Regional WIGOS metadata management，

data quality monitoring and incident

management

Cui Xiai
RWC-Beijing
August, 2022
CONTENTS

1. Background Introduction

2. RA-II Data Quality Monitoring

3. RA-II Incident management

4. Summary
1. Background Introduction
Background
WMO (Cg-17) agreed to
develop and establish a
Regional WIGOS Center (RWC)
to undertake regional WIGOS
metadata maintenance and
data quality management
responsibilities.
In January 2017, CMA In accordance with the spirit of
applied to establish the the resolutions and decisions of
Regional WIGOS Center the 68th Executive Committee of
(RWC) and fulfilled the the 17th World Meteorological
WIGOS regional data Organization Conference, CMA
quality management deployed relevant work to
function. promote the pilot of the Regional
WIGOS Center (RWC).
Background
2022 Operational.

2021 RWC audited, designated as operational centre.

2020 Transition from pilot phase to operational phase.

2019 RWC-Beijing upgraded of operation capability.

2018 RWC-Beijing started the pilot operation.

2017 RWC application was submitted.

Milestones of RWC-Beijing
Functions performed by RWC
Regional coordination, guidance, oversight and support of WIGOS implementation and operational
activities at the regional and national levels (day-to-day level of activities).

Mandatory Functions
1. Regional WIGOS metadata management (work with data providers to facilitate collecting, updating
and providing quality control of WIGOS metadata in OSCAR/Surface);
2. Regional WIGOS performance monitoring and incident management (WIGOS Data Quality
Monitoring System) and follow-up with data providers in case of data availability or data quality issues.

Optional Functions
1. assistance with the coordination of regional/sub-regional and national WIGOS projects;
2. assistance with regional and national observing network management;
3. support for regional capacity development activities.

RWC-Beijing covers both mandatory and optional functions

Importance of data quality monitoring

NWP models rely on Data Assimilation (DA) systems to provide them with the initial
atmospheric state (analysis) necessary for the integration of the model equations that can
lead to the best prediction.

Data Assimilation systems are based on methods that combine prior knowledge of the
atmosphere (First Guess and Background) with observations in a optimal way taking into
account statistical information about the errors of both pieces of information.

The quality and availability of observations impact the quality of the NWP analysis
therefore it is important an early detection of any observational data issue that can
potential degrade the analysis.
How to monitor the observation data quality
Computes NWP-based statistics on quality and availability of the observations.
RWC-Beijing has used WDQMS webtool( JIRA ) as a resource to monitor the
performance of WIGOS observing components as required, and has combined
CMA model for joint evaluation.

https://wdqms.wmo.int/

Joint Evaluation
2. RA-II Data Quality Monitoring
 Data Quality Monitoring Overview
RWC-Beijing now is publishing the following reports:
• Report on the Quality of Radiosonde Observations in Region II(Monthly)
• Report on the Quality of Land surface Observations in Region II(Semester)

Publishing reports via:

• World Meteorological Center-Beijing Website
• WMO RA-II Website

Monthly Radiosonde Semester Land

Reports Surface Report World Meteorological Center-Beijing WMO RA-II
http://www.wmc- https://community.wmo.int/governanc
bj.net/publish/cms/documents/index.html e/Regional-Association/RA-II

Thanks to WMC Beijing Thanks to WMO RAP office

The observation elements monitored

The observation elements monitored are (1) station level pressure, (2) mean sea level
pressure, and (3) geopotential height, hereafter referred to as SLP, MSLP, and GZ
respectively.
The monitoring procedure

The monitoring procedure has two steps as outlined below.

Gross error data are excluded from the calculation of BIAS (the mean of O-G) and SD
(the standard deviation of O-G).
The monitoring procedure
The monitoring results

Data Availability
The monitoring results

Outlined a consolidated list of stations suspected of reporting low-quality

observation data of station level pressure, mean sea level pressure and
geopotential height.

Consolidated list of suspect stations throughout the period

Stations where quality deteriorated during the period
Stations improved and excluded from the previous consolidated list
Stations removed from the previous consolidated list
Consolidated list of suspect stations
throughout the period

more……
Consolidated list of suspect stations
throughout the period
Sort by Members

more……
Abnormal pressure deviation COUNTRY：Turkmenistan STATION ： ASHGABAT
Stations where quality deteriorated during
the period
Stations where quality deteriorated during
the period
Stations improved and excluded from the
previous consolidated list
COUNTRY：Russian Federation STATION ： HOVU-AKSY

Before Update After Update

Elevation updated
Possible Causes of Remarkable and
Sustained Biases

 The barometer used for observation is not correctly calibrated.

