WMO Information System (WIS)

WMO Global Information System Centres

WMO's clearing house for data, products and services

Global Information System Centres (GISCs) are operated by WMO Members as a major component of the WMO Information System (WIS) infrastructure. A GISC’s primary role is to collect from and disseminate information to WIS centres in its area of responsibility and with the global WMO community. GISCs also provide search portals through which information from WMO and other interoperable systems can be discovered and accessed.

Each WIS centre is associated with a principal GISC that serves as the centre’s main entry point for distributing and receiving WIS data and metadata by appropriate telecommunication systems, including  the GTS. Association between a centre and a GISC is established by bilateral agreement.
The WIS centres database contains a list of WIS centres and their associated principal and back-up GISCs. This list will be updated as Members notify the Secretariat of associations between centres and GISCs.

WIS discovery metadata is the basis of the information and data management of WIS and WIS centres manage their metadata through their principal GISC.

Start-up metadata has been generated by Météo France for data exchanged on the Global Telecommunications System (GTS).  WIS uses the start-up metadata if centres have not provided their own metadata for the GTS traffic. WIS centres can either download their start-up metadata from any operational GISC, edit it locally and them make it available to their principal GISC, or manage the metadata directly through their principal GISC.

Initially not all WIS centres will have access to their principal GISC, since not all GISCs will be operational at the start up of WIS. To ensure all centres can manage their discovery metadata immediately, some GISCs are offering an interim metadata management service. A centre can chose which GISC's interim metadata management service it prefers. Once the centre’s principal GISC becomes operational, the centre will manage its metadata through the principal GISC.

Here is a list of currently operational GISCs  and links to the interim metadata management services where available.

• GISC Beijing (offering Interim Metadata Management Service)
• GISC Offenbach
• GISC Tokyo (offering Interim Metadata Management Service)

Instructions on how to find the metadata for a country and how the responsible authority in that country can sign-up and maintain the metadata is included in the information provided through  the Interim Metadata Management Service links listed below. When reviewing the start-up metadata, WIS centres are encouraged to pay special attention to the following instructions provided by Météo France.

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