1. 1st National Weather and Climate Enterprise Partnership Summit John Horel NOAA Cooperative Institute for Regional Prediction Department of Meteorology University of Utah jhorel@met.utah.edu MesoWest: Ad Hoc Approach to Integrating Mesonets

2. MesoWest A cooperative program to collect, archive, and distribute environmental observations across the Nation with emphasis on the western United States –200+ agencies/commercial firms –1000s of HAM radio operators –9000+ stations nationally (3500+ stations in western US) Primary support: NWS and BLM Considerable effort placed on basic metadata and MySQL database Delivery of data via web portal (http://www.met.utah.edu/mesowest)http://www.met.utah.edu/mesowest For high end users: FTP and LDM delivery; direct access to MySQL database planned

3. MesoWest Ben Lomond Peak Snotel, UT (8000) Beacon Light RAWS, NV (4800) Gunnison Is, UT (4242) Ben Lomond Peak Snotel, UT (8000) Portable fire RAWS, USFS Mt. Allen, UT (9400)

4. MODIS Active Fire Maps October 29 October 31

5. Establishing Standards for Data Quality: Data Quality classes could be misleading Quality standards tied to meteorological reporting practices ignore observing needs and sampling strategies required for other environmental applications Accurate metadata are critical Automated and manual quality control procedures applied to mesonet data are vital Mesonet observations must be tagged with estimate of uncertainty for value added products such as gridded analyses Mt. Allen, UT (9400)

6. MetaData Example: Assigning Station IDs MesoWest: –Use NWS Handbook 5 ID if available from NWS Location Identifier (NWSLI) system –Other networks have often confusing internal ID systems, e.g., RAWS: Satellite ID; non-Satellite; HADS ID; WIMS ID –We assign temporary IDs to stations that are likely to eventually obtain a NWSLI ID –We define IDs for all other stations avoiding conflicts with NWSLI Recommendations: –Establish an automated nationwide registry for environmental observing platforms –Encourage equipment manufacturers to develop simple procedures for station owners to register platforms during installation process –Keep zeroth order registry simple (station name, location, parameters measured; station owner, contact information) but allow flexibility for owners willing to take effort to provide additional metadata –Recognize need for metadata for mobile platforms: fire RAWS; instrumented vehicles

7. Data Rights Issues MesoWest paradigm: –We accept provisional data from anyone willing to share the data at no cost and allow dissemination of the data to users without additional charge –We stress to prospective data providers that increased use of their data will help to justify deployment of the existing equipment and future upgrades –Data ownership resides with the station owner –We coordinate with other groups (FSL/MADIS, WFOs, universities) to exchange data collected locally, regionally, nationally to minimize duplication of effort –Disclaimer: Data contained in MesoWest arise … Recommendation: –Encourage unfettered exchange of weather data especially from equipment deployed by government agencies

8. Data Distribution and Availability: Real-time and Retrospective Access MesoWest approach: –We accept provisional data in any format and store it in a MySQL database –Access to real-time and retrospective data is seamless for many types of applications –Require users to fill out request form if cant be retrieved from web interface Recommendations: –Many data providers perform QC on provisional data with time delays of order a day. Should develop procedures to collect QCd data for retrospective access –Acceptance of mesonet data into regional/national climate databases should be encouraged

9. Legal and Economic Issues Data providers to MesoWest are often initially concerned about the use of provisional data in litigation (permitting, agency actions and accidents, etc.) Local & regional efforts to deploy, collect, archive, and disseminate environmental information are chronically underfunded. National efforts will succeed if they build upon local needs/expertise/experience. The economics of MesoWest: –Current business model: Data are free Value added products and direct access to database should be supported by users Considerable effort justified (inappropriately?) as public service –Limited support for ongoing development and maintenance by NWS and BLM –Consortium established to provide way for major users of MesoWest to contribute to maintenance and R&D –MesoWest resources are underexploited for commercial applications

10. Whats Required for Success? Recognize the diverse needs, requirements, and approaches for collecting environmental information –Support ongoing local and regional efforts to collect environmental information –Encourage best-practice models for installation and maintenance –Promote data quality standards that are not biased by user community, sampling strategy, etc. Develop straightforward procedures to register environmental platforms Distinguish between the needs for provisional data in near real time vs. QCd data retrospectively –Provisional data requires automated QC procedures –Incorporating more extensive QC procedures, including human evaluation, should be encouraged for archival level data Encourage coordination and reduce duplication of effort by establishing stations that have multiple purposes –For example, COOP Modernization would be greatly enhanced if additional sensors added: wind, RH, pressure. Pavement sensors? Air quality? Support R&D that helps to develop new sensor and communication technologies, deployment strategies, QC methodologies, value added products, etc.