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WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION
WMO INTEGRATED GLOBAL OBSERVING SYSTEM
(WIGOS)
OSCAR/Surface User Manual
(Version 0.8; 21 March 2017)
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Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 4
I. FINDING INFORMATION IN OSCAR/SURFACE ............................................. 4
How to navigate the portal....................................................................................................... 4
How to Search for Stations ...................................................................................................... 7
How to find specific observing systems, such as Radars, Wind Profilers,
Radiosondes etc. ............................................................................................................................ 9
Station report details .................................................................................................................. 9
Station characteristics ..................................................................................................................... 10
Observations/measurements ....................................................................................................... 11
Station contacts, Bibliographic references and Documents. ............................................ 12
How to identify the National Focal Point for OSCAR/Surface of a country? ............... 13
How to Search for Bibliographical Reference ................................................................13
How to Search for Instruments ............................................................................................13
II. CHANGING INFORMATION IN OSCAR/SURFACE ....................................... 14
The authorization and access control module in OSCAR/Surface.......................14
How to Log-on to OSCAR/Surface and register a new user ...................................15
How to create a new station ...................................................................................................18
Input of a new WMO Index No (WIGOS ID) ..................................................................19
Saving a station as a draft for further editing ....................................................................... 20
Recording changes ........................................................................................................................... 20
Closure of a station .......................................................................................................................... 21
Multipurpose station concept / duplicate stations................................................................ 21
Programme/Network affiliations and approval ...................................................................... 21
Editing of an existing station .................................................................................................22
Change of elevation of station or instruments ...................................................................... 22
When the edits cannot be saved ................................................................................................. 22
Session timeout ................................................................................................................................. 22
Editing Radars or JCOMM stations .............................................................................................. 22
How to copy a station ................................................................................................................23
How to delete a station .............................................................................................................23
How to get help and report bugs .........................................................................................23
How to make mass changes/Is there an API/how to synchronize existing
database with OSCAR/Surface ..............................................................................................23
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Table of figures
Figure 1 Front page of OSCAR/Surface ....................................................................................... 4
Figure 2 Search Tab......................................................................................................................... 5
Figure 3 Quick Search results ....................................................................................................... 6
Figure 4 Map Interface .................................................................................................................... 6
Figure 5 Search for Stations Screen ............................................................................................ 7
Figure 6 Search for Stations- expanded ..................................................................................... 8
Figure 7 Geographic coordinates search .................................................................................... 9
Figure 8 Drag and draw selection ................................................................................................ 9
Figure 9 The main sections of the station report ................................................................... 10
Figure 10 Recording the station history in the station characteristics section ................ 10
Figure 11 Station characteristics ................................................................................................ 10
Figure 12 WIGOS station identifier ............................................................................................ 11
Figure 13 Additional identifiers can be added under "programs/affiliations" .................. 11
Figure 14 Observations/measurements section of station ................................................... 12
Figure 15 Search for Contacts ..................................................................................................... 12
Figure 16 Detailed attributes of a contact in OSCAR/Surface ............................................. 13
Figure 17 Search for Bibliographic References ....................................................................... 13
Figure 18 Search for Instrument- expanded ........................................................................... 14
Figure 19 Access and role module in OSCAR/Surface ........................................................... 15
Figure 20 Login and registration of a new user ...................................................................... 15
Figure 21 User registration .......................................................................................................... 16
Figure 22 New station registration ............................................................................................. 18
Figure 23 Error message indicating missing fields ................................................................. 19
Figure 24 Locating a station that was previously saved as draft in "my stations" ......... 20
Figure 25 Recording changes ...................................................................................................... 21
Figure 26 Affiliating a data-series with a program / network .............................................. 22
Figure 27 Edit button ..................................................................................................................... 22
Figure 28 The copy action in the “my stations” screen......................................................... 23
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INTRODUCTION
The OSCAR/Surface User Manual consists of two parts. Part I, Finding Information in
OSCAR/Surface contains help on finding stations and observations in OSCAR/Surface. Part I is
useful for both registered and anonymous users. Part II, Changing information in
OSCAR/Surface, contains information on how to manage stations in the system. Part II is
mainly relevant for registered users, such as station contacts and national focal points.
I. FINDING INFORMATION IN OSCAR/SURFACE
How to navigate the portal
Figure 1 Front page of OSCAR/Surface
The home page of OSCAR/Surface (Figure 1) has been labelled with large red letters, A – F
for the purpose of describing the various functionalities of the website. Each letter corresponds
with a different functionality as follows.
