & Considerations
Review approaches in other WMO Regions for considerations and share possible implementation ideas
Consider possible Sub-regional RWsCs
time zones, geographical or language groupings
Pre-existing organizational modalities such as CMO
Support Members with limited resources
Does RA-IV/TT need sub-groups to work on structure or key functions for an RWCN
How does the RWCN support N-WIP and OSCAR
Possible initial prototype implementation of RWC for Region IV could take place in late 2017 or 2018 15 15

16. Gracias
Merci Beaucoup
Dank Je
Thank you