Obsolete, see new MAP Data Access Policy
Edited by:Data collected throughout MAP and stored in the MAP Data Centre (MDC) will originate
from a number of different sources managed by various institutions of academic,
governmental, and private nature. The commercial aspects of meteorological data in Europe
require a careful and unambiguous handling with respect to scientific data such as to
inhibit commercial misuse and to safeguard the interests of the data providers.
The CIG and the SSC have developed a Data Access Policy taking into account both the
scientistsí and the data providersí position. The Data Access Policy requires a specific
registration procedure on the level of individual scientists, including the submission of
a project abstract. Once a scientist has been registered, data stored in the MDC can be
accessed free of charge. The MDC can be accessed on the Internet under
http://www.map.meteoswiss.ch.
In the following both the Data Access Policy and the details of the registration procedure
are reproduced.
(Version 2.3, approved by IGP 22 May 1996)
The purpose of the MAP Data Access Policy is to provide access to meteorological data
for scientists working on topics related to MAP. On a technical level, access to
scientific data will be provided through the MAP Data Centre (MDC). On a policy level, a
set of rules and procedures is required regulating the access to the data. This policy is
defined in the current document.
The Data Access Policy must not only regard the needs of scientists for high-quality and
easy-accessible data but, at the same time, it must respect the rights of the data
providers, since some of the meteorological data in the Alpine Region are restricted by
the data producer.
The present Data Access Policy has been approved by the IGP at its meeting on 22 May 1996
in Hall in Tyrol for the data categories G (general data) and S (sensitive data). Thus
official steps can now be taken towards obtaining the appropriate data from the providing
agencies (i.e. weather and hydrological services). Details of the regulations concerning
the data categories F (field phase data) and R (real-time data) will be reconsidered at a
later stage. In the future the Data Access Policy will be updated to the actual planning
of MAP. Subsequent releases of this document must be approved by the CIG, the SSC and the
IGP.
The ownership of data made available through the MAP Data Centre remains with the data
provider. The use of the data is free of charge. The MAP Data Centre is under full control
of the international MAP management.
All scientists are eligible for registration at the MDC. The registration procedure requires to sign a brief statement that specifies the conditions under which the data may be accessed and used, and to submit a project abstract. The regulations require that:
Access to the MDC is normally granted within 30 days. The major data providers, bearing in mind the above factors, retain the right to refuse registration. In case of objections, the IGP takes ñ after consultation with the data provider ñ a final decision within 90 days after receipt of the application and informs the applicant of the basis of the refusal.
After registration, the scientist is referred to as îprogramme participant”, and obtains free access to general and field-phase data as further outlined below. For some of the sensitive data specific regulations apply (see Table 1 below).
The disparate character of the data requires a classification into several data categories. The access to each of these categories is regulated separately. The data categories and the basic properties of each category are described in Table 1. Further details on each category and the associated access policy is given in the subsequent subsections.
General data is defined as data with a small commercial value which can be made available to all scientists. This data includes:
G1: Operational Data for Episodes of Special Interest
MAP will undertake suitable steps towards making available operational data collected by numerous agencies for certain episodes of special interest. These episodes include cases of a duration of a few days which are intended for numerical experiments and case studies. The data to be collected and made available during these periods includes GTS and non-GTS surface-station and sounding data; wind-profiler data; radar data; satellite data; and analysed data fields from ECMWF or national meteorological services. Maximum effort will be taken in order to provide data for these episodes in as high a spatial and temporal resolution as possible.
G2: Operational Data for whole MAP seasons
Several MAP seasons (June to November for the years 1992 to 1997) have been defined, for which data will be made easily available. Data coverage for this category will be lower than, and will become available later than, the data of category G1.
G3: Operational Data for the MAP field phase
Operational data from the MAP general observing period, which has a duration of 13
months and is currently scheduled for October 1997 to mid November 1998, will be made
available under the same terms as data for the G1 and G2 category.
Data of category G1, G2 and G3 includes data from the climatological surface-networks
(e.g. several thousand precipitation and temperature stations) with a temporal resolution
of one day or higher. This data is potentially sensitive. However, since access is
restricted to a limited number of time windows, we hope that the data can widely be
provided under the access policy of the G category.
G4: Supplemental climatological data
Some of the longer-term climatological data (for instance series of upper-air soundings and station records) can be included in the G data category.
G5: Output from numerical experiments
MAP will try to obtain access to the output of some interesting numerical experiments. Such experiments could for instance be used as initial and lateral-boundary data of subsequent high-resolution experiments.
G6: Auxiliary data sets
Additional data sets which are of interest to the MAP community include
G6.1 a high-resolution topographical data set,
G6.2 high-resolution physiographical data sets,
G6.3 digital lists containing the location, characteristics and ownership of GTS and
non-GTS instrumentation.
