XML Services and Needs in NOAA’s National Weather Service

1. XML Services and Needs in NOAA’s National Weather Service Ron Jones NOAA’s National Weather Service Office of the CIO

2. What is XML? • eXtensible Markup Language is a widely used system for defining data formats. • provides a very rich system to define complex documents and data structures • as long as a programmer has the XML definition for a collection of data (often called a "schema"), they can create a program to reliably process any data formatted according to those rules.

3. Why Should We Use XML? • Accepted standard format • The E-Government Act of 2002 • Promotes innovative uses of IT, particularly initiatives involving multi-agency collaboration • Explicitly mentions “Extensible Markup Language” • Interoperability of data, free of presentation requirements

4. How Is The NWS Using XML? • Severe Weather Watches and Warnings • Tropical Cyclone Advisories • Storm Prediction Center Forecast Products • Forecasts • Hourly Observations

5. Severe Weather Warnings via XML • Uses an industry standard schema (Common Alerting Protocol - CAP) • Text watches and warnings are parsed to CAP tags • Updated every 60 to 90 seconds • Easily used by programmers to display severe weather information across the US, by state, or by county

6. Severe Weather Warnings, Tropical Weather Updates, Storm Prediction Center Products via XML • All use an established XML format called RSS (Real Simple Syndication) • Allow NWS content to be displayed on other sites • Allow users to view NWS headlines for items of interest

9. Current Weather Observations • No WMO or Federal standard XML schema currently exists • US METAR observations processed • Simple schema lowers the bar to entry into data via XML

10. Hourly Weather Observations

12. Future of XML • Without established standard element tags, programmers will still have to write code to parse multiple tags for same data elements • Expand use of XML from basic weather reports to include all weather message formats • Text messages originate in XML and are parsed based on intended use or audience rather than XML derived from text

13. Standard XML Elements • Common elements in WMO weather codes = common XML tags • Temperature tags should be common across all WMO codes (surface, uper air, forecasts, etc) • Meta data included in XML increases value of data • Station data (lat/long, elevation, etc) • Reporting units (Metric/English/etc) • Benefit to users – no longer to they have to learn multiple WMO codes for weather messages

14. Originate Products As XML • XML format – • Text formatted message (traditional) • Proper case for pubic use • NOAA Weather Radio • Headlines/RSS feeds • Variety of languages • Build Web page components (both internal and external) • Build SMS Versions (Wireless Text Messages) • Ingest into databases • Convert into shape files • Converted from text to speech

15. Benefits of XML • eXcellent Machine Language! • XML formats are standardized so programmers spend less time attempting to understand them • XML parsers (commercial and free) are widely available in most computer languages • Weather data more open and usable

16. For More Information • Robert Bunge • robert.bunge@noaa.gov • (301) 713-1381 x140 • Ron Jones • ronald.c.jones@noaa.gov • (301) 713-1381 x130