Inter-Programme Expert Team on Operational Weather Radars s1

World Meteorological Organization CIMO/OPAG-RST/IPET- OWR-1/Doc. 5.2(1) Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observation OPAG on Remote-Sensing Submitted by: Technologies [Marco Gabella (mag), Suisse] 07.March.2017 Inter-Programme Expert Team on Operational Version 0.3 Weather Radars Tokyo, Japan, 13-16 March 2017 1. 2. ISO STANDARD REGARDING WEATHER RADAR: BRIEF SUMMARY (FROM A METEOSUISSE VIEWPOINT) AND PERSPECTIVES WITHIN THE WMO FRAMEWORK

SUMMARY This document provides information on the activities of the International Standard Organization (ISO) Technical Committee number 146 (TC146), Sub-Committee 5, Working- Group 7 regarding weather radar.

MOTIVATION and EXPECTED OUTCOME: To define a standard that supports countries who plan to install and operate a weather radar but lack the necessary technical experience. Particular attention is given to long-term performance, stability, availability, affordable maintenance and acceptance tests.

Better balance between initial hardware vs spare parts, maintenance, operational 24h/7d, all seasons. Focus on important aspects, cost/benefit, better use and long-term perspective of World Bank funded projects in developing countries. Avoiding offers that look appealing on paper and then full of problems in the real world…

ORGANIZATION and CHRONOLOGICAL RESUME (very informal): The TC146, SC5 involves less than 20 Countries (among them Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy Japan, Poland, Romani, Russia, NL, UK, USA). In 2014 a specific working group (WG7) on weather radar was set up; a kick-off meeting was planned in Pretoria (South Africa) on September 23-24, 2014. In this informal summary only meetings are listed; but it is worth noting that between them, usually one or two cyber-meetings (Web-ex seminar) take place.

Sep. 2014, kick-off meeting in Pretoria: the secretary of ISO/TC146/SC5/ WG7 , Simon Jaeckel, has presented “Getting started – ISO, standardization, timeframe”. The chairman, Dr. T. Einfalt, has presented “The German standard on weather radar” and described the detailed document “Ground-based remote sensing of precipitation – weather radar” (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure – VDI 3786- Blatt 20, 66 pages) subsequently withdrawn. The president of WMO- CIMO was able to attend the ISO kick-off meeting. With his presentation entitled “The importance of having a standard on weather radar from WMO’s point of view” he has also proposed the idea of a joint WMO-ISO standard. Most of the participants were from Germany and Japan. The most important resolutions were: WG7 agrees to work in close cooperation with WMO to develop a common WMO-ISO standard. WG7 decides to take Chapter 9 (part II) of the WMO-CIMO guide and VDI 3786-20 as valuable text basis for the ISO standard. WG7 decides to search for more experts. CIMO/OPAG-RST/IPET-OWR-1/Doc. 5.2(1), Version 0.3, p. 2 Apr. 2015, 2 nd meeting in Locarno Monti: MeteoSwiss has hosted in Locarno Monti the 2nd meeting. More than 20 persons have attended the meeting in Locarno; several manufacturer representatives were present (Finland, Germany, Japan); Dr. R. Atkinson from WMO was able to attend the meeting. The most important resolutions were: WG7 decides that the standard shall be based on performance criteria (and avoid discussing specific radar technology items); WG7 decides to split the standard in two parts: 1) System performance and operation. 2) Quant. Precip. Estimation and other applications; WG7 decides to focus on part 1) while part 2) will be started after completion of 1). The Locarno resolutions were voted by the 18 Country representatives on April 29: 11YES, 6 abstentions , plus a Country who did not vote.

Oct. 2015, 3 rd meeting in Dusseldorf: the meeting was hosted by VDI, which is the Association of German Engineers responsible for German standards and interface at international level. MeteoFrance joined the WG. Previous participants with interests especially in QPE did not attend this and following meetings. It was decided that homework by various participants shall be sent to the secretary one week before each (cyber- or real-) meeting. It was decided to have the next two meetings in China and Madrid (in conjunction with WMO CIMO-TECO 2016).

Apr. 2016, 4 th meeting in Beijing: the Chinese Meteorological Administration (CMA) has hosted the meeting. The most relevant outcome at the end of the working days, was the decision by CMA to join the WG.

Sep. 2016, 5 th meeting in Madrid: the meeting was hosted in the historical Tres Cantos center of the Centro Espanol de Metrologia. The most important outcome was the decision of appointing an Editorial small Group to meet “at some airport” in November in order to finalize and refine the working document. MeteoSwiss has offered to host the meeting.

Nov. 2016, two-full-day editorial meeting at the Zurich international airport. The participants were: Thomas Einfalt (Chairman), Simon Jaeckel (ISO secretary), Hiroshi Yonekubo and Masakazu Wada (Japan), Martin Hagen (Germany), Paul Joe and Marco Gabella (WMO).

