2014-08-08

METNO messages - good old way to notify updates of WMO operational catalogues

WMO Publication No. 9 "Weather Reporting" is the central catalogue of the World Weather Watch Programme to support operational meteorology.  It consists of three parts today:

As you can easily guess, there used to be Volume B to list products (that meant radio fax charts) before 1990s (I saw a copy of 1995 edition) but it has been decommissioned somehow I don't know.  (If you know some Congress or Executive Council decision which did that, please let me know).

Anyway the first two volumes are catalogues of really actively changing information.  So they are given in computer-readable tables (TSV for VolA and CSV or XML for VolC1).  If you have high-speed connection to the Internet, it is enough to retrieve the files weekly.  But there is also notification service to deliver only the differences - that is METNO messages circulating on the GTS.


METNO for Volume A

METNO for Volume A is identified by the abbreviated header line NOXX01 LSSW, which means notification (NO) not bound for geographical region (XX) of the first kind (01) disseminated from Geneva (LSSW).  It is sent on 1500 UTC every tuesday, and past messages are available by HTTP.  The format is described at the WMO website.

Example: issued June 26th, 2014:

NOXX01 LSSW 260800
METNO A2614

A  NIL /  

B  NIL /  
   
C  NIL /

D  06905  HAERKINGEN          47 18 43N     07 49 13E     HP432.43     H/HA430.90 /
   06400  KOKSIJDE            51 05 17N     02 39 09E     HP6.70       H/HA6.10 /
   06428  SEMMERZAKE          50 56 26N     03 40 11E     HP37.46      H/HA35.46 /
   06432  CHIEVRES            50 34 20N     03 49 53E     HP62.53      H/HA59.13 /
   06456  FLORENNES           50 14 04N     04 39 11E     HP290.09     H/HA284.99 /
   06458  BEAUVECHAIN         50 44 44N     04 45 48E     H123.27      H/HA112.78 /
   06465  SCHAFFEN            50 59 49N     05 03 43E     HP54.19      H/HA52.19 /
   06479  KLEINE BROGEL       51 10 08N     05 27 46E     HP57.24      H/HA60.96 /
   06496  ELSENBORN           50 28 56N     06 10 53E     HP567.12     H/HA565.12 /

E  06601  BASEL / BINNINGEN          .  .  X  .  X  .  X  .          .  .  .  . /
   06604  NEUCHATEL                  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06610  PAYERNE                    X  .  X  X  X  .  X  X          RW .  RW . /
   06612  LA CHAUX-DE-FONDS          .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06616  FAHY                       .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06643  WYNAU                      .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06660  ZUERICH / FLUNTERN         .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06679  AADORF / TAENIKON          .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06680  SAENTIS                    .  X  X  X  X  .  X  .          .  .  .  . /
   06681  ST. GALLEN                 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06712  AIGLE                      .  X  X  X  X  X  X  .          .  .  .  . /
   06717  COL DU GRAND ST-BERNARD    .  .  X  .  X  .  X  .          .  .  .  . /
   06722  EVOLENE / VILLA            .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06735  ADELBODEN                  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06744  GRIMSEL HOSPIZ             .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06745  ULRICHEN                   .  .  X  X  X  X  X  .          .  .  .  . /
   06760  LOCARNO / MONTI            .  .  X  X  X  X  X  .          .  .  .  . /
   06762  MAGADINO / CADENAZZO       .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06770  LUGANO                     X  X  X  .  X  .  X  .          .  .  .  . /
   06780  WEISSFLUHJOCH              .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06783  S. BERNARDINO              .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06784  DAVOS                      .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          .  .  .  . /
   06792  SAMEDAN                    .  .  X  X  X  X  X  .          .  .  .  . /

F  NIL /   

G  NIL /

NOTIFICATION FROM PHILIPPINES: STATION 98328 BAGUIO HAS RE-ACTIVATED ITS UPPER-AIR OBSERVATIONS AS OF 2 JUNE 2014.
NOTIFICATION FROM GREECE: STATION 16716 ATHINAI AP HELLINIKON HAS TEMPORARILY STOPPED DISSEMINATION OF SYNOP MESSAGES
DUE TO A TECHNICAL PROBLEM.       



