© GEO Secretariat

WIS in GEO framework

Osamu Ochiai, GEO SecretariatSeptember 6, 2007

ICG-WIS, Reading, UK

© GEO Secretariat

Contents of presentation• GEO overview• Activities of GEO Architecture and Data

Management • WIS as GEO task (AR-07-04) and status• A Sampling of GEO Achievements (for EO

Summit)• Way forward

© GEO Secretariat

GEO Overview

© GEO SecretariatU.S. Department of State, Washington DC July 31, 2003

GEO, the Group on Earth ObservationsAn Intergovernmental Organization with 71 Member Countries, the

European Commission and 46 Participating Organizations

© GEO Secretariat

GEO today

The Group on Earth Observations, was established in 2005, is an Intergovernmental Organization and today has 72 Members (71 Countries and the European Commission) & 46 Participating Organizations, including:

UN Organizations and Programs, such as FAO, IOC, ISDR, UNEP, UNESCO, UNFCCC, UNITAR/UNOSAT, UNOOSA,WMO

other leading international Organizations in different domains, such as FDSN, IAG, ICSU, OGC

© GEO Secretariat

History of GEO• The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)

stressed the importance of Earth observation systems for protecting people and the planet and identified priority actions for strengthening capacity and collaboration in this field.

• The Earth Observation Summits in Washington in 2003, Tokyo in 2004 and Brussels in 2005 to adopt and carry out the 10-Year Implementation Plan for building GEOSS and to establish the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) to implement this plan;

• The G8 Summits in Evian in 2003, Gleneagles in 2005 and Heiligendamm in 2007 committed to strengthen international cooperation on comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable observation and information systems and affirmed the role of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).

© GEO Secretariat

GEO Membership evolution

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

2005 2006 2007

Members

Organizations

GEO Membership

© GEO Secretariat

• 10-Year Plan Endorsed by Ministerial Summit

• Plenary (co-chaired by RSA, EC, USA and PRC)

• Executive Committee (12 Members)

• 4 Committees and 1 WG– Architecture and Data Committee– User Interface Committee– Science and Technology Committee – Capacity Building Committee– Tsunami WG

• Executive Secretariat (Geneva)

GEO Governance

© GEO Secretariat

GEOSS: A Global, Coordinated, Comprehensive and Sustained System of Observing Systems

GEOSS will be built from the expansion and interlinking of existing observation and information systems and the

investments of Members and Participating Organizations in new systems

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Why GEOSS ?

• Any Single Problem Requires Many Data Sets

• A Single Data Set Will Serve Many Communities

• A great number of Observing Systems of different nature and with different purposes

There is a Need to coordinate observations and to Share all Earth Observation Data in Standard Interoperable Formats.

© GEO Secretariat

1. Reduction and Prevention of Disasters2. Human Health and Epidemiology3. Energy Management4. Climate Variability & Change5. Water Management6. Weather Forecasting7. Ecosystems8. Agriculture9. Biodiversity

GEOSS will Address Nine Societal Benefit Areas

© GEO Secretariat

The Earth is a complex system of systems

© GEO Secretariat

In Situ

IKONOS

QuickBird

SPIN-2SPOT 4, 5

EROS A1

EnvisatAura/Aqua/Terra

Grace

QuikScat Sage

SeaWinds TRMM

Toms-EP

UARS Landsat 7

SORCE

ACRIMSAT

CBERSSeaWiFS

ERBS

Jason

Orbview 2, 3

Radarsat ALOS

DMC

Space

Users

Observation Systems are Unique

© GEO Secretariat

Any Single Problem Requires Many Data Sets

A Single Data Set Will Serve Many Communities

© GEO Secretariat

Systems Interoperability

• Technical Specifications for Collecting, Processing, Storing, and Disseminating Data and Products

• Based on Non-proprietary Standards

• Defining What Systems Should Comply With to be Contributed to GEOSS

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• Offering Access to Data and Services

• Providing Calibration and Validation

• Providing Tools

GEO Web Portal (and Clearinghouse)

Simplifying and Discovering Information

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• Data and Products at Minimum Time delay and Minimum Cost

• Free of Charge or Cost of Reproduction for Research and Education

GEO Data Sharing Principles

• Full and Open Exchange of Data…Recognizing Relevant International Instruments and National Policies and Legislation

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•Relies on the Goodwill of Members and Participating Organizations

•Efficient for Contribution of Components

•Not a Funding Mechanism

GEOSS Implementation is a Non-binding, Voluntary Process

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How GEO works Coordinating activities of Members and

Participating Organisations

Supporting the development of capabilities for Observations, Processing and Information Dissemination

Encouraging cross-cutting approaches

GEO is based on voluntary contributions from Members and participating Organizations.

