MADIS Support For Urbanet

Abstract

NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory’s Global Systems Division (ESRL/GSD) has established the MADIS (Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System) project to make integrated, quality-controlled datasets available to the greater meteorological community. The goals of MADIS are to promote comprehensive data collection and distribution of operational and experimental observation systems, to decrease the cost and time required to access new observing systems, to blend and coordinate other-agency observations with NOAA observations, and to make the integrated observations easily accessible and usable to the greater meteorological community. MADIS users have access to a reliable and easy-to-use database containing real-time and saved real-time datasets available via ftp, Local Data Manager (LDM), orthrough the use of web-basedOPensource project for Network Data Access Protocol (OPeNDAP) clients.Observational datasets currently available via MADIS includeradiosondesoundings, automated aircraft reports, NOAA and non-NOAA wind profilers, non-NOAA experimental microwave radiometer observations, operational and experimental satellite observations and products, and several types of surface datasets. The latter includes a unique, national collection of over 20,000mesonetstations from local, state, and federal agencies, and private firms, including a national transportationmesonetconsisting of integrated Road Weather Information System (RWIS) data from 26 state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and Public Highway Authorities.MADIS data files are available in uniform formats with uniform quality control (QC) structures within the data files, and are compatible with the National Weather Service (NWS) Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) systems, with data assimilation systems such as the Local Analysis and Prediction System (LAPS) and the Weather Research and Forecasting 3D-variational(WRF-Var) system, and is also compatible with graphics software such asUnidata'sIntegrated Data Viewer (IDV).Software support is provided for MADIS datasets through the use of an Application Program Interface (API) (API) that provides users with easy access to the data and QC information. The API allows each user to specify station and observation types, as well as QC choices, and domain and time boundaries. Many of the implementation details that arise in data ingest programs are automatically performed, greatly simplifying user access to the disparate datasets, and effectively integrating the database by allowing, for example, users to access NOAA surface observations, and non-NOAA surfacemesonetsthrough a single interface. MADIS datasets were first made publicly available in July 2001, and have proven to be popular within the meteorological community. GSD now supports hundreds of MADIS users, including NWS forecast offices, the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), and many universities and private companies. Additionally, MADIS supplies surface data providers with QC and station monitoring information, which have proven useful in their maintenance activities. Beginning in 2006, MADIS will also provide support for “UrbaNet”, a surface research network involvingNOAA'sAir Resources Laboratory (ARL) and the private sector. This network is designed to explore the use of integrated commercial and government meteorological data in forecasting within the complex topology of the urban environment. MADIS has been established as the mechanism to ingest, integrate, quality control and distribute theUrbaNet mesonetobservations in support of homeland security, emergency management, dispersion modeling, and general forecasting applications. This paper will cover the current status of the MADIS system and include details on theUrbaNetnetwork such as station locations, observations reported, and future plans. For more information on MADIS, see Miller et. al (2005), Miller andBarth (2003), and the MADIS web pages (GSD 2006).