Weather Monitoring 13
HMEI and Standards in a Changing Climate
The phrase ‘Changing Climate’ here alludes not only to the well publicized issues of higher temperatures and more severe weather, it also alludes to a ‘changing climate’ within the weather, climate and environmental industries, on the accuracy and kinds of measurements and information on which weather and climate science are based.
However well established the standards and guidelines for measurements are conceived, there remains the question of how do we know if an instrument or piece of equipment truly meets this standard?
How do we ensure that the data we base our science on is good quality for accurate decision making? Well the most obvious answer is to make sure you know where the data comes from, what method is being used to create the data and how that data can be verified as correct. These qualities are enshrined in the term ‘Traceability’. How do we ensure Traceability? The short answer is ‘Standards’; but whose standards and how are they ensured?
HMEI is an association committed to facilitating communication between the makers of instruments and systems that collect data for the weather, climate and environmental communities, and those who use the data for scientific and operational purposes. As part of that communication, and part of its original association mandate, HMEI promotes and contributes to worldwide standards in the weather, water and climate fields by its cooperation with World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and by HMEI working with the International Standards Organization (ISO).
From the start of the operational office and secretariat of HMEI in 2003 until now, there has truly been a ‘changing climate’ in the way measurements and data for hydro-meteorology have been considered; the changing needs of the world have seen new concerns for the accuracy and consistency of data.
At the inception of the Association of HMEI, hydrological/meteorology measurements, especially in relationship to fulfilling the measurement needs for the National Hydrological and Meteorological Services (NMHSs) who are customers of HMEI members, were specified to fulfil the concerns of weather forecasting at a short to medium time scale. This concern has now expanded to include the wider issues of climate. With this expansion of vision, the needs of the data to inform the world’s environmental decision making have become critical and often, as in the case of climate prediction, traceable accuracy on a fine scale is now more than ever essential.
After being granted liaison status with WMO in 2002, HMEI started its official cooperative operations with WMO in 2003. At that time the WMO
guides and particularly the Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observation (CIMO) Guide gave the recommended level of accuracy and “best practice” for instrumentation and equipment for use by WMO members, the NMHSs. However these recommendations were at that time in no way official ‘Standards’. HMEI members of course were well aware of the WMO CIMO Guide, but found some specific problems with the CIMO Guide. Firstly the CIMO Guide was not without significant cost. Secondly the process of updating the CIMO Guide was laborious owing to the need for revisions to be approved at the 4 yearly CIMO sessions. This meant that updates were not timely, in a time of rapid development of instruments and equipment development. Thirdly there was restricted ability for the manufacturers themselves to make input into the CIMO Guide. Also HMEI members, who actually make the instruments and equipment, knew that some meteorological services did not necessarily follow the recommendations as stated by the CIMO Guide when specifying instrumentation.
The HMEI Secretariat had, since its inception, put the views of its membership to WMO regarding the CIMO Guide. It was thus with great satisfaction that HMEI saw, at the 15th session of CIMO in 2010, that the process of updating the CIMO Guide was amended to enable continuous review and regular updating by a CIMO Guide Editorial Board and on which HMEI on behalf of the private industry was invited to provide member representation. The HMEI representative can and does receive suggestions from HMEI members for CIMO Guide updates, which he can then submit to the board for consideration. Also since 2008 WMO has made the CIMO Guide available on the WMO website at no cost. HMEI members are now extremely pleased to be able access the CIMO Guide, to inform their manufacturing practices, freely available and with timely updates.
In 2004 HMEI began to be involved with ISO, seeing the value of international standards for the hydro-meteorological industry. HMEI attended its first International Organisation for Standardisation meeting, the ISO/TC 146 Air Quality - Sub-committee 5 in Sweden, September 2004 and subsequently was granted liaison status with ISO.
Author Details:
The HMEI Secretariat WMO Building,
7 bis avenue de la Paix, Geneva, CH 1211, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 730 8334 Email:
hmei@wmo.int
Web:
www.hydrometeoindustry.org
WMO Intercomparison of High Quality Radiosonde Systems, Mauritius, February 2005 (Courtesy Meteolabor)
Meeting of Participants - WMO Field Intercomparison of Rainfall Intensity Instruments, Vigna di Valle, Italy, May 2008 (Photo courtesy of HMEI)
www.envirotech-online.com IET May / June 2012
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