The GEO implementation tool is the Workplan, updated on a yearly basis and subdivided in well identified tasks, addressing all Societal Benefit Areas and transverse areas.

© GEO Secretariat

The GEO WorkplanTo address targets of the Implementation Plan and track relevant progress, the main tool is a Workplan, approved every year by the GEO Plenary.

The Plan is structured in tasks encompassing all the SBA’s and the transverse areas leading to the progressive definition and implementation of GEOSS

Current Workplan is the 2007-2009, April 2007 issue, available at GEO website http://www.earthobservations.org/Task sheets can be downloaded from GEO ftp ftp://ftp.wmo.int/Projects/GEO/

© GEO Secretariat

The Cape Town Ministerial Summit 2007

Earth Observation for Sustainable Growth and Development

• The GEO Ministerial Summit will be held on 30th November 2007 in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Summit will be the opportunity to:

• Highlight early progress and key achievements of GEO/GEOSS;

• Bring emerging priorities to the attention of the Ministers;

• Engage the commitment of Ministers to endorse The Declaration of Cape Town.

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Activities of GEO Architecture and Data

Management

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Architecture Tasks• AR-06-11: Radio Frequency Protection • AR-07-01: Enabling Deployment of a GEOSS

Architecture • AR-07-02: GEOSS Architecture Implementation

Pilot • AR-07-03: Global Geodetic Reference Frames • AR-07-04: WIS – GEOSS Operational Exemplar

© GEO Secretariat

Data Management Tasks• DA-06-01: GEOSS Data Sharing Principles • DA-06-02: GEOSS Quality Assurance Strategy • DA-06-03: Ensemble-Technique Forecasting

Demonstrations • DA-06-04: Data, Metadata and Products Harmonisation • DA-06-05: Guidance Document for Basic Geographic Data • DA-06-09: GEOSS Best Practices Registry • DA-07-01: DEM Interoperability • DA-07-02: Global Land Cover • DA-07-03: Virtual Constellations • DA-07-04: Sensor Web Enablement for In-Situ Observing

Network Facilitation • DA-07-05: Higher Level Data Product Tools • DA-07-06: Data Integration and Analysis System

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Core Architecture Tasks AR-07-01: Enabling Deployment of a GEOSS Architecture

(1/6)

• Development GEOSS Strategic&Tactical Guidance documents

• Define and deploy core GEOSS registry infrastructure for GEO Members and Participating Organizations to commit component systems and register related resources to GEOSS

• Implement and maintain the process for the Standards Interoperability Forum (SIF) responsible for interoperability arrangements including special arrangements and standards

• Prototype and validate the processes for contributing and linking systems using the Interoperability Process Pilot Projects (IP3)

© GEO Secretariat

Component Contributor

Register Component

Reference registered standard

Capture info. on interoperability

arrangement

Begin Service Registration

Component has

service interface?

Uses registered standard?

Y

Y

N

N

Registration Done

Registration Done

Pass proposed

GISA to SIF

Core Architecture Tasks AR-07-01: Enabling Deployment of a GEOSS Architecture

(2/6) GEOSS Component and Service Registration Process

© GEO Secretariat

SIF receives proposed

GISA

Request for Comments posted

to SIF website

GISA entered in Special Arrangements

Register

Arrangement suitable for wider use

within GEOSS?

Y

N

Announcement made to SIF list

Arrangement remains as metadata to registered

component service

Other discipline experts invited to

comment

Entry in Services Register updated to point to new GISA

Core Architecture Tasks AR-07-01: Enabling Deployment of a GEOSS Architecture

(3/6) Standards and Interoperability Forum Process

© GEO Secretariat

Core Architecture Tasks AR-07-01: Enabling Deployment of a GEOSS Architecture

(4/6)

• Component and Service Registry – GEO Process and GEOSS architecture required registration of

contributed components from Members and Participating Organizations

– To facilitate access to GEOSS resources, the automation of the Component registration process and service information was recommended

– This supports GEOSS Clearinghouse and Web Portal discovery and usage of online services

• 8 WMO related component registries:– WMO Information System - WIS– World Weather Watch Global Observing System - GOS– Global Atmosphere Watch - GAW– World Hydrological Cycle Observing System - WHYCOS– World Climate Programme - WCP– Global Climate Observing System - GCOS– Global Ocean Observing System - GOOS– Global Terrestrial Observing System - GTOS

