1. Chart-o-Mat
ICG-WIGOS TT on Metadata Management of Station Metadata at Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD)
Rainer März Section Administration of Observing Networks

2. Principles for Metadata at DWD
Metadata is stored together with observing data in one database
Project ‚MIRAKEL‘ started around 1995 for CDC + GPCC
All conditions are valid for a specific time-range (from – until)
Integration of Metadata from other organisations
Flexible Import/Export for future needs
Semi-automatic update and quality checking procedures
All applications should benefit from the data (and use it)
Geneva, March 11, 2013

3. Amount of station Metadata
Die Mess- und Beobachtungsnetze des DWD
OF, November 2005
Amount of station Metadata
Overview of the contents [count of largest categories in thousands]:
WMO Main Stations (GSN, RBSN, RBCN ….)
Airports (with ICAO loc.ind.) reporting METAR/SPECI
German additional stations (voluntary, federal states)
Related partners (roads, renewable energy ….)
Voluntary observing ships and other marine vessels
Additional GPCC stations of all countries
Currently counting over all:
Geneva, March 11, 2013
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4. Storage of Metadata / groups of tables
Die Mess- und Beobachtungsnetze des DWD
OF, November 2005
Storage of Metadata / groups of tables
Tables for metadata divided into :
Basic Information meta tables; allowed values
Joined Information intersection tables with validity dates (begin / end)
Tables for observation data use the same unique station ID !
Staff
Station
Pub9VolA
Equipment
Measuring condidions
Geneva, March 11, 2013
Deutscher Wetterdienst - Abteilung TI 2 4

5. Storage of Metadata / classes of information
Die Mess- und Beobachtungsnetze des DWD
OF, November 2005
Storage of Metadata / classes of information
Main aspects of meta data storage:
Main station table (name, start_date, end_date, status)
IDs (WMO / ICAO / IATA / GPCC / Nat.Numbers …)
Geographical (Lat./Lon., elevation, country, region, area etc.)
Equipment
Staff
Operation and Production (programmes for encoding reports)
Visits (Maintenance, Administrative)
Representation (measuring conditions)
Geneva, March 11, 2013
Deutscher Wetterdienst - Abteilung TI 2 5

6. Managing the Metadata Access and permits managed by database-roles
Die Mess- und Beobachtungsnetze des DWD
OF, November 2005
Managing the Metadata
Access and permits managed by database-roles
4 accounts with full access - ‚Admin‘
10+ accounts to maintain general station changes (add, move, close)
Approx. 100 accounts allow a ‚restricted write-access‘
Approx accounts have only read-permits (all users)
Personalized data like bank accounts with restricted roles
Geneva, March 11, 2013
Deutscher Wetterdienst - Abteilung TI 2 6

7. Updating and completing the Metadata
Die Mess- und Beobachtungsnetze des DWD
OF, November 2005
Updating and completing the Metadata
Weekly import of Pub9VolA of WMO and semi-automatic changes
Regional Network Groups report national changes to Offenbach and edit their local entries (persons, sensors, visits, history)
Import of bilateral exchanged data with individual loading-procedures
comparision with other sources when necessary (flagging of suspicious/unknown/inconsistent)
GPCC maintains meta-data for non-WMO stations of other NMCs
Geneva, March 11, 2013
Deutscher Wetterdienst - Abteilung TI 2 7

8. Typical trouble with metadata
Die Mess- und Beobachtungsnetze des DWD
OF, November 2005
Typical trouble with metadata
No information about changes at a station
Inconsistency between dependent sources (i.e. elevation…)
Lack of syncronization with Offline-procedures
Especially Lat./Lon. different various formats (dez.,°,min/sec)
4 sources / 5 different values ;-) …. Which is ‚the best‘
Representation of a complicated history for a time-series
standard exchange format + automated process is necessary!
Geneva, March 11, 2013
Deutscher Wetterdienst - Abteilung TI 2 8

9. Stations operated by Deutscher Wetterdienst
Die Mess- und Beobachtungsnetze des DWD
OF, November 2005
Stations operated by Deutscher Wetterdienst
4 Regional Oberserving Network Groups Hamburg, Potsdam, Offenbach, Munich
65 Stations with professional Observers, 35 occupied UTC, 30 only daytime 48 measuring radioactivity (air+precipitation) 28 RBSN Stations 11 Climate Reference (traditional equipment) GSN-Stations (GCOS) 1 GUAN Station 1 GAW Station
114 Automated Weather Stations with full equipment
17 Weather Radar Stations
9 Aerological Stations (4 autolaunchers, 1 ozone)
4 Wind Profilers
+34 Stations of Bundeswehr Geoinfo Service
Showing all stations that are published in WMO Pub.9 Vol.A
Geneva, March 11, 2013
Deutscher Wetterdienst - Abteilung TI 2 9

10. Additional Stations operated by DWD and Partners
Die Mess- und Beobachtungsnetze des DWD
OF, November 2005
Additional Stations operated by DWD and Partners
1781 Voluntary Stations (climate; wind; precip), reporting online (24/1 reports per day)
Ship-based:
740 Voluntary Observing Ships (VOS)
19 Ship (AWS) (24 reports/day)
Last but not least …:
1292 Phenological Stations (observing plants)
1500 Partner stations (approx) (motorways, fed.states, wind-energy, (nuclear) power-plants, university, military)
Historical (closed) stations are not included
Geneva, March 11, 2013
Deutscher Wetterdienst - Abteilung TI 2 10

11. Example All 1018 GSN stations in WMO GCOS
Die Mess- und Beobachtungsnetze des DWD
OF, November 2005
Example
All GSN stations in WMO GCOS
Basic Meta Data and availability of FM12/FM observations received in Offenbach
Tool is available for operations and can switch between global, regional and national view
Retrieving live data as received and decoded from GTS, joined with meta-data from (names, locations, countries ….. )
Geneva, March 11, 2013
Deutscher Wetterdienst - Abteilung TI 2 11

12. There is still a lot of research necessary!
Example
Precip-Station and the surrounding presented in a tool of GPCC called
‚Mirakel-Live‘
There is still a lot of research necessary!
Geneva, March 11, 2013

13. Die Mess- und Beobachtungsnetze des DWD
OF, November 2005
Outlook
WCDMP / Data rescue needs support CDC) national projects currently in progress: > KliDaDigi for land stations > HISTOR for ship logbooks
Lots of undigitalized metadata from all German Stations
+Electronical archives of BUFR since 1970s may be loaded
Work for many years!
Geneva, March 11, 2013
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14. QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS ?
Thank you for your attention !
Geneva, March 11, 2013