General Questions
| Question: |
METDATA Monitor software tells us that there is a time difference between our server and UTC. What should we do? |
| Answer: |
METDATA Monitor has detected that your system’s time is different from UTC (with a precision limited by a possible network latency between your server and our update server where the current UTC time is taken from). Since the monitoring capabilities of METDATA Monitor highly depend on the exact notion of a current UTC time, this time difference will have effect on the accuracy of monitoring results. Please make sure your server’s time in UTC (not the local time!) is correct. If you think that your time is correct, please let us know. |
Installation & Upgrading
| Question: |
How do we upgrade the METDATA Monitor software to a newer version? |
| Answer: |
Please follow the upgrading procedure described on the METDATA Monitor – Upgrading page. |
| Question: |
How do we find out there is a newer version of METDATA Monitor software available? |
| Answer: |
Starting with version 1.7.1, the METDATA Monitor software will automatically notify you if an update is available for system files and/or for configuration files. The notification will be present on the General Information page as well as on the System maintenance page; updating is then as simple as clicking a few buttons. |
| Question: |
How can we bring our monitoring catalogs and rules up to date? |
| Answer: |
Starting with version 1.7.1, the METDATA Monitor software will be upgraded as a single package, so along with the new release of the software you will get the most recent monitoring catalogs and rules. |
Integrated WWW Monitoring
| Question: |
Which type of Integrated WWW Monitoring should we select? |
| Answer: |
Select the Integrated WWW Monitoring appropriate for the period of the year that is to be monitored. Be careful not to select the type containing the “integrated part” words, though! |
| Question: |
Should we run and evaluate both Annual Global Monitoring (AGM) and Integrated WWW Monitoring (IWM)? |
| Answer: |
The official WMO suggestion is not to send the AGM monitoring reports if a RTH/NMC is also sending the IWM monitoring reports (to avoid duplication of reports); during the transition period from AGM to IWM it is nevertheless recommended to send both types of monitoring reports. |
| Question: |
In what order should we evaluate Annual Global Monitoring (AGM) and Integrated WWW Monitoring (IWM)? |
| Answer: |
The two monitoring types can be evaluated in any order, one after another. |
| Question: |
How to do the evaluation of Integrated WWW Monitoring (IWM)? |
| Answer: |
Informations about the evaluation process and what to do with the results can be found on this page. |
Annual Global Monitoring
| Question: |
Should we run and evaluate both Annual Global Monitoring (AGM) and Integrated WWW Monitoring (IWM)? |
| Answer: |
The official WMO suggestion is not to send the AGM monitoring reports if a RTH/NMC is also sending the IWM monitoring reports (to avoid duplication of reports); during the transition period from AGM to IWM it is nevertheless recommended to send both types of monitoring reports. |
| Question: |
In what order should we evaluate Annual Global Monitoring (AGM) and Integrated WWW Monitoring (IWM)? |
| Answer: |
The two monitoring types can be evaluated in any order, one after another. |
| Question: |
How to do the evaluation of Annual Global Monitoring (AGM)? |
| Answer: |
Informations about the evaluation process and what to do with the results can be found on this page. |
TDCF Support
| Question: |
How is TDCF supported in METDATA Monitor? |
| Answer: |
In accordance with WMO stressing the importance of monitoring data present in TDCF, the METDATA Monitor now provides extended possibilities for monitoring of surface and upper-air observations from fixed stations. Currently only the BUFR format is recognized, and the following templates are supported: SYNOP (RA I to RA VI), TEMP, and PILOT. |
| Question: |
Which TDCF bulletin headings are processed by the METDATA Monitor software? |
| Answer: |
Bulletins with the following headings (T1T2A1) are recognized and processed by METDATA Monitor as containing TDCF data: ISM, ISN, ISI, IUK, IUJ, IUS, and IUW. Only ii groups in the interval 01–59 are accepted; other ii groups are disregarded. |
Evaluations
How do we do the evaluation with METDATA Monitor software and what to do with the results? Following are the evaluation tasks dependent on the centre type:
- NMCs should upload their IWM monitoring reports to the WMO FTP server and inform their associated RTHs
- RTHs should upload their IWM monitoring reports to the WMO FTP server and inform the WMO Secretariat
- AGM monitoring reports should be uploaded to the WMO FTP server or sent to the WMO Secretariat
You need to know the type of the Monitoring as well the Start and End day for which you want to do the evaluation. The detailed evaluation procedure for usual monitorings like AGM, IWM or SAM is described in the METDATA Monitor manual.