© GEO Secretariat

GEOSSComponent,

Service registry

Standards,Special

ArrangementsRegistries

references

Web Portal

searches

Offerors

contribute/register

CommunityResourcesaccesses

GEOSSClearinghouse

Catalogues

Services

User

accesses

get list ofcatalogueservices

accesses

searches

invokes

1

2

3

4

8

7

65

Core Architecture Tasks AR-07-01: Enabling Deployment of a GEOSS Architecture

(5/6) Registry Context

© GEO Secretariat

Core Architecture Tasks AR-07-01: Enabling Deployment of a GEOSS Architecture

(6/6)IP3 Overview

WIS

GBIF

FDSN

CEOP

Species Response to Climate Change

ScenarioNativi

Fault Lubrication Scenario

Ahern

Landslide Risk Scenario

Thomas

Flood Risk Scenario

Burford

Seismic Events from Glacier/Ice

Sheet Disintegration

ScenarioAhern

Exotic event catalog

Terminus retreat

GLIMS

Event catalog

Precip (NCAR/TIGGE), stream gauge (CUAHSI /USGS)

Seismic Trigger

Precip, soil moisture (TIGGE)

Climate data (NCAR)

Species data

DEM (DEMIS)

Ancillary

Meningitis Early Warning System

Kelly

Precip, soil moisture (TIGGE)

Soil moisture, stream gage, etc.

© GEO Secretariat

• Lead the incorporation of contributed components consistent with the GEOSS Architecture using a GEOSS Web Portal and a GEOSS Clearinghouse search facility to access services through GEOSS Interoperability Arrangements in support of the GEOSS Societal Benefit Areas. Incorporate GEOSS contributed components into a pilot implementation of the GEOSS Architecture in coordination with Task AR-07-01. Further it will include the relevant information on existing Earth Observation Capacity Building efforts and resources. The User Interface Committee and Capacity Building Committee will support the Architecture and Data Committee in overseeing this Task.

Core Architecture Tasks AR-07-02: GEOSS Architecture Implementation Pilot (1/3)

• Implementation WG– Architecture WG– GEO Portal WG– Clearinghouse WG

• Scenario WGs– Wildland Fires in Africa

WG– E&B in Africa WG– E&B in Polar WG– Regional Climate WG– Oil Spill WG– Volcano in Asia WG

© GEO Secretariat

Core Architecture Tasks AR-07-02: GEOSS Architecture Implementation Pilot (2/3)

GEOSS Notional Architecture

Standards

Components

Services

GEOSS Registries

Metadata

© GEO Secretariat

• Evaluate, enhance, and document an operational architecture for GEOSS

• Develop and register persistent GEOSS services that can support multiple application domains

• Use scenarios to exercise discovery and access mechanisms to GEOSS services and data

• Identify technically qualified solutions for re-usable GEOSS Web Portals and Clearinghouse for use by GEO and GEO members

• Prepare demonstration of the use of GEOSS architecture in support of decision-making for GEO Plenary and Ministerial in November 2007

Core Architecture Tasks AR-07-02: GEOSS Architecture Implementation Pilot (3/3)

Goal of this Pilot activity

© GEO Secretariat

© GEO Secretariat

WIS as GEO task (AR-07-04) and its status

© GEO Secretariat

Task Sheet descriptions – 1/3• Title: WIS – GEOSS Operational Exemplar • Short description: The purpose of this Task is to upgrade and

demonstrate the WMO Information System (WIS) as one operational exemplar of the GEOSS architecture implementation process providing improvements for multiple Societal Benefit Areas.

• Output & Deliverables: Operational WIS as contributor to the GEO Information System of Systems for the weather, water, climate and hydro-meteorological disaster societal benefit areas.

• Task Participants:ADC-Sherpa, WMO, WMO, Don HinsmanTask POC, WMO, WMO/WWW, David Thomas Contributor, INCOSE, INCOSE, Lawrence McGovernContributor, INCOSE, INCOSE, James Martin

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Task Sheet descriptions – 2/3Description of the Work to be Performed• Extend and further improve the existing WMO Global Telecommunications

System (GTS) services that currently interconnect National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) to ensure time and operational-critical exchange of weather, water, climate and hydro-meteorological disaster data, warnings and products in response to identified user requirements.

• Finalize and implement procedures and mechanisms to provide to all national and international programmes and user communities, data discovery and access services to all weather, water, climate, and hydro-meteorological disaster and other related environmental information, including metadata compliant with relevant international standards.

• Finalize standard formats and interfaces for all weather, water, climate and hydro-meteorological disaster observations and products to reduce operations and maintenance costs, and foster applications. Agreed upon standard formats to be available as interoperability arrangements.

