Nineteenth Status Report on Implementation
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WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION WORLD WEATHER WATCH NINETEENTH STATUS REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION 1999 WMO-No. 894 Secretariat of the World Meteorological Organization - Geneva - Switzerland WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION WORLD WEATHER WATCH NINETEENTH STATUS REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION 1999 WMO-No.894 Secretariat of the World Meteorological Organization- Geneva- Switzerland © 1999, World Meteorological Organization ISBN 92- 63- 10894- 3 NOTE The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the World Meteorological Organizati on concerning the legal status of any country, terri tory, city or area, of its authorities, or concern ing the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. FOREWORD The World Weather Watch (WWW) Programme of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) was adopted in 1963 by the Fourth World Meteorological Congress. Since then it has grown to be fundamental for all WMO and other related programmes as regards the provision of basic meteorological data and products, telecommunication services and the management thereof. In continuing to attribute the highest priority to the furtherance and implementation of WWW, Twelfth Congress in Resolution 2 urged all Members of the Organization to cooperate actively and enthusiastically in the implementation of the WWW. This publication is the 19th in a series of biannual reports on the status of implementation of WWW. It was mainly designed to inform the senior management of the national Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), but also interested academia and the private sector of the operational status of WWW. It provides information concerning the structure, status and trends of the implementation, as well as performance of the core components of WWW, notably the Global Observing System (GOS), the Global Telecommunication System (GTS) and the Global Data-processing System (GDPS). In some parts this publication has been compacted from detailed information and reports made available by Members to the Commission for Basic Systems (CBS) and the working groups of the Regional Associations (RAs) dealing with www. I wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to the Members of WMO for their continuing efforts toward the consolidated further development of WWW, as well as their collaboration in providing the information on which this report is based. ~- --- -···-----·~------ G. 0. P. Obasi (Secretary-General) CONTENTS Page Foreword ................................................................................................................................................................. V CHAPTER I-EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................... 1-1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 1-1 Global Observing System (GOS) .............................................................................................................................. 1-1 Global Telecommunication System (GTS) ................................................................................................................ .. 1-2 Global Data-processing System (GDPS) ................................................................................................................... .. 1-2 World Weather Watch Data Management .................................................................................................................. .. 1-3 CHAPTER II- INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... Il-l Purpose and scope of the WWW programme ............................................................................................................ .. Il-l Components of the WWW system .............................................................................................................................. Il-l Organization of WWW programmes ......................................................................................................................... .. 11-1 Relationship of WWW with other programmes ......................................................................................................... II-2 CHAPTER Ill- THE GLOBAL OBSERVING SYSTEM .......................................................................... .. Ill-! Requirements for observational data ..................................................................................................................... III-1 Implementation of the surface-based subsystem ................................................................................................... 111-1 Upper-air stations .................................................................................................................................................. 111-2 Climatological observations .................................................................................................................................. III-2 Marine meteorological observations ...................................................................................................................... III-4 Aircraft meteorological observations .................................................................................................................... II!-6 Other observation stations/systems ....................................................................................................................... .. III-6 The space-based subsystem ................................................................................................................................... Ill-7 Multi-functional transport satellite ........................... , ............................................................................................ III-8 Quality of observational data ................................................................................................................................. III-10 Upper-air data quality ............................................................................................................................................ III-11 Land-surface data quality ..................................................................................................................................... .. III-11 Marine surface data quality ................................................................................................................................... III-11 CHAPTER IV- THE GLOBAL TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM .................................................... IV-I Data-communication techniques and procedures .................................................................................................. IV-1 Radiofrequencies for meteorological activities ..................................................................................................... IV-2 Multi-point telecommunication services via satellite and radiobroadcasts ........................................................... IV-2 IV CONTENTS Page MTNs ...................................................................................................................................................................... I.V-2 RMTNs ....................................... ............................................................................................................................ lV-3 Status of implementation and operati on of the GTS .............................................................................................. IV-3 CHAPTER V-THE GLOBAL DATA-PROCESSING SYSTEM ....................... .................. ............... ........ V-1 RSMCs with geographical specialization ......................................................................................... .......... ... ......... V-1 RSMCs wi th activity specialization V-8 Medium-range weather forecasting V-8 Tropical cyclone forecasting .......................................................................................... ...................................... ... V-8 Provision of transport model products for environmental emergency responses ... ..... .......... .... .. .. .. .. .................... V-8 NMCs and centres with similar functions .................. ............................................ ....................................... ......... V-10 Verification of numerical weather prediction ......................................................................................................... V-10 Technical development at GDPS centres ................................................................................................................ V-10 LAMs ...................................................................................................................................................................... V-10 Long-range forecasts, climate diagnostics and predictions .................................................................................... V-12 CHAPTER VI - WORLD WEATHER WATCH DATA MANAGEMENT ........................ .............................. VI-1 WMO distributed data bases . .. .. .. .. ... .. .. .. .. ... .. ... .. .. ... ... .. ... .. .. ... ... .. .... .. ... ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. .. VI-1 Software exchange . .. ... .. ... .. .. .. .. .. ... .. .. ..