ET-IM-17 (2022-May-19) Meeting notes

Secretariat update

@David Berry

Little new information to report.

• ET-IM will continue until Congress in 2023.

• No budget for in person meeting this F/Y

• Above timeline / deadlines unchanged.

@William J Wright (Unlicensed) will be at the WMO in September / early October (writing workshop for WMO 1131, CDMS Specification https://library.wmo.int/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=16300 ).

Proposal to postpone WWR collection by another year

Input asked by Peer Hechler, Scientific Officer

Climate Monitoring and Policy Services Division

Services Department

Email received re WWR:

Dear Colleagues and Friends, Normally, it is now time to issue the next call for collecting the World Weather Records (WWR). In fact, as we postponed the last year's collection of 2020 WWR, we should request Members to process and submit 2020 and 2021 WWR in 2022. Moreover, the 2020 WWR complete the decade 2011-2020, thereby providing a good opportunity for all Members to close any gaps within this period and submit respective data for publication of the 2011-2020 WWR. So far, so good.

On the other hand, we need to achieve a step-change in the collection of 1991-2020 Climatological Standard Normals; only 25% of our Members submitted CLINO 1991-2020 so far. We are planning a couple of actions to promote CLINO calculation and collection with the aim of having an as complete as possible global CLINO collection by the end of 2022 (for processing and publication by NCEI on behalf of WMO in 2023).

We are afraid of requesting Members to accelerate CLINO submissions and to submit WWR data by the same time. Also, we see some risks in processing both data streams in parallel and keeping them separate. 

Our proposal, therefore, is to postpone the WWR collection for another year and to fully focus on CLINO collection during 2022. To keep Members aware of WWR, we plan to issue a letter to Members, asking them to consider calculating 2020 and 2021 WWR and closing gaps in the 2011-2020 decade at their earliest convenience, store their data locally and expect WWR collection in the second half of 2023. We may also highlight a draft expert proposal to continue collecting WWR in the future, yet not annually anymore but every ten years as previously (prior to 2011). We expect much better infrastructure for climate data in the beginning of the 2030ies, including OpenCDMS and WIS for climate etc., to collect CLINO and WWR in parallel or back-to-back by then. 

No disagreement from ET-IM.

Other general updates from the Team

@William J Wright (Unlicensed) update on WMO 1131 (Climate Data Management System Specification, https://library.wmo.int/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=16300 ) :

There is an objective to rewrite WMO No. 1131, with the draft ready by mid October. The writing team is currently being put together and will initially work remotely but will culminate in a writing workshop to be held in Geneva. The need for a rewrite arises from the age of the current version (published in 2014), with many aspects now out of date, particularly surrounding mandatory vs optional functions and the referencing of other WMO documents. For example, at the time of first drafting provenance metadata was only labelled as optional whereas now the community expectation is for it to be mandatory.

On the topic of WWR and CLINO messages @William J Wright (Unlicensed) noted that it will be difficult to get submission until effective CDMSs are rolled out, one of the aims of the OpenCDMS project. As part of this project an open code repository is being developed: OpenCDMS (github.com).

@William J Wright (Unlicensed) also noted the issue of maintaining coherence between WMO documents and a proposal to improve the process and to have a rolling review process in place. @William J Wright (Unlicensed) to share the document on rolling review of requirements update process to facilitate alignment of technical and guidance documents (note separate to Rolling Review of Requirements for observations.).

Use of Sharepoint and MS Word online

@David Berry

@David Berry gave a quick Q&A on aspects of using Word / Office365 and the editing of the document as hosted on the WMO Sharepoint site.

• 6.1 Introduction

@David Berry @Ge Peng (Unlicensed)

No issues to report, work is progressing.

• 6.2 Definitions

@Ge Peng (Unlicensed) @Xiaoxia Chen

• 2 issues, Categorization of metadata and which diagram to include for DIKW / Pathway

• 3 categories of metadata:

1. DAR

2. Contextual

3. Provenance metadata

• One question, we’re using ISO19115 and 19139. ISO19115 captures all three not just DAR so we need to be careful when referring to the metadata and ISO standards.

• Provenance information is included in information management, do we want a different name for the provenance metadata, for example processing and provenance metadata?

• The Team discussed the terminology on metadata, noted that different standards and definitions exist. For example, definitions exist in the various ISO standards. There are also definitions in WMO 1238. @William J Wright (Unlicensed) commented that we should aim to be consistent with the text used in that document, noting that it formed part of the WMO body of regulatory material.

• Discussion over which DIKW diagram to use, the current one or the DIKW pyramid. Pathway to decision making may be better for the target audience. Consensus on keeping the diagram and pathway to sound decision making.

• 6.3 Principles of information management (RS/WW)

@sebbari @William J Wright (Unlicensed)

Updates made to draft as reported at last meeting by @sebbari.

@William J Wright (Unlicensed) has also gone through and made comments / suggestions.

Valuation of data and value adding through efficient information management. Unable to find examples of how to quantify the value of data and information assets. @Ge Peng (Unlicensed) to find example document from NCEI website.

The team proceeded to review the other comments and changes in this section with the comments and changes made directly in the draft document.

• 6.4 Information Management Lifecycle (WW/RS)

@William J Wright (Unlicensed) @sebbari

To be covered next time.

• 6.5 Other Considerations (HH)

@HADDOUCH Hassan

To be covered next time.

• 6.6 Summary and Conclusion (WW)

@William J Wright (Unlicensed)

To be covered next time.

• Team discussion: Path forward (Timeline we are working with: 29th July or earlier)

@David Berry proposed to create a clean version of the guide next week, accepting or rejecting changes and removing resolved comments. The .xls tracker will be updated as part of the process.

Date and time of next meeting

16th June, 1130UTC - 1400UTC.