The Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) is a network of privately owned electronic weather station
A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasting, weather forecasts and to study the weather and clima ...
s concentrated in the United States but also located in over 150 countries. Network participation allows volunteers with computerized weather stations to send automated surface weather observations to the National Weather Service
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...
(NWS) by way of the Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS). This data is then used by the Rapid Refresh (RAP) and other forecast models to produce forecasts. Observations are also redistributed to the public.
Origin
The CWOP was originally set up byamateur radio
Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency radio spectrum, spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emer ...
operators experimenting with packet radio
In digital radio, packet radio is the application of packet switching techniques to digital radio communications. Packet radio uses a packet switching Communication protocol, protocol as opposed to circuit switching or message switching protocols ...
, but now includes Internet-only connected stations, as well as amateur radio Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) stations. , more than 13,000 stations worldwide report regularly to the network.
Description
The Citizen Weather Observer Program is a program to collectsurface weather observation
Surface weather observations are the fundamental data used for safety as well as climatological reasons to forecast weather and issue warnings worldwide. They can be taken manually, by a weather observer, by computer through the use of automat ...
s from thousands of privately operated weather stations, into thFindU
database, and forward it to the Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System
MADIS
), operated by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...
(NOAA).David HelmsCitizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) Information.
Retrieved on 2008-01-12.
FindU
The FindU database is a set of privately operated Internet servers, run by Steve Dimse, (amateur radio callsign K4HG). Numerous IGates (Internet Gateways) receive broadcast amateur radio Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) packets containing position and short messages (including telemetry such weather observations), and forward the data to the FindU servers viAPRS-IS
on the Internet. Weather observations may be polled directly from FindU, and the data is forwarded to MADIS for ingest. APRS messages may also originate directly from computers on the Internet without being broadcast on the radio waves.
MADIS
The Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest SystemMADIS
) integrates weather observations from numerous different sources, including CWOP via FindU, and drives a number of different
weather forecasting
Weather forecasting or weather prediction is the application of science and technology forecasting, to predict the conditions of the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather info ...
products. Incoming data are subjected to temporal and spatial consistency checks, and quality flags are stored with the data, to enable users to access the most trustworthy data possible. From MADIS, CWOP data is also re-distributed to other users such as Mesowest.
Ease of sending data
The amateur radio connection makes it inexpensive and simple for an individual to install consumer-level weather sensors at a point of interest, connect them to a radio transmitter via a simple APRS modem, and start sharing weather reports with forecasters worldwide. Solar power and radio transmission makes it possible to drop completely self-contained weather sensors on unattended and wireless sites, allowing for a dense set of sample measurements to be collected.See also
* Mesonet * Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) *Cooperative Observer
The NOAA Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) is a citizen weather observer network run by the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) and National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Over 8,700 volunteers from the fifty states and all te ...
Program
* Significant Weather Observing Program (SWOP)
* Skywarn
* Safecast
References
External links
Citizen Weather Observer Program
links and information, after Bob Bruninga, WB4APR
Information page about APRS weather reporting by Steve Dimse * CWO
description by Russ Chadwick * CWO
wiki
by Russ Chadwick * Sample FindU weather report, fro
W0CHP-13
in Winona, Minnesota {{Earth-based meteorological observation Crowdsourcing Meteorological data and networks