Report on Metadata Gil Ross (Met Office UK)

1. Report on Metadata Gil Ross (Met Office UK) WIS Working Group Geneva

2. Contents • IPET-MI & Metadata Workshop Beijing • Report of ISO Expert • “vision” • Issues • Work Plan • vGISC • Baudouin Raoult’s model • GO-ESSP • INSPIRE

3. IPET-MI + Metadata Workshop WIS Working Group Geneva

4. Working Group Recommendations • Recommendations made by sub-groups during the Workshop on Metadata on the following activities • A. Definition of time in WMO Core profile – extensions to ISO standard, and requests for enhancement to ISO standard if essential (including calendar type) • B. Spatial definition in WMO Core profile – area and single point specifications • C. Handling languages in Core profile – unique identifiers (how unique? how define?) • D. Features models - Divide between “common” and “feature” for location of metadata • E. Features models - how to identify features needed • F. Catalogues needed in support of Core Profile (excluding feature models) • G. GML representation of catalogues • H. Creating taxonomies • I. Tools for catalogue maintenance and metadata creation • J. Operation of a real time distributed catalogue service – including version control • K. Processes for managing Profile, catalogues etc

5. IPET-MI • Work contents for the revision of the draft version of the WMO Core Profile • Development of a Core Feature Catalogue compliant with ISO 19110 • Operational information catalogues • Governance of standards • Standards to be considered with the highest priority for the WIS • Issues to take up with ISO TC211 • Work packages – extensive!

6. WMO Interoperability • WMO is HIGHLY interoperable • GOS/GDPS/GTS • for over 50 years • but in a closed user group • which is admittedly large (187 member states) • but which mainly talks to itself • WMO has its own processes and protocols • and formats • and data types • and networks • and software

7. WMO Interoperability • But this isn’t the big-wide-world • It isn’t even all WMO Commissions • We need even better interoperability • in WWW • with the rest of WMO • with USERS of our data • with cheap software • on everybody’s laptop • Isn’t this the remit of the National Centres? • I’d say – NO.

8. WMO Interoperability World Weather Watch NMS Climatology Oceanography Agriculture etc.etc. The Big Wide World

9. Interoperability • Consider the following graphic. • It happens to be created by MetO but • It has a map background, • Some contours, that has access to, • Data, • Sensible weather objects created by a forecaster, but could be another Met Service, • A legend including a logo.

10. Components of a chart

11. Standards and Interfaces • TBWW has standards and interfaces which are becoming ubiquitous and cheap • Specialised formats are being ignored, circumvented and made obsolete • specialised formats and protocols do have their place in closed systems – e.g. GTS • however they should be presented externally in more widely recognised standards • So WMO should have unified standards to present data and services to TBWW

12. Standards and Interfaces • What are these standards? • Most likely • Web Services • data GRID • OGC and ISO • Catalogue services • WMS – web mapping service • WFS – web feature service • WCS – web coverage service • XML – GML • Catalogues and repositories

13. Catalogues and repositories • metadata catalogue • feature catalogue • schema repositories • vocabularies • Question - What is the difference? • Answer - it isn’t entirely clear and - there isn’t a unique answer • Identifiers (not file naming system) • gazeteers • locations • CRS coordinate reference systems • service catalogues WMO already does this but not interoperably

14. What do we do now? • Develop content for the catalogues • Metadata • Features and coverages • Observations and Measurement • CSML • GML • Gazeteers • Vol 9 is good • ICAO codes – not good • CRS definitions

15. What do we do now (2) • Vocabularies • communityTopicCategory and keywords - a WMO taxonomy • Parameter lists, definitions • GRIB and BUFR tables • WWW usage • CF convention for netCDF • Climatology and Oceanography usage • Develop services – at NMS level - a number of different contexts

16. ISSUES WIS Working Group Geneva

17. Issues • WWW and Archive data • Identifying GTS data • Alpha codes and text • GRIB • BUFR • TIFs • Travelling Metadata • Catalogues • Metadata • Feature • gazetteers

18. vGISC metadata WIS Working Group Geneva

19. Baudouin’s metadata fragment model • Overview • the WMO Core Profile-compliant metadata documents are split into a hierarchy of fragments • the fragments are indexed … keeping the indexes small as fragments that are inherited by more than one ‘full’ document only appear once • the relationships between the fragments (expressed with the <v:inherit> tag) are stored in the MySQL database as bi-directional links • searching occurs on the fragments (or rather the indexes on the fragments) • the fragments are eventually merged to form a valid WMO Core Profile-compliant document

20. GO-ESSP WIS Working Group Geneva

21. GO-ESSP • Climate Forecasting Convention • NetCDF • OPenDAP • IPCC IOC JCOMM • Existing vocabularies GCMD ENPARDIS • Difficulty of merging vocabularies • Working Systems

22. INSPIRE WIS Working Group Geneva

23. INSPIRE • European LEGISLATION • For Interoperability • Geographic based • Encompasses “environment” • Drafting Teams • Metadata • Data Specifications • Network Services • Data Sharing • Legislation Monitoring