Here is a short explanation on how to carry out the AGM/IWM evaluation for the additional period 10.10.–15.10.:
AGM/IWM evaluation for NMCs
- log in as Administrator
- check the Monitoring type on the General Information Page; if it does not show “Annual Global Monitoring (AGM)”, then:
- click the “Change” button next to the “Monitoring:” label to choose the “Type of Monitoring:”
- select the “Annual Global Monitoring” item
- click the “Activate” button twice
- log out and log in again as Administrator
- choose the “Evaluation” menu and the “Evaluate” submenu
- change the “Start day of evaluation” to 10.10.2007 and make sure the “End day of evaluation” is set to 15.10.2007
- click the “OK” button to start the evaluation
- after the evaluation is done, choose the “Upload Results” submenu in the “Evaluation” menu
- click the “OK” button to upload results to the WMO FTP server
- after that please inform your associated RTH that your AGM evaluation results are on the WMO FTP server
- now change the Monitoring type according to the previous description to “Integrated WWW Monitoring – period 4 (October)” and click the “Activate” button twice
- log out and log in again as Administrator
- choose the “Evaluation” menu and the “Evaluate” submenu
- change the “Start day of evaluation” to 10.10.2007 and make sure the “End day of evaluation” is set to 15.10.2007
- click the “OK” button to start the evaluation
- after the evaluation is done, choose the “Upload Results” submenu in the “Evaluation” menu
- click the “OK” button to upload results to the WMO FTP server
- after that please inform your associated RTH that your IWM evaluation results are on the WMO ftp server
AGM/IWM evaluation for RTHs
- log in as Administrator
- please check the Monitoring type on General Information Page; if it does not show “Annual Global Monitoring (AGM)”, then:
- click the “Change” button next to the “Monitoring:” label to choose the “Type of Monitoring:”
- select the “Annual Global Monitoring” item
- click the “Activate” button twice
- log out and log in again as Administrator
- choose the “Evaluation” menu and the “Evaluate” submenu
- change the “Start day of evaluation” to 10.10.2007 and make sure the “End day of evaluation” is set to 15.10.2007
- click the “OK” button to start the evaluation
- after the evaluation is done, choose the “Upload Results” submenu in the “Evaluation” menu
- click the “OK” button to upload results to the WMO FTP server
- now change the Monitoring type according to the previous description to “Integrated WWW Monitoring – period 4 (October)” and click the “Activate” button twice
- log out and log in again as Administrator
- choose the “Evaluation” menu and the “Evaluate” submenu
- change the “Start day of evaluation” to 10.10.2007 and make sure the “End day of evaluation” is set to 15.10.2007
- click the “OK” button to start the evaluation
- after the evaluation is done, choose the “Upload Results” submenu in the “Evaluation” menu
- click the “OK” button to upload results to the WMO FTP server
Evaluation of the IWM Integration part (RTHs only)
- download the IWM evaluation result files from the WMO FTP server (all “*.ASC” files from “ftp://www.wmo.int/GTS_monitoring/IWM/To_WMO/200710/CCCC.07A/SA10A15.ASC/”, where CCCC will be the indicator of your associated NMCs; here we assume that under (1) NMCs upload the IWM results to the WMO FTP server)
- place all of the IWM evaluation result files to the local directory “data/wmoresults/” under the METDATA installation directory
- change the Monitoring type to “Integrated WWW Monitoring 4 (October) – integration part” and click the “Activate” button twice
- choose the “Evaluation” menu and the “Evaluate” submenu
- change the “Start day of evaluation” to 10.10.2007 and make sure the “End day of evaluation” is set to 15.10.2007
- click the “OK” button to start the evaluation
- after the evaluation is done, choose the “Upload Results” submenu in the “Evaluation” menu
- click the “OK” button to upload results to the WMO FTP server
