(WMO Op Newsletter) WIGOS Station Identifier - second announcement

following is posted on WMO Operational Newsletter
http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/ois/Operational_Information/Newsletters/current_news_en.html

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WIGOS Station Identifiers
The 17th World Meteorological Congress (Cg-17), May-June 2015, approved the Manual on WIGOS [1], which includes the WIGOS Station Identifiers as Attachment 2.1 that comes into force on 1 July 2016. Described below are some of the most relevant aspects for the implementation of the WIGOS Identifiers, as well as a diagram to guide Members on what to do when assigning WIGOS Identifiers to observing facilities (stations/platforms).


The structure of the WIGOS Identifier consists of four blocks: the "WIGOS Identifier Series" (a number), the "Issuer of Identifier" (a number), the "Issue Number" (a number) and the "Local Identifier" (a set of characters).

For observing facilities the "WIGOS Identifier Series" takes the value 0.

The WIGOS Identifier(s) associate the observing facility with their WIGOS metadata – the WIGOS Metadata Standard is also part of the Manual on WIGOS (Attachment to Appendix 2.4 [2]). Each observing facility must have at least one WIGOS ID (it may have more than one, but it is desirable to have as few as possible).

Observing facilities (stations) that already have an identifier from a WMO Programme may continue to use it and are not required to have additional identifiers (see diagram below and the WIS Wiki [3] for more detailed guidance on how to derive the values of the WIGOS Identifier blocks for observing facilities with existing identifiers issued by WMO Programmes). If an observing facility is already associated with a WIGOS Identifier, or is associated with a WMO or partner programme identifier, an additional WIGOS ID should not be issued.

The only constraint on how an "Issuer of identifiers" allocates "Issue Number" and "Local Identifier" is that only one observing facility may be associated with a particular combination of values in these blocks "Issue Number" and "Local Identifier" (different issuers will use different values for "Issuer of Identifier" to ensure that there is no duplication of identifiers).

WIGOS Identifiers cannot be represented in the Traditional Alphanumeric Code forms such as FM-12 SYNOP or FM-35 TEMP. The Table Driven Code Form (TDCF) equivalents have to be used (FM-94 BUFR or FM-95 CREX, or, in the future, model driven code forms) – more details are available on using WIGOS IDs when exchanging reports [4]. Centres that are unable to read the TDCFs will not be able to access the reports from stations that only have WIGOS IDs.

A diagram summarizing how to assign a WIGOS station identifier is available.  
Published: 29 April 2016

[1] http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/wigos/documents/WIGOS-RM/1160_en.pdf
[2] http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/wigos/documents/WIGOS-RM/1160_en.pdf#page=49
[3] http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/WIS/wiswiki/tiki-index.php?page=WIGOS-Identifiers&structure=WIGOS
[4] http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/WIS/wiswiki/tiki-index.php?page=WIGOS-ID-BUFR
[5] http://wis.wmo.int/file=2711