After that, several (WebEx) cyber-meetings have taken place: in November and December 2016, January and February, 2017; the next one is scheduled on March 9, 2017 at 9am CEST.

NEXT MILESTONES: The “ISO/WMO weather radar standard - PART 1: SYSTEM PERFORMANCE and OPERATION” will be finalized soon and sent to the representatives of the voting Countries. Feedback from such Countries will be collected; a revised version will be prepared. Then, the final ballot will take place and the standard will be either approved or rejected.

NEXT MEETING: the next WG7 meeting will take place in Toulouse, France, on 05 and 06 October 2017, starting at 9:00 h local time and ending at approx. 17:00 h local time.

DECISIONS/ACTIONS REQUIRED: none, to the author’s best knowledge.

ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED: none, to my knowledge; as far as I know, both Thomas Einfalt (Chairman) and Simon Jaeckel (ISO secretary) are in contact with Isabelle Reudi, Dean Lockett and Daniel Michelson (WMO) in addition to Paul Joe (WMO), who is a member of the Editorial Board.

One ANNEX: we list, by way of example, the Table of Content of the ISO standard 3. CIMO/OPAG-RST/IPET-OWR-1/Doc. 5.2(1), Version 0.3, p. 3

Annex 1 (Confidential)

TABLE OF CONTENTS OF ISO/WMO WEATHER RADAR STANDARD PART 1: SYSTEM PERFORMANCE AND OPERATION

WORKING DRAFT© ISO 2016 – All rights reservedISO/WD 19926-1:2016(E) 63Part 1: System performance and operationMeteorology — Weather radarÉlément introductif — Élément central — Partie 1: Titre de la partieMeteorology — Weather radar — Part 1: System performance and operationE2016-11-16(20) PreparatoryISOISO/ International Standard2016 ISO 19926ISO 199261ISO/WD 19926-1 DINMeteorologyAir quality75146 2Überschrift 2Überschrift 1 0 STD Version 2.8f10 4C:\Users\Jaeckel\Desktop\ISO_19926-1_(E)_V10 neu.docx ISO/TC 146/SC 5/WG 7 N 148

ISO/WD 19926-1:2016(E) Secretariat: DIN

TABLE OF Contents Page CIMO/OPAG-RST/IPET-OWR-1/Doc. 5.2(1), Version 0.3, p. 4

REFERENCES: General purpose: 1. WMO (2014): WMO No.-8 CIMO-Guide 2. Probert-Jones, J.R. (1962) 3. Doviak and Zrnic (1993) 4. Skolnik (2008) 3rd edition, 5. Keeler and Serafin (2008), Chapter 19, in Skolnik (2008) Specific purpose (references related to the Calibration of weather radar receivers) 6. Whiton C.P., Smith P., Harbuck A.C, Calibration of weather radar systems using the Sun as a radio source. In Proceedings of the 17th Conference on Radar Meteorology, AMS, 1976; pp. 60-65. 7. Frush, C.L. Using the Sun as a calibration aid in multiple parameter meteorological radars. In Proceedings of the 22nd Conference on Radar Meteorology, Zurich, Switzerland, 10-13 September 1984; pp. 306–311. 8. Pratte, J.F.; Ferraro, D.G. Automated solar gain calibration. In Proceedings of the 24 th Conf. on Radar Meteorology, Tallahassee, FL, USA, 27–31 March 1989; pp. 619–622. 9. Huuskonen, A.; Holleman, I. Determining weather radar antenna pointing using signals detected from the Sun at low antenna elevations. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. (2007), 24, 476–483 10. Holleman, I.; Huuskonen, A.; Kurri, M.; Beekhuis, H. Operational monitoring of weather radar receiving chain using the Sun. J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol. (2010), 27, 159–166. 11. Holleman, I.; Huuskonen, A.; Gill, R.; Tabary, P. Operational monitoring of radar differential reflectivity using the Sun. J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol. (2010), 27, 881–887. 12. Gabella, M.; Sartori, M.; Boscacci, M.; Germann, U. Vertical and Horizontal Polarization Observations of Slowly Varying Solar Emissions from Operational Swiss Weather Radars. Atmosphere (2015), 6, 50–59. 13. Huuskonen, A.; Kurri, M.; Holleman, I. Improved analysis of Solar signals for differential reflectivity monitoring. Atmos. Meas. Tech. (2016), 9, 3183–3192. 14. Gabella, M.; Boscacci; Sartori, M.; Germann, U. Calibration accuracy of the dual- polarization receivers of the C-band Swiss weather radar network, Atmosphere (2016), 7, 76, pp. 10.