CSA R100:20 pdf download – Canadian metadata standard for hydrometeorological monitoring stations.
0 History of the development of this Standard To avoid the creation of non-technical barriers to trade under the World Trade Organization Agreement, organizations accredited by the Standards Council of Canada for developing standards must evaluate whether existing international standards could be adopted or adapted, or whether a national standard should be newly developed. The CSA Subcommittee on Metadata for Hydrometeorological Monitoring Stations compiled and reviewed regional, national, and international reference literature. It concluded that the WMO WIGOS Metadata Standard and its associated OSCAR/Surface metadatabase is, at the time of writing, the most sophisticated system for inventorying metadata. This global standard was developed to ensure maximum usefulness of observations. The development of the WIGOS standard occurred over the 2016 to 2019 period. OSCAR/surface was developed jointly by the WMO and MeteoSwiss and has been operational since May 2016. The Subcommittee then concluded that the WIGOS-OSCAR/Surface system is comprehensive and logically structured. The system currently supports all hydrometeorological variables that were within the scope of the Subcommittee. Further, the Subcommittee was confident that the system is designed such that additional hydrological or air quality variables can be added in the future. Being supported by both the WMO and Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Subcommittee is sufficiently confident that the system will be supported going forward.
The WMO coordinates the development, improvement, and maintenance of the WIGOS Standard and OSCAR/Surface database. Member countries designate representatives (National Focal Points) for WIGOS and OSCAR/Surface. WIGOS National Focal Points take the lead in communications on WIGOS with the WMO Secretariat (WMO 2019). OSCAR National Focal Points liaise with the WIGOS National Focal Points in the country, OSCAR/Surface metadata editors, and metadata users. They coordinate the use of the OSCAR/Surface database, keep the OSCAR/Surface platform operational and accessible to Canadian users, and provide training to network operators (WMO 2020). Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)’s Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) is the Canadian National Focal Point for WIGOS and OSCAR/Surface. For practical purposes, for Canadian operators there is only one point of contact. Both focal points, WIGOS and MSC, are responsible for notifying CSA Group of any changes or updates to the WIGOS standard. Network operators should publish metadata in the OSCAR/Surface database if the hydrometeorological data of the stations to be registered under OSCAR/Surface are from operational stations and instrumentation (as opposed to experimental installations), particularly if they are publicly available and regardless of the duration of the station deployment. Network operators need to collect accurate metadata records for hydrometeorological monitoring stations following the WIGOS standard and keep those records current. Network operators should operate their stations under a documented quality management system.
For a network operator to be able to submit metadata to OSCAR/Surface, the Canadian National Focal Point for OSCAR/Surface has to provide a user account for OSCAR/Surface. Network operators can identify the Canadian National Focal Points at https://community.wmo.int/activity-areas/wigos or email them directly at ec.systemedegestiondesdonnees-datamanagementsystem.ec@canada.ca. Send a request with a brief description of the monitoring network and the network operator’s contact details. A WIGOS Station Identifier is used to register an observing station or platform in the OSCAR/Surface database. The WIGOS Station Identifier is provided by the Canadian National Focal Point. The WIGOS Standard classifies metadata elements as either mandatory, conditional, or optional (WMO 2019c). Mandatory metadata elements shall always be made available. However, in some cases, if the value is unknown, not applicable or not available, they can be reported as such. Only a minimal set of the total metadata elements are mandatory. Conditional metadata elements shall be made available when the specified condition or conditions are met. Optional metadata elements should also be made available as they provide useful information that can help to better understand an observation. Details can be found in WMO (2019b) and WMO (2019c).CSA R100:20 pdf download.
