Agenda Item 6.3:

Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observation

Fourteenth SessionGeneva, 7 – 14 December 2006

Agenda Item 6.3:

Guide to Meteorological Instruments and Methods of Observation and

Information Dissemination

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CIMO – Guide: Topics

• Extent of work done to update the CIMO-Guide

• From preliminary to final draft version

• Approval and publication

• Some general experiences

• Requirement for future updates

• Procedures for future updates

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Extent of work done to update the CIMO-Guide

• Work on updating the CIMO Guide ran from January 2002 to December 2005

• 29 of 32 existing chapters were revised to a small or large extent

• Two new chapters were added:– Urban Observations– Road Meteorological Measurements

• Forty-four experts from 16 Member countries contributed

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CHAPTER TITLE No of Pages

PART I: MEASUREMENT OF METEOROLOGICAL VARIABLES

1 General 24

2 Measurement of temperature 17

3 Measurement of atmospheric pressure 23

4 Measurement of humidity 27

5 Measurement of surface wind 15

6 Measurement of precipitation 18

7 Measurement of radiation 45

8 Measurement of sunshine duration 10

9 Measurement of visibility 14

10 Measurement of evaporation 8

11 Measurement of soil moisture 9

12 Measurement of upper air pressure, temperature, humidity 43

13 Measurement of upper wind 19

14 Observation of present and past weather; state of the ground 7

15 Observation of clouds 11

16 Measurement of ozone 22

17 Measurement of atmospheric composition 12

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PART II: OBSERVING SYSTEMS

1 Measurements at automatic weather stations 18

2 Measurements and observations at aeronautical meteorological stations

15

3 Aircraft observations 12

4 Marine observations 22

5 Special profiling techniques for the boundary layer and the troposphere

10

6 Rocket measurements in the stratosphere and mesosphere 7

7 Locating the sources of atmospherics 8

8 Satellite observations 38

9 Radar measurements 29

10 Balloon techniques 9

11 Urban observations 23

12 Road Meteorological Measurements 8

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PART III: QUALITY ASSURANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF OBSERVING SYSTEMS

1 Sampling meteorological variables 13

2 Data reduction 4

3 Quality management 20

4 Training of instrument specialists 15

5 Testing, calibration and intercomparison 13

Appendix List of contributors to the Guide 1

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Artz, R. (United States)Ball, G. (Australia)Behrens, K. (Germany)Bonnin, G. M. (United States)Bower, C. A. (United States)Canterford, R. (Australia)Childs, B. (United States)Claude, H. (Germany)Crum, T. (United States)Dombrowsky, R. (United States)Edwards, M. (South Africa)Evans, R. D. (United States)Feister, E. (Germany)Forgan, B. W. (Australia)Hilger, D. (United States)

Hoogendijk, K. (The Netherlands)Holleman, I. (Netherlands)Johnson, M. (United States)Klapheck, K.-H. (Germany)Klausen, J. (Switzerland)Koehler, U. (Germany)Ledent, T. (Belgium)Luke, R. (United States)Nash, J. (United Kingdom)Oke. T. (Canada)Painting, D. J. (United Kingdom)Pannett, R. A. (New Zealand)Qiu Qixian (China)Rudel, E. (Austria)Saffle, R. (United States)

Schmidlin, F. J. (United States)Sevruk, B. (Switzerland)Srivastava, S. K. (India)Steinbrecht, W. (Germany)Stickland, J. (Australia)Stringer, R. (Australia)Sturgeon, M. C. (United States)Thomas, R. D. (United States)van der Meulen, J. P. (Netherlands)Vanicek, K. (Czech Republic)Wieringa, J. (Netherlands)Winkler, P. (Germany)Zahumensky, I. (Slovakia)Zhou Weixin (China)

Contributors:

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From preliminary to final draft version

• The “Preliminary 7th Edition” was posted to the CIMO/IMOP website March 2006 and distributed to all Permanent Representatives of Member countries with WMO in May 2006

• The call for comments attracted:– Minor comments which were incorporated in

corrections to the preliminary version– Significant comments which will contribute to future

updates

• Resulting in the current final “Draft 7th Edition”

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Approval and publication

• The Commission is:– invited to approve the 7th Edition; and– Encouraged to request the Secretary-

General to publish the Guide, and to make arrangements for its translation into relevant WMO languages and for the production of an electronic version to be available at the CIMO/IMOP website.