• Improve connectivity and access to environmental information among WMO's 187 Member Countries.

• Improve connectivity and inter-operability through registration in the relevant GEOSS registers with other environmentally related disciplines within GEOSS (e.g., natural disaster preparedness and mitigation), including other relevant GEO societal benefit areas (SBAs) to facilitate timely decision making and exploitation of WMO's rich information base.

• Participate as an Interoperability Process Pilot.

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Task Sheet descriptions – 3/3Current Status• Appointment of a WIS project manager ‘David Thomas’ at WMO in March 2007• A contractor ‘Stefan Mildner’ was engaged in May 2007 to undertake an analysis and

benchmark for an ongoing rolling review process of WIS stakeholders’ present and future requirements on WIS.

• Continued progress on the development of the Region VI VGISC and SIMDAT project involving Germany, France and the United Kingdom, as well as ECMWF and EUMETSAT.

• Related to the VGISC project there has been; • In addition to the core SIMDAT members, contributions and involvement in GISC development

including Australia, China, Japan and Korea• Countries such as Zimbabwe and Morocco are also participating as National Centres.• Work is under way to prepare technical specifications for the GISC and VGISC as a part of a

tender for operational implementation of the European VGISC. Aim to have the tender filled early in 2008 for implementation by the end of the year.

• Present World Meteorological Centres (WMC), Moscow, Washington and Melbourne, and Regional Telecommunications Hubs (RTH), Algiers, Beijing, Brasilia, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Dakar, Exeter, Jeddah, Nairobi, New Delhi, Offenbach, Toulouse, Prague, Sofia and Tokyo, are now incorporating WIS into their equipment and applications strategies

• DCPC development work is progressing with work being undertaken at NCAR, as well as the work in progress under SIMDAT with ECMWF and EUMETSAT.

• The role of WIS and commitment to its development were reinforced at both the WMO Congress XV and the following meeting of the WMO Executive Council LIX, both held in May 2007.

• Key WMO components and some services have been registered in the GEO services registry. The complexity of WIS being made up almost entirely of systems owned and maintained by WMO Members has raised some issues on how to register components and services and will need to be addressed by the ADC.

• The next meeting of the Inter-Commission Corodination Group on WIS (ICG-WIS) will be at ECMWF, Reading 5 to 7 September 2007.

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WIS Discussion at ADC meeting in Tokyo• Support from the GEO community was solicited as follows;

– help for the WIS developers & ET, some help on XML development – expose WIS developers to GEOSS community to understand non-WMO member processes – GISC developers needed users outside of WMO community to test interoperability

interfaces (e.g., OAI, OGC web services) • Question on the method to gather user requirements in the WIS project.

– via WMO and other international programs (e.g. by distributing questionnaires). To establish a community for User Requirements, assigning some key personnel from UIC to this task was suggested

• The GEO secretariat was asked about its role in a process for making others interested in participating, i.e., communication strategy. It would be a great opportunity to find other partners through GEO

• Question on where the benefit of GEOSS was (for example, input from UIC for user requirements) in developing the WIS.

– WMO was taking the lead to develop interfaces but there are not enough resources and it is necessary to get help from other communities. Also, WIS was a system of systems and the principles of GEOSS were being used to help bring the various elements of WIS together

• Question on if there was overarching enterprise architecture for GEOSS that shows how tasks like this were being added to GEO.

– GEO had a conceptual framework of the GEOSS architecture and ADC were starting with the development of registries to make information like components visible to the community. Through continuous and incremental activities the system would become visible. This was somewhat discussed in the Strategic Guidance document. Basically, GEOSS was a universe of many sovereign systems so it was not possible to do a top down architecture

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A Sampling of GEO Achievements

(for Summit)

© GEO Secretariat

EMERGINGRE-EMERGING

ZOONOTICVECTOR-BORNE

* Modified from Morens et al. 2004 Nature 430:242

Understand Global Emerging Diseases

© GEO Secretariat

A Warning System for Sand and Dust Storms

© GEO Secretariat

© GEO Secretariat

Solar Energy

© GEO SecretariatConnecting Systems

Connecting People

THORPEX will develop, demonstrate and evaluate a multi-model, multi-analysis and multi national ensemble prediction system, referred to as THORPEX Interactive Grand Global Ensemble. Access to WEATHER data for other societal benefit areas are facilitated and supported

GEO Role - Data available to 9 GEO SB Areas - Broad & easy access through GEO Portal - Awareness of data availability - Development of socio-economic

applications - Data policy

© GEO Secretariat

TIGGE data bases open for general user access - expected 2007

- 3 archiving centres (CMA, ECWMF, NCAR) in place and ready to operate

- 11 forecasting centres committed to provide global forecasts to archiving centres