All general data will be made available to all programme participants upon registration.
The field-phase data includes all data from the special observing systems deployed during the Special Observing Period (SOP), or during other minor field activities in the framework of MAP. According to current planning, the SOP has a duration of 3 months (mid August 1998 to mid November 1998).
All data collected by special observing systems must be made available through the MAP
Data Centre as early as possible, and not later than 18 months after the end of the SOP.
After this time, access to field-phase data is treated as in the case of the
G category. All archived field-phase data will thus become available to all programme
participants upon registration, irrespective of their involvement in the field phase.
Access to (preliminary versions of) the field-phase data within the 18 month delay time is
encouraged by MAP. A general policy regarding this matter will be formulated not later
than 1 year before the start of the GOP.
Data which is useful for weather forecasting is considered real-time data. During the Special Observing Period (SOP), such data is required for mission planning. The data will be provided by supporting weather services. Since real-time field-phase data will be stored in the MAP Data Centre with a time-delay, and only after it has lost its commercial value, a special data policy regarding its handling by the Data Centre is not required.
Some of the long-term climatological data in the Alpine Region are subject to
restriction by the data producers. This includes for instance long-term climatological
records for temperature and precipitation at several thousand stations with a temporal
resolution of one day or higher. MAP will undertake suitable steps towards making
available certain time-periods of such data under the G category. The access policy for
such data is as described in section 3.1.
Concerning the full long-term station records, suitable measures must be taken to
safeguard the data against unauthorised access. Since some of these climatological data
sets are highly essential to the planning of the field phase, MAP will undertake suitable
steps in order to facilitate access to this data. This includes high-resolution data of
the following types:
S1: precipitation (daily totals)
S2: temperature (Tdaily, Tmax, Tmin with daily resolution; T with 6-h resolution)
S3: station pressure with 6h resolution
S4: wind with 6h resolution
The access policy for sensitive data must respect the rights of the data providers, and
must safeguard the data against unauthorised access. In essence, the data provider is the
only one who can grant (or not grant) access to his sensitive data.
The main purpose of making available sensitive data sets through the MDC rather than the
individual providing agencies is to centralise and co-ordinate the substantial efforts
required for the collection, homogenisation and quality-checking of large data sets
derived from disparate sources; and to facilitate access to the data.
Permission to obtain access to the data can be sought for in either one of the two
procedures described below:
For both the procedures, the scientists who receive access to the data must agree on providing the results of the research to the data provider.
Table 1. Data categories.
| Data Category | Commercial Value | Example of Data | Access Policy |
| G: General Data | low | episodic data for past case studies, operational data of GOP | as liberal as possible |
| F: Field-Phase Data | low | all operational and special data from the GOP (13 months) and the SOP (3 months) | as liberal as possible after a brief time delay |
| R: Real-Time Data | high | real-time non-GTS data | only to a group of forecasters and scientists located at or engaged in support of the MAP Operation Centre during the SOP |
| S: Sensitive Data | very high | long-term, high-resolution non-GTS station records | restricted to selected scientists who will have to sign a special agreement |
The short-term priorities on the data level are listed in Table 2.
The episodes for data category G1 have been selected as follows (list may still be subject to minor modifications):
The MAP seasons for data Category G2 have been selected to be the months June to November of the years 1992 to 1995; 1996;1997.
Two data domains have been defined:
On a policy level a next important step will be the adjustment and approval of this data access policy document for the field-phase and real-time data categories.
Table 2. Short-term data priorities.
| Data | Priority | Target Date | |
| G1: | operational data for episodes of special interest | 1 | End of 1996 |
| G2: | operational data for whole MAP periods | 3 | Spring 1997 |
| G6.1: | high-resolution topographical data set | 1 | February 1996 |
| G6.2: | high-resolution physiographical data sets | 1 | as soon as possible |
| G6.3: | digital lists of stations | 2 | cont. Updating |
| primary MAP documents - MAP Design Proposal - MDC Access Policy |
1 | December 1995 June 1996 |
|
| secondary MAP documents (e.g. Newsletter) | 3 | cont. updating |
MAP reserves the right to undertake steps against violations of the data access policy
as agreed upon registration. In such a case, the MAP Data Base Manager is authorised to
discontinue access to the MDC. Such a decision must be confirmed by the next meetings of
the SSC and the IGP.
Three years after the end of the field phase the IGP will decide upon the specific form of
continuation of the MAP Data Centre.
(as published on the MDC over WWW: http://www.map.meteoswiss.ch)
The registration procedure is designed to provide access to the MDC as quickly as possible
and, at the same time, to account for the MAP Data Access Policy. The registration is
based on the application form and is structured as follows:
1. The Applicant:
2. The PO:
3. The Data Providers:
In case of objection the following actions are taken:
4. In absence of objections:
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