Professor John Snow, Chair of the AMS ad hoc Committee on the Weather and Climate Enterprise, convened the First AMS Community Summit with the primary goal of exploring how the Society and other groups can aid in the creation of the first truly comprehensive operational, North American Mesoscale meteorological, hydrologic, and oceanic network of land, river, and coastal zone surface observing stations. The goal of this North American Mesonet is to merge data from all existing operational surface observation networks, including many which are currently maintained by diverse public and private organizations, and which serve many distinct uses and users, into a single, comprehensive, integrated, operational, and possibly distributed database. The Summit began with a panel reviewing regional and national mesonet efforts, including MesoWest, the Oklahoma Mesonet, the Weather Bug network, and plans for modernization of the National Cooperative Observer Network. A forthcoming report on a workshop on this subject was also previewed. Participants then spent an afternoon and the following morning discussing how to overcome the technical, scientific, and institutional barriers to the creation of a comprehensive operational North American Mesonet database.
A second important goal of the Summit was to demonstrate the feasibility and utility of establishing the proposed new AMS Weather and Climate Enterprise Commission to tackle important national weather and climate problems, of which the North American Mesonet is a prime example. The Community Summit was attended by approximately 40 representatives of industry, government, academia, and end user communities such as surface transportation. Assisting Dr. Snow (University of Oklahoma) in conducting the Summit were AMS President Susan Avery (University of Colorado), George Frederick (Vaisala), Ray Ban (The Weather Channel), Maria Pirone (AER), and Bob Plante (private consultant). Summit accomplishments include validation of community interest and identification of several "next step" action items (e.g., develop standards for metadata, create an online registry for networks and stations, and assemble a comprehensive collection of end user requirements). -- contributed by R. Gary Rasmussen, AMS Private Sector Coordinator, grasmussen@ametsoc.org. |
