#Sebbari# Exchange 

Owned by Xiaoxia Chen
Jun 29, 2021
2 min read

Introduction.

In the WMO context, the ability to exchange data and information is absolutely critical to global cooperation in the meteorological sciences, as well as the provision of services to Members' communities. Therefore, best-practice guidance on how to enable such exchange is required.

Aspects of the FAIR principles are relevant here, but must be interpreted in the WMO context[TB1] . Also, Guidance must address the reality that not every Member has advanced ICT capabilities or even communications infrastructure. 

 

  1. Tools and technologies

  • Where possible, and communications infrastructure allows, make use of the Web for international data/information exchange and provision of services to Members' clients.

  • Enable users to process or interact with large or complex datasets through Web services or APIs that provide results /products small enough to be downloaded and used by those with limited technical substructure via user-choice subsetting or similar capabilities

[TB2] . (Comment: in terms of a Maturity capability, this would be fairly advanced; nevertheless it is good to present as an aspirational goal)

  • Where possible, systems linked to data exchange should automatically generate standard messages (such as SYNOP, CLIMAT, etc).  (

Comment: proposed introduction of Daily CLIMAT is being facilitated by provision of a template that automatically formats the message. What is still needed is a data extraction routine from the Member NMHSs database).

  • Where changes to transmission systems including the Web are required, ensure effective communication with users and stakeholders. In particular, avoid making changes to Web services that "break" user's software.

  • Develop a capability for machine-to-machine data exchange, especially for information of high volume, complexity and velocity. 

 

2. Standardised communication protocols

Use open standards and industry best practice

  • Use open, free and universally-implementable standardised communications protocols, such as FTP, HTTP and their secure variants – that allow for authentication, authorisation and secure transit of information as necessary.

  • In providing services, wherever possible ensure that transmission systems are compatible with the community standards for that community. See also "Representation".

Provide general access where possible, managed access where necessary

  • Expose services on public telecommunications networks (i.e., the Internet) to reach the largest possible community of users, complemented with high-performance, managed networks where needed; and implement authorisation and authentication where necessary.

  • Where possible, make digital resources (data, information products) available to users through Web services in ways that meet their needs.

 [TB1]What is the WMO context?

 [TB2]What about the cloud?  Maybe mention here that access and use of the data in the cloud could overcome limited technical infrastructure for individual members