GBON compliance

GBON compliance

by Sibylle von Löwis -
Number of replies: 12

Hello,

we have one radiosonde station in Iceland (WIGOS ID 0-20000-0-04018). Regarding the GBON compliance app we were compliant until Q1/2024. In Q2/2024 were availability issues but in Q3/2024 the station changed to Unknown with the WIGOS ID 04018.

At the WDQMS webpage "Availability of upper-air land observations (GBON)" the station is marked green (complete) on 22.5.24 but disappeared on 23.5.24; not even marked orange or black. This hasn't changed since then.

There seems also a similar issue with station WIGOS-ID: 0-20000-0-11952 in Slovakia. It's green on 13.3.25 but not existent anymore since 14.3.25. This station is still operational and sending data.

There is also an issue on the GBON compliance webpage for this station. From Q1/2025 to Q2/2025 the WIGOS ID changes from 0-20000-0-11952 to Unknown 11952.

Kind regards,
Sibylle von Löwis

In reply to Sibylle von Löwis

Re: GBON compliance

by Branislav CHVILA -

Hello everyone,

thanks Sibylle for your observation. I see that both of these stations no longer have the GBON upper-air assignment. I don't know why this disappeared. On March 14, 2025, I updated the metadata in Oscar/Surface for station 0-20000-0-11952, so it could be related to that, but I definitely didn't change this assignment.


Best regards,

Branislav Chvila (NFP for Oscar/Surface & WDQMS - Slovakia)

In reply to Branislav CHVILA

Re: GBON compliance

by Tim Oakley -

Hi Branislav, Sibylle and et al

I have been looking into the issue(s) you have reported for 04018 (Keflavik) and 11952 (Poprad-Ganovce), hoping that it would be just a metadata configuration issue. I think for 11952 I have a suggestion but not for 04018.

For GBON(Upper-Air) to be recognized by the WDQMS monitoring I believe that in OSCAR/Surface you must have 'Observations/measurements : Atmospheric > Temperature : Temperature Profile' correctly assigned to the station. This allows stations that are both GBON (surface) and GBON (upper-air) to be identified/monitored separately. 

I can confirm that for both station (04018 & 11952) this is the case. Both stations also have an active Deployment and Data Generation metadata entry under 'Temperature Profile'. So all good here also. 

However, for 11952, I see that for the Temperature Profile you have configured the 'Intended for international exchange' to No. I believe that the WDQMS monitoring uses this item of metadata. For pressure, humidity and wind profiles you have set this to Yes so I assume that this is a typo. Changing this to Yes might solve the issue for 11952, both on the GBON & NWP upper-air land observation plots in WDQMS.

For 04018 I cannot find anything in the metadata which might be causing the issue. Interestingly the GCOS (GUAN) plots for which 04018 is also affiliated does show reports continuously through 2024 to Sept 2025. These statistics are provided monthly from GUAN processing at DWD. So we know the station is reporting. I would suggest that ECMWF be asked to check why 0-20000-0-04018 is not being displayed on either the GBON or NWP plots on WDQMS.

Best Regards, Tim (GCOS Network Manager) 



In reply to Tim Oakley

Re: GBON compliance

by Martina Suaya -

Dear all, I have also been struggling with https://oscar.wmo.int/surface/index.html#/search/station/stationReportDetails/0-20000-0-85934 which is operational and the dot is shown in the NWP module but not in the GBON module. The NFP have edited all the required fields but still the dot is not on the GBON map.

For this station surface is compliant and upper air is not compliant 

Station Class: Automatic weather station (AWS), Climatological station, GBON Surface station, Surface land meteorological station (SYNOP), Upper-air / Radiosonde station

Can somone from the OSCAR or secretariat team assist us?

Thanks 

Martina

In reply to Martina Suaya

Re: GBON compliance

by Tim Oakley -

Hi Martina

Another interesting example of the GBON (Upper-Air) not being displayed despite the observations being received, as clearly shown in the NWP plot. It would be good to get clarification from the WDQMS support team as to what is the mandatory metadata in OSCAR/Surface needed for a station to be correctly identified as a GBON(Upper-Air) station. I can see nothing obvious in the metadata for 85934, although there is one difference when you compare with other GBON(Upper-Air) from Chile and Argentina, in that it does not have the observing method as a radiosonde, when looking under 'temperature profile/Deployments/Instrument characteristics'. 

Best Regards, Tim

In reply to Tim Oakley

Re: GBON compliance

by Timo Proescholdt -

Dear all,

short answer: I think the station need observing method "radiosonde" at the temperature profile deployment.

long answer: to be considered in the GBON module the station needs to be a GBON upper-air (or surface) station, respectively.

The station classes in in the station report in O/S show as which classes a station is recognized. In the case of PUNTA ARENAS the station is only a GBON Surface station.


In order to be recognized as an upper-air station, the station needs to be affiliated with GBON and measure temperature profile with a radiosonde. These definitions can for example be seen when hovering over the station class in the advanced search.

with kind regards,
Timo



In reply to Timo Proescholdt

Re: GBON compliance

by Tim Oakley -

Thanks for the clarification Timo. I thought it was the case that 'temperature profile' was needed but now know that it also needs the radiosonde as the observing method. 

In reply to Tim Oakley

Re: GBON compliance

by Martina Suaya -
Thank you everyone! I have asked Chile to follow this advise.

Nevertheless I don't see this "observing method" requisite coherent with WDQMS, as this option is not necessary for showing the dot en NWP map.

This should be enough in OSCAR on my opinion:
Temperature profile - [Geometry: Vertical profile]
Variable: Temperature profile
Geometry: Vertical profile
Programs / network affiliations: GBON, RBON

Kind regards

Martina
In reply to Martina Suaya

Re: GBON compliance

by Timo Proescholdt -
Dear Martina,

The WDQMS GBON module uses the station classs, as defined by OSCAR/Surface, which in turn uses the observing method as part of the GBON upper-air station class definition.

with kind regards,
Timo
In reply to Sibylle von Löwis

Re: GBON compliance

by Timo Proescholdt -
Dear Sibylle,

the issue of 0-20000-0-11952 and 0-20000-0-04018 seems to also be the missing "radiosonde" observing method at the temperature profile observing / deployment. Please see my other post for details.

with kind regards,
Timo
In reply to Timo Proescholdt

Re: GBON compliance

by Sibylle von Löwis -
Dear Timo,
I have changed the observing method in OSCAR/Surface and since 1st November a green dot is shown on the WDQMS webpage "Availability of upper-air land observations (GBON)". It's still not on the GBON compliance app but November is probably Q4.
Thanks for the advice.
Kind regards,
Sibylle
In reply to Sibylle von Löwis

Re: GBON compliance

by Timo Proescholdt -

Dear Sibylle,

yes, the station will show up once the Q4 results are calculated in early Jan 2026.

with kind regards,
Timo

In reply to Sibylle von Löwis

Re: GBON compliance

by Pia Bladh -

Dear all,

This discussion was very interesting.

For me, it is the opposite. Our upper-air station 0-20000-0-02365 Sundsvall Harnosand is shown (as a black dot) on the GBON map, but is not shown at all on the NWP map.

I reported the station silent about two weeks ago, could that be related?

Best regards,

Pia Bladh