ET-CAC2017

Meeting of the Expert Team on Centre Audit/Certification

(ET-CAC)

Info on the meeting

Location: Darmstadt, Germany
Date: 18 - 20 October 2017
Working Hours: 1:00pm* to 5:30pm on Wed 18 October, 9:00am to 5:30pm on Thu 19 October and 09:00 to 15:00 on Friday 20 October (all times CEST, i.e. UTC+2)
Meeting Room: To be advised
Chair: Kevin Alder
Local Contact: Lothar Wolf
WMO contacts: Jeremy Tandy and David Thomas

* participants may arrive at EUMETSAT from midday and take lunch on-site.

Final Report

ET-CAC2017 final report (draft)

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Meeting BackgroundAgendaParticipantsReference InfoDocumentsLocal info


Meeting Background

Resolution 51 (Cg-16) conditionally designated those WIS centres listed in Table 4 of the annex that resolution for a limited duration, subject to demonstration of the pre-operational compliance requirements of the Commission for Basic Systems (CBS). Resolution 31 (Cg-17) extended the conditional designation of those WIS centres listed in Table 3 of the annex to that resolution until the sixteenth session of CBS.

Resolution 7 (EC-69) endorsed the WIS centres listed in Table 1 and Table 2 of the Annex to Recommendation 14 (CBS-16) as compliant with the Technical Specifications laid out in the Manual on WIS (WMO No. 1060).

However, there are a number of WIS centres that remain only conditionally designated. Recommendation 14 (CBS-16) requested CBS Management Group to consider whether it would be appropriate to ask Executive Council to further extend the conditional designation of centres. No request was made on behalf of CBS to the sixty-ninth session of Executive Council in such regard. Therefore, those WIS centres remaining only conditionally designated will be removed from Table 2 of Appendix B of the Manual on WIS unless urgent demonstration of the operational compliance procedures can be achieved.

Furthermore, as per the audit schedule for Global Information System Centres (GISCs) specified in the Manual on WIS §2.5 Rolling Review of WIS centres, the majority of GISCs are overdue their interim audits (for dates of GISC audits, refer to: ICT-ISS-2014 final report Table 1 Status of GISC Audits).

The sixteenth session of CBS Management Group (paragraphs §73 and §141 of the final report refer) recognised that a team in quality auditing could serve all CBS centre registrations rather than being limited to WIS centres, including the audit procedures being implemented by the amendments to the Manual on GDPFS.

Additionally, in paragraph §3 of their letter (ref. AN 10/1-IND/17/11 dated 9 June 2017), ICAO invite WMO to assist in the designation of space weather information providers by assessing each potential candidate centre through site visits and audits.

In accordance with the terms of reference for the Expert Team on Centre Audit/Certification (ET-CAC), as approved in Decision 33 (CBS-16), and responding to the points raised above, this meeting of ET-CAC will progress the following items from the OPAG-ISS Work Plan (the final report of the seventeenth session of CBS Management Group refers)
  • ET-CAC01 Establish an overall adapted audit process
  • ET-CAC02 Run GISCs certification process
  • ET-CAC03 Coordinate DCPCs and NCs certification

The meeting will:
  1. Begin development of an adapted audit and certification process to support all WMO programmes and Technical Commissions;
  2. Provide training to members of ET-CAC such that they are able to discharge their duties as an auditors of WMO centres; and
  3. Plan and schedule completion of GISC interim audits and outstanding audits for WIS centres that remain conditionally designated.