Integrating third party data from partner networks: Quality assessment using MeteoSwiss Meteorological Certification procedure

Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss Integrating third party data from partner networks: Quality assessment using MeteoSwiss Meteorological Certification procedure Joël Fisler, M. Kube, C. Stocker, E. Grüter, B. Calpini

Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss Integrating third party data from partner networks: Quality assessment using MeteoSwiss Meteorological Certification procedure Joël Fisler, M. Kube, C. Stocker, E. Grüter, B. Calpini METEO-Cert

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Motivation & Goals 2006 MeteoSwiss started integrating partner stations into their network to increase the coverage of meteorological surface observations and to reduce costs. To address concerns about the quality METEO-Cert was developed and applied to both partner and MeteoSwiss stations. Goals of METEO-Cert are: 1. Quality label for weather stations 2. Comparability between weather stations 3. Systematic acquisition of metadata 4

Methods: Quality Labels Fully compliant All WMO/CIMO requirements fulfilled Compliant Most requirements fulfilled Not compliant or Special Site Some important WMO requirements not fulfilled! Be aware of the limitations and use data with caution. 5

Methods: Acceptance Procedure Three steps: Pre-Assessment, audit on site and data analysis Has been presented in more detail at TECO 2012! Audits on site are conducted by a neutral third-party organization In Switzerland the audits conducted by METAS, the Swiss Institute for Metrology. ensures neutrality when assessing stations! METAS has been accredited by the Swiss Accreditation Service (SAS) for their application of the METEO-Cert procedure. 6

Methods: Criteria METEO-Cert does take into account 100 criteria per station summarized in the following categories: 1. Instrument: Accuracy, Heating, Ventilation 2. Siting and Exposure: CIMO Siting Class, Measurement Height, 3. Maintenance and Observer: Maintenance and Calibration Cycles 4. Post-Analysis: Data Availability and Timeliness 7

Methods: Tools / Questionnaire Precipitation Fully Compliant 22 Sensor Lambrecht: 1518 H3 Is instrument designed to work under snow and hail conditions? Yes 2 Is instrument heating site appropriate? Yes 2 Is instrument The based METEO-Cert on tipping gauge tool pricinple? has been developed using Microsoft Excel Yes Accuracy [%] The questionnaire contains all the 100 criteria, its thresholds and weights 2% 2 Collector sizetowards the overall assessment of a meteorological variable. 200 mm2 2 Measurement height 1.5 m 2 Is the sensor correctly METAS exposed? can only fill out the fields highlighted in blue. In some cases pulldown Yes 2 CIMO Siting Classification menus make sure that the auditor only enters valid values. 1 2 Is the instrument Once on a the roof? auditor has answered all the questions the quality label per No 2 Station supervision meteorological [points] variable (temperature, wind, precipitation etc.) is shown. 7 2 Frequency of calibration in lab or replacement? [years] 5 years 2 Frequency of comparison measurements or controls on site by ope 24 months 1 Frequency of maintenance by Keeper? [week] 2 weeks 2 Is there a parallel measurement with a second instrument? No 0 Is there automatic data control or monitoring? Yes 2 Post Analysis: Data availability [%] 100.0% 2 Post Analysis: Timeliness [min] 3.2 min 2 8

Results: Overall (based on 135 audits conducted from 2013 to 2015) 400 350 300 292 In total 648 instruments were inspected by METAS ⅓ partner and ⅔ MeteoSwiss 250 200 150 100 102 119 79 50 40 16 0 MeteoSwiss Partner 9

Results: E.g. Measurement Height (Expected: 2m for temperature and 1.5m for precipitation) 100 Temperature: 100 Precipitation: 90 90 80 74 80 74 70 70 60 60 50 50 40 33 40 30 30 26 27 20 20 10 0 0 2 MeteoSwiss 8 Partner 4 10 0 3 3 0 MeteoSwiss Partner 10

Results: Measurement Height Examples 11

Discussion Challenges when developing METEO-Cert were: Criteria: What influences measurements? Rating: Defining thresholds for each criteria Objectiveness: Can criteria be measured objectively? Auditor: Requirements to be accredited as an auditor? 12

Conclusions Deficiencies became visible and improvements were made to around 10% of the stations. Operators became more sensible to quality issues Provides information about how the data can be applied. Could be adapted for other weather services if required. 13

Outlook Collaboration with METAS will continue and audit of remaining stations in the years 2016 to 2018. Findings will be published in condensed manner on the MeteoSwiss website and app MeteoSwiss tools offer possibility to filter for quality label. IOM report about METEO-Cert is planned for late 2016. Will be available on WMO-Website. 14

Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss MeteoSwiss Operation Center 1 CH-8058 Zurich-Airport T +41 58 460 91 11 www.meteoswiss.ch Joël Fisler joel.fisler@meteoswiss.ch T +41 58 460 94 33 MeteoSvizzera Via ai Monti 146 CH-6605 Locarno-Monti T +41 58 460 92 22 www.meteosvizzera.ch MétéoSuisse 7bis, av. de la Paix CH-1211 Genève 2 T +41 58 460 98 88 www.meteosuisse.ch MétéoSuisse Chemin de l Aérologie CH-1530 Payerne T +41 58 460 94 44 www.meteosuisse.ch 15