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In the meteorological community technical and procedural innovations as well as the
need to handle the steadily increasing volume of meteorological data that are being
exchanged on the GTS motivate more and more Member countries, and in particular the
developing ones among them, to employ computers in their routine operations. Certain types
of data and products can only be generated, handled, pre-processed, or displayed by means
of computers, as the following examples may illustrate:
- Handling of WMO binary codes (GRIB and BUFR)
- Performing conversions between binary formats and character codes or between different
representations of graphical data
- Receiving and using satellite images
- Participating in satellite based point-to-multipoint broadcast services
- Accessing and using data generated by automated observing systems
- Receiving and using numerical weather prediction products and generating value added
products
- Generating forecast model products
Meteorological Services wishing to move forward into such domains of meteorological
applications will find no other alternative but to resort to automated data processing.
However, computers are only worth as much as the software that runs on them. In
meteorology, the software required is often highly complex and difficult to obtain,
especially in developing countries. Although a given amount of money can buy ever higher
computer power and better hardware reliability from the industry, the actual benefit of
computers can only be attained when appropriate computer programs are available and
proficiently applied. Member countries embarking upon the use of automation in their
centers may well look for help from outside.
To this end, WMO has undertaken a number of efforts to provide various kinds of
assistance in form of donations of computer hardware and applications packages. These
activities are mainly carried out as VCP projects. Support of this type is rather
demanding in terms of organizational work, engineering support and, above all, financial
resources. This is the main reason why only a relatively small number of countries can
actually benefit from these projects in any given financial planning cycle of WMO.
Countries that are somewhat further advanced in their automating activities (so-called
"threshold countries") usually have a steadily growing requirement for
meteorological applications software to meet newly emerging requests for products in their
own country and to stay abreast with procedural changes agreed by WMO (such as changes in
codes or amendments in telecommunication procedures).
It is, therefore, important that WMO activates other resources to help Members in
acquiring software and related technical assistance. CBS felt that it may be a promising
and cost-effective way to encourage Members to exchange software that is already available
in meteorological centers. This approach raises a number of questions pertaining to
software compatibility and portability.
Three trends in computer applications make porting of software between different
computer centers more and more feasible. First, standardization in the meteorological
community has rendered common data formats, data handling and telecommunications
procedures. Many basic functions performed by computer programs in meteorological centers
are essentially very similar or even identical. This is particularly obvious for real-time
functions such as handling of WMO-formatted messages, handling of WMO-coded reports,
plotting of station-model and contour charts and for a wide range of non-real-time data
management functions. Suitable programs are available in meteorological centers of most
developed countries. Second, efforts in WMO in developing WMO-agreed standards for
software designing, programming techniques and software documentation will gradually
alleviate the level of incompatibility in meteorological computer solutions. Third,
international and industry standards spread aggressively and are now more readily accepted
in the software laboratories of meteorlogical services than some years ago.
All this will lessen hardware-induced incompatibilities of computer programs. In many
cases it can be more rewarding to adapt other center's software to ones own operations
vis-a-vis local development or commercial procurement, especially in developing and
"threshold" countries. It is, therefore, reasonable to assume that an exchange
of meteorological application software among WMO Member countries would help Members in
obtaining well-proven software modules, standardized design ideas or development
methodologies without "re-inventing the wheel" many times over and without big
financial investment.
The purpose of th computer sofware registry is:
- to strengthen the WWW system by making more readily available a wider range of suitable
meteorological software to Members
- to improve the self-sufficiency of evolving computer centers of developing countries
- to assist in spreading well-proven software packages and standardized software
techniques in the meteorological community
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