THE WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION (WMO) IN COLLABORATION WITH THE CARIBBEAN METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION (CMO) HEADQUARTERS (HQ) CONVENED THE 2ND WMO INFORMATION SYSTEM 2.0 (WIS 2.0)

 

to protect the region’s population by enhancing accessibility to early warning information. The workshop outcomes include: (i) improving the collection of and (ii) making available more weather observation data in real-time, which are vital for processing and improving the prediction of weather to enable adequate and effective preparedness, adaptation and response to weather and water hazards.

During the Opening Session, Dr. Arlene Laing, Coordinating Director of the CMO Headquarters, stated that the workshop emanated out of a CMO HQ baseline survey last year among its Member States, which showed a compelling need to grow capacity for implementing the WIS 2.0 in the region. She noted that this new technology will assist with providing up-to-date weather information and advancing the region’s NMHSs data exchange capability. She added that the workshop was timely and necessary to not only support compliance with the WMO Unified Data Policy and other priorities, such as, WMO Integrated Global Observation System (WIGOS), but also WMO’s top priority of Early Warnings for All, a UN global initiative to mitigate the impacts of hazardous weather.

Mr. Hassan Haddouch, WMO’s WIS 2.0 Manager, provided a history of the WIS 2.0 and indicated that the workshop will assist WMO Members with building capacity on WIS 2.0 and deploying the WIS 2.0 box, which he hoped participants will be able implement on return to their countries. Dr. Enrico Fucile, Head of WMO’s Data and Information Management Division, echoed these sentiments and provided an overview of the WIS 2.0 workflow.

The workshop aims to help CMO Member countries to implement WIS 2.0 in an operational environment and to be able to use WIS 2.0 in a Box as a data hub. Participants will access virtual machines from their laptops and learn how to install and configure the WIS 2.0 Box and how to use this Box to share weather data and information online from their manual and automatic weather stations. On return to their NMHSs, participants will be able to improve the collection and sharing of meteorological data from their weather observation network, in real time on the Web, using the WIS 2.0 Box interface. Once implemented, the Caribbean NMHSs will be among the first Members of the WMO to have WIS 2.0 Box up and running on virtual machines.

WIS 2.0 is the framework for Earth Systems - meteorological, hydrological, climate and ocean - data sharing in the 21st century. It is based on the principle that no WMO Member should be left behind in relation to meteorological data sharing. WMO has developed the open-source software “WIS2.0 in a box” that adopts the standards widely used in the IT industry to support Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries in implementing WIS 2.0.

WIS 2.0 Box software will allow NMHSs to create a platform for sharing its data from its automatic and manual stations to make its weather data accessible to many more people, users and entities. This will enable National Meteorological Services to develop new and more products and information to satisfy the needs of the users, stakeholders and citizens. Users will also be able to access data directly through Web APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), connecting their software (or their browser) and processing or visualizing data of their interest. Because, the box provides a web API that will enable direct access to the data, users will then be able to download data or access and use data on the web. Additionally, users of WIS 2.0 will be able to access data in real-time by subscribing to a Global Broker and receiving notifications when new data are available for download from a Global Cache or from the data provider.