METEOMOND (41 41 99 A OMM CH)

Apparently the message is divided into formatted sections A through G by lines having first column letter.  WMO says

METNO
Meteorological Notification
A0107
A = Volume A; 01= Weekly serial number; 07 = Year
A
Delete the following station(s): The index number and the name are given.
B
Add the following new station(s): Full details are given.
C
Change in index number/station name: The new index number/the new station name are given.
D
Change in position: The new latitude and longitude are given after station index number and name, when a significant change has occurred.
E
Change in observing programme: This part applies especially to stations in regional basic synoptic networks. Full new programme of surface observations, and/or obs.H/obs.S, and/or upper-air observations is given after station index number and name.
F
Remarks: Only remarks essential to understanding or completion of previous data appear in this part. In each case the data to which the remark applies is repeated in parentheses.
G
Changes in radiosonde instruments and observation procedures:
This part concerns radiosonde stations listed in Volume A and updates the entries of the WMO Catalogue of Radiosondes in use by Members. The index number and name of the station are followed by identifiers (1) to (4) defining as follows the changes to the entries in the Catalogue:
  1. Instrument type
  2. Release Times
  3. Balloon ascent
  4. Correcions for solar radiation (Yes or No)
When there is no information for any of the above seven parts the message contains the word "nil" against the appropriate part(s).

After formatted sections there may be free-form notification.

METNO for Volume C1


METNO for Volume C1 has the header NOXX02 LSSW.  The archive is FTP but the format is described at HTTP website.

Example: issued July 1st, 2014:
ZCZC

000

NOXX02 LSSW 010400 



METNO C2714

89 DM 6/24/2014 6 EXETER NETHERLANDS DE BILT 7/15/2014  ISID42 EHDB FM 94-XIII 03,09,15,21 06210 06225 06242 06257 06275 06330 06340 06350 06375 SYNOP

90 AM 6/24/2014 6 EXETER NETHERLANDS DE BILT 7/15/2014  ISID42 EHDB FM 94-XIII 03,09,15,21 06215 06225 06242 06257 06275 06330 06340 06350 06375 SYNOP

91 DM 6/24/2014 6 EXETER NETHERLANDS DE BILT 7/15/2014  ISMD42 EHDB FM 94-XIII 00,06,12,18 06210 06225 06242 06257 06275 06330 06340 06350 06375 SYNOP

92 AM 6/24/2014 6 EXETER NETHERLANDS DE BILT 7/15/2014  ISMD42 EHDB FM 94-XIII 00,06,12,18 06215 06225 06242 06257 06275 06330 06340 06350 06375 SYNOP

93 DM 6/24/2014 6 EXETER NETHERLANDS DE BILT 7/15/2014  ISND42 EHDB FM 94-XIII 01,02,04,05,07,08,10,11,13,14,16,17,19,20,22,23 06210 06225 06242 06257 06275 06330 06340 06350 06375 SYNOP

94 AM 6/24/2014 6 EXETER NETHERLANDS DE BILT 7/15/2014  ISND42 EHDB FM 94-XIII 01,02,04,05,07,08,10,11,13,14,16,17,19,20,22,23 06215 06225 06242 06257 06275 06330 06340 06350 06375 SYNOP

NNNN 

The first word (89, 90, 91, ...) is a sequence number of changes.  Probably useful when a bulletin is duplicated in GTS transmission.  The second word is one of AA, DD, AM, DM; AA stands for addition, DD for deletion, and a pair of AM and DM (as shown in above example) indicates change.  The third word is date of this notification, to be distinguishded from the date of effect at the seventh word.

The rest of line is space-delimited columns of Volume C1, plus the data policy category code (A for additional, E for essential, and O for other) as the eighth (between effective date 7/15/2014 and heading like ISID42 EHDB) word (this time really unfortunately it is missing, represented by double space).

It is not well suited for automatic processing because proper names (DE BILT), heading (ISID42 EHDB), code form (FM 94-XIII) and contents (06210 06225 06242 ....) contains space.  The only thing I can say is "use common sense".  Sorry it was designed long before I came to the community.

Future of METNO


As the GTS evolves into WIS, the Volume C1 and its METNO is supposed to be replaced by WIS catalogue soon.  Years ago it was said 2015, and I'll have to work really hard to encourage the transition to WIS metadata.

Similarly I think Volume A is to be generated from WIGOS metadata catalogue in the future.
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