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Some general experiences

• The role of the paid pre-editor, Mr Ralph Pannett, proved to be critical in progressing each new or updated chapter from “proposal” to “completion”– Mr Pannett worked closely with experts to prepare

each updated chapter, before passing to a technical editor for review/approval

• The transition from a traditional paper document to a modern electronic document raised some challenges, such as– Incomplete compatibility (WordPerfect, MS Word,

QuarkXpress)– Degraded quality of some diagrams/graphics

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Requirement for future updates

• A number of requirements for future updates were identified:– During the drafting of updated chapters– In comments on the Preliminary version– In many of the agenda papers at this

session of CIMO

• A more general requirement exists for timely, continuous revisions/updates

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Requirement for future updates

• Specific requirements documented by Mr Pannett during the original drafting phase

• Significant requirements identified in comments on the Preliminary 7th Edition

• General requirements expressed in agenda papers presented to CIMO-XIV

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Specific requirements documented by Mr Pannett during the original drafting phase:

• Part II, Chapters 6, 7, 8 not updated• Complete revision Part II, Ch 1 (AWS)• New technology

– Pt I, Ch 6 optical rain gauges– Pt I, Ch 9 visibility– present weather (Pt I, Ch 14, plus ….?)– Radar related (Pt II, Ch 9)

• Pt I, Ch 3, reduction to MSL pressure for stations of different altitudes

• Aerosols; aircraft observations; etc, etc…..

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Significant requirements identified in comments on the Preliminary 7th Edition

The comments received from Members were mostly words of appreciation and satisfaction. Several Members pointed out the remaining opportunity to include new technology that is now available, including:

• sonic anemometers• microwave radiometers, and• Wind profilers

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Procedures for future updates

The CIMO MG at its third session, Geneva, 3-7 July 2006, reviewed the procedures for updating of the CIMO Guide and agreed that the new procedures should be based on the following assumptions:

(a) A Rapporteur on the CIMO Guide would better serve in keeping the CIMO Guide up-to-date;– Noting that the variety of expertise needed to

review the CIMO Guide cannot be captured in an Expert Team

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(b) Updates/revisions of the Guide are initiated as soon as a sound proposal is submitted;

(c) Responsibility for updates/revisions resides with the Rapporteur on the CIMO Guide;

(d) The Rapporteur on the CIMO Guide coordinates activities with the Secretariat when addressing substantial updates/revisions, especially when a paid pre-editor is required or when a task to update/revise a particular part of the Guide is needed to be addressed by an expert requiring payment;

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(e) Technical editors are selected by the relevant OPAG co-chairpersons and approved by the president of CIMO;

(f) The Rapporteur on the CIMO Guide submits updates/revisions to the Secretariat in a form of tracked text (both hard copy and electronic) of the current version. The Secretariat assures, in this way, the traceability to older versions;

(g) The CIMO president approves preliminary issue of updates/revisions on behalf of the CIMO-MG;

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(h) The Permanent Representatives are requested to provide their comments to the preliminary issue. Comments are reviewed and consolidated by the technical editors in collaboration with the Rapporteur on the CIMO Guide and submitted to the CIMO president for approval;

(i) The CIMO president approves updates/revisions for publication on behalf of the Commission;

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(j) The Secretariat publishes the relevant parts (pages) of the Guide as supplements;

(k) A report is provided to regular sessions of CIMO for information.

• The Commission is invited to:– conduct future reviews/updates of the CIMO

Guide by using a Rapporteur, technical evaluators and, as needed, contracted experts; and

– Request OPAG-CB to implement these procedures in collaboration with other OPAGs.

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Summary for discussion

Approval and publication• The Commission is:

– invited to approve the 7th Edition; and– Encouraged to request the Secretary-General to publish the

Guide, and to make arrangements for its translation into relevant WMO languages and for the production of an electronic version to be available at the CIMO/IMOP website.

Procedures for future updates• The Commission is invited to:

– conduct future reviews/updates of the CIMO Guide by using a Rapporteur, technical evaluators and, as needed, contracted experts; and

– Request OPAG-CB to implement these procedures in collaboration with other OPAGs.

Agenda Item 6.3:

Documents

Transcript of Agenda Item 6.3: