WIGOS Station Identifier for closed stations/network

WIGOS Station Identifier for closed stations/network

SOTELINOLuis Gonzalez -
回帖数：2

Hi,

We are in the process to define the WIGOS station identifier scheme for our Institute (RMI/Belgium). In our database we have climatological stations that were closed in the past but also entire networks that are now managed by other entities (hydrology). Should we take into account those stations/networks in our WIS scheme or is the scheme only for existing stations and future data exchange? I haven't found the answer to this question in the WIGOS documentation.


Regards,


Luis Gonzalez Sotelino

回复SOTELINOLuis Gonzalez

Re: WIGOS Station Identifier for closed stations/network

NUNESLuis Filipe -
Dear Luis,
Thank you very much for your question, and apologies for the belated reply.
According to the current provisions in the WMO Technical Regulations the assigning of WSIs is mandatory (Members shall) for stations that exchange data internationally within the framework of a WMO programme/network.
Nevertheless, there would be benefits of taking into account the closed stations, including those managed by other national organizations:
- for sharing stations metadata in OSCAR/Surface, e.g. for climatological purposes, you will need WSIs for those stations,
- your national schema for WSIs should take into account all organizations and partners, public and private, that are relevant in terms of WIGOS,
- the NFPs represent the whole country, so you (as NFP for OSCAR/Surface) should work with your NFP on WIGOS (in the case of Belgium, Dr Hugo DE BACKER), to develop and implement your national schema for WSIs.
I hope this helps, kind regards
Luis
回复NUNESLuis Filipe

Re: WIGOS Station Identifier for closed stations/network

SOTELINOLuis Gonzalez -

Hi,

Many thanks for the answer. It really helps.

I have another question about the WSIs. It is about stations that already have an identifier (064XX for Belgium). For these stations, an automatic WSI number is associated depending on the affiliation program. If a new station with the same affiliation is created, its WSI will be generated from a different scheme. It means that for an affiliation program there will be two schemes. And the old stations (064XX) could also have a WSI in the new scheme. It is unclear for me if you can/have to use this new WSI or not. In our internal discussion for the new scheme development, users prefer to have one scheme even if it implies extra changes. In our communication with WMO for those "old" stations are we supposed to use the adapted WSI (0-20000-0-064XX) or could we use a new one derived from our WSI scheme?

In the WIGOS guide it is mentioned that "old" stations "May or may not continue to use the pre-existing identifier as the value for the local identifier" but it appears in contradiction with the guidance to avoid several identifiers for one station. So can we decide to stop using the adapted WSI (0-20000-0-064XX) and switch to our WSI scheme for international data exchange for all stations managed by us? And what is if any the best option from WMO point of view?

Regards,

Luis