Wmo Information Systems

Introduction

The groundwork on which our understanding of the earth is based on is the information derived from the routine measurements and observations. These collected data needs to reach the relevant authorities for informative decision making. Data exchange systems and data management practices ensure effective and resourceful global use of the data bypassing the barriers of location or language. Nearly all programs collect and transmit data to one or more processing centers, perform quality control, generate and exchange products and archive data and products for future use.

In pursuing its goal to provide and coordinate a dependable information exchange system along with compatible and efficient operating practices that assist the needs of an increasingly multi-disciplinary international user community, WMO developed the concept of an integrated Information System.

Global Telecommunications System (GTS) has been the major contributor for the communication needs for WMO. GTS is based on the telegraph network ideaology and this formed the backbone of international sharing of data and products. This system was built around the connectivity to countries. The GTS later served as a foundation on which the WMO Information System was built on.

The WMO Information System (WIS) meets the requirements for data exchange of all WMO Programs, affiliated international organizations as well as relevant national users such as disaster prevention agencies and research facilities.

The Birth of WMO Information Systems

WMO has always had the policy and systems for free meteorological and related data exchange at international scale. By the 1980's, those involved with the GTS project were aware that it was not capable of handling the huge inflow of satellite data into the system given the volume of data and the sheer size of a file holding a single image. The evolution of the internet in the 1990's paved a road for cost efficient method for transportation of meteorological data.

With the rapid development of technology, WMO was faced with the need to plan for a new generation of information systems to take advantage of the World Wide Web (WWW). The choice was to either upgrade the World Weather Watch systems, mainly the Global Telecommunication Systems, using internet technologies or to design and implement a next generation Information System and stage a migration to that. Either way a new generation Information system had to be designed, evaluated and implemented. This was named the Future WMO Information System.

WMO Information Systems Concept

The WIS is based on the Global Telecommunication