In the framework of the preparatory process for the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19), ITU are issuing a series of special editions of the ITU News magazine, each of them devoted to a specific topic of interest to the radiocommunication community. You can see the special edition of the ITU News magazine devoted to passive sensing. You download it at

Click here to download the article or visit https://www.itu.int/en/itunews/Pages/default.aspx

The WMO Commission for Basic Systems software registry has been improved. WMO Members and partners can now self register their software and tools so that others can find them and use them. It includes tools that are free, free to NMHS and those that are available at a cost. All are encouraged to use this service to help share the tools we develop to help in our daily routines. See https://wiswiki.wmo.int/register-of-tools.

WMO Information System 2.0 Strategy (WMO-No. 1213) now available online. It can be accessed via the library in the following languages (En: | Fr: | Es: | Ru: | Ar: | Zh:)

The President of WMO has approved amendment MM51 and 54 to WMO-No. 306 Manual on Codes Volume I.3, Part D Representations derived from data models. The implementation date is 15 May 2018.

This amendment introduces IWXXM 2.1.1 that resolves issues associated with validating IWXXM reports. The changes are to code lists and to the schematron validation rules. Details are described on the Manual on Codes Volume I.3 page of the WIS wiki.

The revised IWXXM package is available from http://schemas.wmo.int/iwxxm/2.1.1.

The previous release of IWXXM 2.1 has been copied to the iwxxm/2.1.0 folder. During the week containing 15 May, the contents of the iwxxm/2.1 folder will be replaced with IWXXM 2.1.1 so that references to the minor release folder, http://schemas.wmo.int/iwxxm/2.1, will then refer to the most recent approved version of that minor release. This practice of retaining the current patch release in the folder with the name of the minor release will be continued in the future.

The cause of the failure of documents in iwxxm and wxxm to resolve references to the aixm schema, and thus to fail validation, has been resolved.

A fast track approvals procedure for WMO-No. 306 Volume I.3 started on 15 December 2017. Responses must be received from National Focal Points before |15 February 2018. If no response is received, the focal point is assumed to agree with the proposal. The amendment is labelled MM51. If approved, the amendment is expected to come into force on 15 May 2018.

This proposed amendment introduces sub-release IWXXM 2.1.1 of the XML representation of aviation information. It corrects problems that have been identified by centres implementing IWXXM that resulted in valid IWXXM messages being flagged as invalid by the schematron. Centres who reported the problem have confirmed that the amendment corrects it.

This is a fomal Fast Track consultation, and responses will only be accepted from authorized national focal points for Codes and Data Representation Matters. Other experts who wish to comment on the proposal should contact their (national focal point.)

The meetings of the Commission for Atmospheric Science and the Joint Commission for Marine Meteorology due to be held in Bali, Indonesia between 20-29 October 2017 will now be held in Geneva on the dates originally planned.

As you will be aware, the Mount Agung volcano is becoming active, and the impacts the eruption in 1962-3 lasted over ten months. Although the meetings were planned to be held outside the area of immediate danger, WMO has decided to relocate the meetings to Geneva to avoid potential risks.

WMO apologized for any inconvenience this may cause.

The final reports of the sixteenth session of the Commission for Basic Systems (CBS-16) and the fifteenth session of the Commission for Hydrology (CHy-15) have been published through the WMO library website.

Global Information System Center (GISC) Tokyo ran its fourth JMA workshop on WIM Information System implementation at JMA Headquarters in Tokyo from 6 to 8 December 2016.



The event was attended by 18 representatives from nine National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam, as well as presenters from GISC Melbourne (Australia) and the WMO Secretariat.

More information is available from the JMA website.

The portal to World Weather Information Service (WWIS) Data Collection or Production Centre (DCPC) operated by the Hong Kong Observatory for WMO is now open for public access. See at http://dcpc.worldweather.org or click on DCPC from the WWIS home page,

Background information.
The WWIS www.worldweather.org provides weather forecasts and climate information from the official National Weather Service for the country in which the cities are located. It was approved to be a registered DCPC in WIS under Resolution 51 (Congress-16) in 2011. Up until this release, this information was discoverable in WIS catalogues but the site was password protected so only registered users could access the information from the portal.

See Hong Kong press release