 The latitude, longitude or altitude of the station in OSCAR/Surface
( https://oscar.wmo.int/surface/#/ ) has not been updated in a timely
and appropriate manner. This could result in remarkable biases
because it may cause incorrect calculated first-guess field values.
 Biases are specific to the NWP model used in quality monitoring.
WIGOS Data Quality Monitoring System
(WDQMS)

https://wdqms.wmo.int/

User guide: https://confluence.ecmwf.int/display/WIGOSWT

WDQMS (cont.)
• Monitor availablity, quality and timliness of WIGOS component observing systems
• First phase: surface and upper-air stations
• Monitoring reflects observations as seen by WIGOS monitoring centers. Currently:
DWD, ECWMF, NCEP and JMA

WDQMS web tool: Loading Page

Monitoring Page
 WDQMS (cont.)

• Monitoring by variable (temperature, pressure, wind......)

• Monitoring by 6h and daily intervals (monthly to be implemented)
• User can choose which monitoring center to use, or select “best of all”
• Also: quality
WDQMS webtool provides ‘Quality’ performances as Observation against
Background (O-B) values averaged over a selected period (6-hourly or daily)
 Status/color
• Number received is compared with number expected (green,
orange, red, black, pink)

• Yellow: data received by monitoring center but no entry in

OSCAR/Surface

• Grey: data received by monitoring center & OSCAR/Surface entry,

but schedule indicated no report

• Examples:
• number expected 6, number received 3 => orange (50%)
• Number expected 6, number received 7 => pink (>100%)
Time series of a particular station for Quality’
• The popup window contains a link to the stations´ time series displaying the O-
B results of the previous periods (6h/daily steps) for each WIGOS MC (WIGOS
MCs with the same results will overlap, the cursor popup information will show
all results of each WIGOS MC)

27
3. RA-II Incident management
 Incident Management System

https://jira.ecmwf.int/browse/RWC
User guide:
https://library.wmo.int/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=218
92#.Yd_qePnd6Bm
National Focal Point on WIGOS, OSCAR/Surface, WDQMS

work together with RWCs in IMS

Some Members have not yet nominated the NFPs.

WDQMS NFPs need to be activated in IMS, but some Members have not yet activated.
 Users role
RWCs Monitoring
NFPs (Members)
Centres
Each role could issue a
new ticket.
Issue new ticket Issue new ticket Issue new ticket

Update the ticket

status into incident, Propose resolve actions Add comments to the
under investigation, through comments ticket, as necessary
in progress, resolved,
Only RWCs could raise won’t fix, or
the ticket into incident escalated Add comments to the
ticket, as necessary NFPs and MCs need to
and close the ticket.
follow up the ticket.
Close ticket

Reopen a closed ticket

 More details on user guide:
IMS workflow for RWCs https://library.wmo.int/index.php?lvl=notic
e_display&id=21892#.Yd_qePnd6Bm
ticket

• All users can open a new ticket • WDQMS NFPs acknowledges the ticket
• RWC is repsonsible to evaluate the issue • RWC updates the ticket into under investigation

• RWC converts the issue into incident if it is

deemed serious enough
• RWC assigns the ticket to relevant WDQMS NFP
• WDQMS NFP receives notifcation
• WDQMS NFP proposes action plan to solve the
incidents
• RWC updates the ticket into In Progress
• During this process, WDQMS NFP may need to
• WDQMS NFP informs the RWC if the incident has provide some comments to the ticket or RWC
been rectified may need to request update from WDQMS
• RWC will check whether the incident ticket can be NFP
closed or has to be kept open due to ongoing non-
compliance
IMS-Create Issue
RWC and WDQMS NFP could add
comments to communicate.
 Implementation of Incident Management

RWC-Beijing has issued a total of 25 tickets in IMS RWC-Beijing issued a total of 9 tickets in IMS
from July to December 2021, 18 of which have been from Jan to Jun 2022, 5 of which have been
closed. closed.

