The
"Google" of meteorological data The
"Google" of meteorological dataAs a summary, let say OpenWis is the "Google" of meteorological data. For an anonymous user, OpenWis is a search engine that allows discovery, access and retrieval of meteorological products from a global products catalogue: the WIS catalogue.
The search in the catalogue is performed using keywords (what?), geographic criteria (where?) or temporal criteria (when?).
Meteorological
productA meteorological product goes from meteorological data like a satellite image, or a bulletin to an added value data like imagery processing or numerical weather forecaster computation.
Examples of meteorological products
The
WIS catalogueThe WIS catalogue may be compared to the catalogue of a big library.
WIS library
The
metadataA metadata is a single element of the WIS catalogue. As a card describes a book in Library, a metadata describes a dataset in WIS.
Catalogue element
A metadata is also defined as “data about the data”
The metadata describes what information exists within the WMO communities, what it contains, where it is located and how to retrieve the information. Metadata is required for various purposes, for example for:
the
use of the data (e.g. sensor types used at an observing station) or
for
the discovery of the data (what, where, when, who)
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has been working for several years towards upgrading its global infrastructure to support all of its international programs of work, both operational and research-based, to collect, share and disseminate information. The new infrastructure is called the WIS, the WMO Information System
The WIS identifies three top-level centres. These are:
GISC:
Global Information System Centre;
DCPC:
Data Collection and Production Centre;
NC:
National Centre.
All three kinds of centres, contribute to the circulation of priority data, system wide security, monitoring and implementation of WMO data policies. GISCs and DCPCs allow the Discovery Access and Retrieval (DAR) of data, products and services offered by WIS Centres, but GISCs offer a global view of this information and provide distributed and resilient access to critical data and products.
OpenWIS supports a NC only, DCPC only and GISC only deployments.
GISCs have the following features:
Hold
and distribute copies for at least 24 hours (Cache) of current WMO data
and products intended for global distribution
Host
one metadata repository (Catalogue)
Have
one dedicated Web portal
Provide
DAR functionalities:
Discovery,
which corresponds to metadata search, is done only on its metadata repository
(no distributed Discovery). The metadata contained in the GISC catalogue
are related to the Global Data, plus the data intentionally exposed by
DCPCs and NCs and harvested by the GISC.
Access
function is accessible from the GISC Web interface (but not necessarily
hosted by the GISC itself)
Retrieve
(dissemination) of Global Data only from the Cache
Harvest
metadata (Global Data + intentionally exposed products) from DCPCs and
NCs that have been defined and configured under their responsibility
Synchronize
with other GISCs to hold a global Catalogue and the Cache of Global Data
Host
their own user repository
Support
mutual backup services
DCPCs have the following features:
Host
a metadata repository (local Catalogue)
Have
one dedicated Web portal
Provide
DAR functionalities on its local data only, some of which may be Global
data and products
Harvest
metadata (Global Data) from NCs that have been defined and configured
under their responsibility
Host
their own user repository
NCs are responsible for collecting and providing observational data and products intended for global or regional distribution to their responsible GISC or DCPC, and distributing data on a national basis.
OpenWis user portal provides the following functions:
Page |
Service/Menu |
Function |
Description |
Home |
|
Normal search |
Full text and geographical search features to find metadata |
Advanced search |
Various search features to find metadata |
||
What's new |
Show the last metadata inserted/updated |
||
Last products |
Available only when user is logged in: shows the last products requested by the connected user |
||
Search result |
Request |
Retrieve a particular product once |
|
Subscribe |
Retrieve products based on event or recurrent basis |
||
Other actions |
Provide: - links to request/subscribe on producer in case the request/subscribe is done on Cache - links to external URL referenced in the metadata |
||
View metadata |
Display a full or partial view of the metadata |
||
Edit |
Edit a metadata |
||
Save metadata as xml |
Export the metadata as xml format |
||
Register |
Possibility for an anonymous user to register into the system |
||
My account |
Metadata service |
Create metadata |
Create a new metadata record from an existing metadata template |
Insert metadata |
Insert a new metadata record in the system from an metadata XML file |
||
Browse my metadata |
Offer a view of all the metadata created by the connected user, and its extracted attributes |
||
Track my request |
Requests |
Consult and manage the requests the user has performed, on the current Centre but also on connected remote Centres |
|
Subscriptions |
Consult and manage the subscriptions the user has performed, on the current Centre but also on connected remote Centres |
||
Personal information |
User information |
Edit user information. Provide also a way to manage user favourites of dissemination |
|
Change my password |
Change user password |
||
OpenWis identifies the following profiles of the user portal:
User profile |
Role |
Anonymous user (not authenticated) |
Search / Consult metadata |
User (authenticated) |
Search / Consult metadata and Request / Subscribe |
Editor (authenticated) |
Search / Consult metadata / Request / Subscribe and Create/Insert/Browse metadata |
Proceed as follows:
1. Enter the portal URL in your Web browser:
http://<your.domain>/openwis-user-portal/srv/en/main.home
2. On the left top of the page, select your language.
3. On the right top of the page, click Login.
4. Enter your User name and Password and click Connection.
The home page is displayed.
The Home page of the User Portal is designed as follows:
The
search component: provides :
normal
search: basic full text and geographical search features
or
advanced search: various search features including temporal criteria
The
“What’s New” component: shows the last metadata inserted or updated
The
Content component: shows the welcome message of the home page or the results
of a metadata search
The
“My Last Products” component, available only when user is logged in: shows
the last products requested for the connected user