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Briefing on Results from Annual Meeting of

Briefing on Results from Annual Meeting of WMO Expert Team on Data Representation and Codes (ET-DRC) Jeff Ator WG/MC Chair October 16, 2008. Table of Contents. Background Outcome of U.S. Proposals Other Decisions and Agreements Additional Information. Background.

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Briefing on Results from Annual Meeting of

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  1. Briefing on Results from Annual Meeting of WMO Expert Team on Data Representation and Codes (ET-DRC) Jeff Ator WG/MC Chair October 16, 2008

  2. Table of Contents • Background • Outcome of U.S. Proposals • Other Decisions and Agreements • Additional Information

  3. Background • The ET-DRC is the official WMO team which reviews and makes recommendations on all proposed changes to BUFR, CREX, GRIB and GRIB2. It also provides guidance on the use of these code forms to the WMO community. • I have served as the U.S. representative to the ET-DRC since 2001. • Including serving as the chair of the WG/MC • The ET-DRC held its annual meeting at WMO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland from September 1-5, 2008

  4. Outcome from U.S. proposals • New BUFR Table B/D descriptors for use in reporting GOME ozone data (NESDIS) – Approved for pre-operational use • Correction of BUFR code tables for use in reporting SBUV/2 data (NESDIS) – Approved for pre-operational use • New BUFR Table B/D descriptors for use in reporting GFA/G-AIRMET data (NWS/NCEP/AWC) – Approved for pre-operational use • These are high-resolution products which are supplemental to and do not preclude the ICAO AIRMET regulations • New GRIB2 code table entry (NWS/MDL)– Approved for pre-operational use • Code Table 4.3 – entry 10 = Probability-weighted forecast

  5. Outcome from U.S. proposals (cont’d) • New GRIB2 templates for use in quantitative precipitation forecast products involving categorical ranges (NWS/MDL) – Approved for validation • In collaboration with ECMWF • New GRIB2 templates for use in forecasting atmospheric particulates and aerosol concentrations (NWS/NCEP/EMC) – Approved for validation • In collaboration with ECMWF and Canada

  6. Other Decisions and Agreements • New IEEE operator in BUFR Table C • As part of new edition 5 of BUFR to become valid for operational exchange in November 2011 • Important for atmospheric chemistry and other applications with extreme value ranges • Originally planned to become valid in November 2009, but further review showed that need was not as urgent as once thought • Delay will allow other features to be developed for BUFR edition 5 • New satellite identifiers in Common Code Table C-5 • 223 = NOAA19 • 224 = NPP • 286 = DMSP18 • 410 = Kalpana1

  7. Other Decisions and Agreements (cont’d) • Scale factors, reference values and/or bit widths of existing BUFR descriptors may now change, concurrent with a new version of the master tables • But element names and units may not be changed! • Allows errors to be corrected and/or deprecated items to be removed • New policy to take effect beginning with upcoming version #14 • Existing version #13 will remain a superset of all previous versions, as per current practice • New policy will also apply to GRIB2, beginning with version #5 • WMO will maintain copies of current and all future table versions available for download from their web site • In machine-readable format! • A notification mailing list for updates will be maintained as well • Bottom line: when encoding or decoding data, users need to pay careful attention to which version of the master table they are using!

  8. Other Decisions and Agreements (cont’d) • ICAO provided advance notice of proposed changes to METAR, SPECI and TAF for implementation in November 2011 • See http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/ISS/Meetings/CT-MTDCF-ET-DRC_Geneva2008/DocPlan.html documents 4.1(1) and 4.1(2) • Still subject to review and comment by ICAO member states • FAA has the lead within the U.S. • ICAO has, for the time being, suspended their migration process to BUFR • Based on feedback and concerns from member states • A migration process to XML is now being considered instead • This is within ICAO’s authority, and they will keep WMO posted

  9. Additional Information • WMO Codes Main Page • http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/WMOCodes.html • Contains links to BUFR and GRIB2 code manuals and all of the latest tables • Including listings of parameters and descriptors which are pre-operational and/or in validation state • Also contains links to documents and status reports on WMO migration to table-driven codes • Intended as primary, real-time source of information on WMO codes • No more supplements to hardcopy manuals!

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