IMS Ticket status IMS Ticket status

Open Tickets：25 Open Tickets：9
Open Open
land surface-18 land surface & CBS LC
Radiosonde - 7
Incident Raise Incidents：8 Incident
Raise Incidents：14
land surface-11 except CBS LC(RWC-287)
Radiosonde - 3

Under Investigation Under Investigation

In Progress In Progress

Closed Tickets：18 Closed Tickets：5

land surface-12 land surface
Radiosonde - 6 Resolved Resolved
 Example: Successful case 1
RWC-188
Comments

After

A good example of quick finding,

positive communication and quick
solution!
 Example: Successful case 2Comments
RWC-189

After
The fastest closed ticket till Dec. 2021!
 Example: Successful case 3
Availability
RWC-153 RWC-170

Before After Before After

 Example: Successful case 4
RWC-249, Viet Nam
 21 Jan. 2022: RWC-Beijing issued a
ticket about suspicious pressure
values for Viet Nam.

 21 Jan. 2022: The WDQMS NFP

responded that they would fix
metadata in OSCAR/Surface.

 10 Feb. 2022: RWC-Beijing closed

the ticket.
 Example: Successful case 5
RWC-260, Kazakhstan

 10 Feb. 2022: RWC-Beijing

issued a ticket about suspicious
pressure values for Kazakhstan.

 11 Feb. 2022: The WDQMS NFP

responded that they had already
investigated this issue.

 17 Feb. 2022: RWC-Beijing closed

the ticket.
 Example: Successful case 6
RWC-270, Kazakhstan

 23 Feb. 2022: RWC-Beijing issued a ticket

about suspicious pressure values for
Kazakhstan (6 Stations: KOKSHETAU, Besoba,
Beyneu, Karak, BUGUN, BAYYRKUM).

 08 Apr. 2022: The WDQMS NFP responded

via email that they had already resolved this
issue.

 13 Apr. 2022: RWC-Beijing closed the ticket.

 Example: Successful case 7
RWC-265, Mongolia

 11 Feb. 2022: RWC-Beijing

issued a ticket about suspicious
pressure values for Mongolia.

 24 Feb. 2022: The WDQMS NFP

responded via email that they had
already resolved this issue.

 25 Feb. 2022: RWC-Beijing closed

the ticket.
 Example: Successful case 8
RWC-271, Mongolia

 25 Feb. 2022: RWC-Beijng issued a

ticket about suspicious pressure
values for Mongolia.

 25 Feb. 2022: The NFP updated the

metadata in OSCAR/Surface. But the
altitude of the station was still wrong.

 11 May. 2022: The NFP updated the

metadata in OSCAR/Surface again.

 18 May. 2022: RWC-Beijing closed the

ticket.
 Example: Successful case 9
RWC-193, Islamic Republic of Iran

 01 Sep. 2021: RWC-Beijing issued a ticket about

suspicious pressure values for Iran.
 19 Jan. 2022: The NFP added a comment.
 20 Jan. 2022: RWC-Beijing closed the ticket .

 Example: Successful case 10
RWC-151, Islamic Republic of Iran

 20 Jul. 2021: RWC-Beijing issued a ticket about

Land surface availability for Iran.
 19 Jan. 2022: The NFP added a comment.
 21 Jan. 2022: RWC-Beijing closed the ticket .
 Example: Successful case 11
RWC-165, Islamic Republic of Iran

 24 Jul. 2021: RWC Beijing issued a ticket about

Upper air availability for Iran.
 19 Jan. 2022: The NFP added a comment.
 12 Apr. 2022: RWC Beijing closed the ticket .
 On-going cases

List of Unclosed IMS Tickets(Group B) ，up to 17 May. 2022

Ticket IMS Account
ID Date Details NFPs Ticket ID Progress
Status activated

1 10 Feb.2022 Surface Quality Republic of Korea RWC-261 Unfinished √ no response

Lao People's Democratic

2 10 Feb.2022 Surface Quality RWC-262 Unfinished ╳ couldn't raise an incident
Republic
 Details
（RWC-261,Republic of Korea）

10 Feb. 2022:RWC Beijing issued a ticket. 24 Feb. 2022:RWC Beijing sent an email to
the NFP and still no response.
 Details
(RWC-262, Lao People's Democratic Republic)

10 Feb. 2022:RWC Beijing issued a ticket. 23 Feb. 2022:RWC Beijing sent an email to
Lao PDR and still no response.
4. Summary
Summary
 Monitoring the quality and availability of observations is very important, and it is an

early detection of any observational data issue.

 RWC needs Members to work together to improve the global data quality.

 Check Metadata in the OSCAR/Surface ( https://oscar.wmo.int/surface/#/ )

 rwc-bj@cma.gov.cn

[ CMA RWC-Beijing ]

中国气象局气象探测中心
Meteorological Observation Center