- Routine access to forecast data-base soon possibleECMWF

NCAR CMA

TIGGE Core Dataset• Global ensemble forecasts to around 14 days generated routinely

at different centres around the world• Outputs collected in near real time and stored in a common

format for access by the research community

• Easy access to long series of data is necessary for applications such as bias correction and the optimal combination of ensembles from different sources

© GEO Secretariat

                                                

 

                                    

*China Brazil Earth Resources Satellite

CBERS Data for Africa and the Caribbean

© GEO Secretariat

• CBERS Data to Africa and Caribbean will be Available Free of Charge

• Data Reception and Image Processing in Africa– Southern Africa – SAC (South Africa)– North and Western Africa - Maspalomas (Spain)– Possibly North & Eastern Africa – Malindi (Italy/Kenya)

• Products Distribution to Users– GEOPortal– GEONETCast

From Satellite to End-Users

© GEO Secretariat

       

                      

                     

• Agriculture and Forestry• Water resources Managers• Land Use Planners• Disasters (Floods, Spills) • Geological Mapping • Fisheries

Image source CBERS/INPE

Applications and End-users

© GEO Secretariat

GEO Web Portal - Objective -Define a model prototype system for access to all

Earth observation data

• The Web Portal to support GEO-wide content management, SBA community collaboration space, and user interface access to clearinghouse and registered GEOSS resources

• The Clearinghouse to provide search and additional services of GEOSS services and resources;

• Utilize existing systems and develop recommendations for GEOSS interoperability arrangements

© GEO Secretariat

DisasterHealthEnergyClimateWater

WeatherEcosystemAgricultureBiodiversity

Direct AccessTo

Data & Services

CapacityBuilding

GEONETCast

AboutGEO

Search by location

Search by theme

A Portal to DATA and SERVICES

© GEO Secretariat

User Types&

User Scenarios

Data & Servicesthrough

Clearinghouse

Capacity BuildingInformation Site

GEO Web Site

GEONETCastInformation Site

© GEO Secretariat

WMO

Main Contributors

EUMETSAT

CMA

Coverage Areas

NOAA

• EUMETCast: Europe (Ku band), Africa and Caribbean (C band)• GEONETCast-Americas : North-, Central & South-America

– pilot EUMETCast-C band for 2006-2008– transition to a NOAA ADM by 2008

• FengYunCast: Asia-Pacific regions– trial to be followed by operational system (C-band)

• MITRA satellite data dissemination system: Potential Contributor

Russia, Others

GEONETCast

© GEO Secretariat

Technical Specifications

Data Policy

Infrastructure and Data Provider

User Capacity BuildingDemonstration and

Operational Use

User Requirement

• A near real-time system to disseminate space-based, air-borne and in situ data, metadata and products through satellites

• The vision is to provide easy access to as much data and as many people as possible

GEONETCast

© GEO Secretariat

Receiver Station Configuration: affordable stations through satellites

- Dedicated personal computer (~ $1000)

Data analysis and processing should be done on separate computer(s)

- Satellite antenna dish (1-3 m) (~ $300-1200)- DTH receiver card or box (~ $200)

© GEO Secretariat

Model/Integration

GEO Web Portal

GEOSS Clearinghouse

GEONETCast

Uplink Center

Data CenterInformation system

...

Satellite Obs Systems In-Situ Obs Systems Airborne Obs SystemsCEOS CGMS GOS

Irridium Commercial Others

Argo HARON FluxTower

FDSN Others

Various

Data CenterInformation system

Data CenterInformation system

Data Archives

Data Management

Data Access and Dissemination

Model/Integration

© GEO Secretariat

Way Forward

© GEO Secretariat

WIS in GEO Framework• Current WIS involvement in Architecture and Data Management

– Registry – WMO components have been registered. How these registry information will be used or accessed through users?

– IP3 – WIS and other components for certain SBA scenarios. Very important for both WIS and GEOSS. It should be sustained for future.

– SIF – Standards and Special Arrangement registries for WIS conformation and contribution would be expected.

– Architecture Implementation Pilot – WIS contribution for interoperability pilot prototyping.

• User Requirement & Enhancement the WIS to GEOSS Framework– Furthering the current ADC activities– WMO is in 5SBAs, Weather, Water, Climate, Disaster, Agriculture,

also has strong links to energy and health through WMO members The methods of communicating with both more participants through GEO framework Through GEO Architecture and User Interface Committees?

– David Thomas as WIS Project manager and GEO Secretariat will discuss the way forward around the end of September.