A. The Home, Search, and Critical Review tabs
The Home tab allows for navigation to the OSCAR/Surface home page at all times. This
functionality is also replicated by clicking on the OSCAR logo in the upper right of the page.
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Figure 2 Search Tab
The Search tab brings one to the search functionality page (Figure 2) that allows for queries
to the information stored in OSCAR/Surface in a variety of ways:
• Search for Station – searching by observing station attributes
• Search for Instruments – searching by the instrument attributes within an observing
station.
• Search for Contact (Figure 15) – searching an address book of observing system owners
or points of contacts.
• Search for Bibliographic reference (Figure 17) – searching the records of peer reviewed
articles that were published.
The Critical Review tab is currently not activated as the Critical Review functionality will be
implemented at a later stage.
B. This section in the upper right corner of the webpage in Figure 1 houses the
links to pages for:
a. About OSCAR/Surface – Information about the development and history of
OSCAR/Surface
b. News – An archive of the “Latest news” updates from related to OSCAR/Surface
c. Glossary – list of commonly used terms in WIGOS and OSCAR/Surface
d. Frequently asked questions (FAQs) – list of useful questions for the users of
OSCAR/Surface
e. Links – list of useful links relating to WIGOS and observing systems
f. Support – A form requesting contact information from the user and a comments
section to capture the user’s request to be submitted to the OSCAR/Surface support
and operations team.
g. Feedback – A form for submitting feedback to the OSCAR/Surface development
team.
h. Login- The permissions controlled access to edit the data contained in
OSCAR/Surface.
C. Search – This text box allows for a quick text search across the description,
title, name, and address
The results are returned in a drop down menu, as shown in Figure 3 arranged by
categories:
a. Search for Station and,
b. Search for Contacts.
In the right corner of each category, the user may access all the search results by
clicking on the “View all>>” link associated with the three categories.
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Figure 3 Quick Search results
D. Quick access
The quick access section allows for searches by station name and WMO ID (under “Generate
station report by:”) to retrieve/view the station’s detailed information. Under “Generate station
lists by:” there is also the capability to generate a list of all stations (named “report” in
OSCAR/Surface) within a particular country and for a station type. There is a quick search for
contact names (under “Find people by:”) as well as that generates a report with the full
contact information stored within OSCAR/Surface.
E. Filter map
The filter map functionality allows for the display of world-wide stations on the map. By
default, all WIGOS component observing systems and other components/networks are
selected, however, the user is able to remove check marks from components to view only
those stations affiliated with the selected programs.
Figure 4 Map Interface
F. Map interface and download
Figure 4 shows the map plotting the observing stations in OSCAR/Surface coloured by the
categories “air”, “land or ocean surface”, “sub-surface” and “lake or rivers”. The map interface
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allows for the selection of individual stations by clicking on a station on the map. The user is
able to zoom in/out using the “+/-“ buttons on the upper left section of the map, or double
click on any open spaces in the map. The mouse can also be used to move the map to the
appropriate location of interest. Once the desired area is displayed, the user has the option to
click on an individual station to generate a report of that station’s information or choose to
download the map in various formats for offline display purposes. The download functionality is
accessible via the icon in the upper right section above the map (Figure 4) and allows for an
image export as a PNG, JPG, GIF, and EPS, and also allows for the station location information
to be downloaded in the KML format for use in Google Earth.
How to Search for Stations
Figure 5 Search for Stations Screen
The search for Stations, via the “Search” tab (see the previous section on Finding information
in OSCAR/Surface) stored in OSCAR/Surface, as shown in
Figure 5, is available for users with prior knowledge of the Station name via a drop down
menu under the button “Browse by station name”. Alternatively, other criteria may be used to
narrow the results to probable stations meeting those attributes. These search criteria are
available under the option “Advanced search”:
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• a “Search term” corresponding to a partial recall of the station’s name;
• the periodicity of the data being “Near-real time” or not, which is searched by checking
the box for “Near-real time” stations;
• the “Station Type” which is a categorization of the type of station at which an
observation is made;
• The “Station class”, which corresponds to the most frequently used attributes of the
Volume A codelist for Observing Remarks;
• the “Program/Network Affiliation” – a menu of WMO programmes is provided via the
button and allows for the selection of one or more WMO programmes for listing. The
“X” button allows for the selections to be removed from the search criteria.
• the “WMO Region/Country” – Corresponds to the various WMO Regional Associations
(RA), I-VI and the Members within each RA.
• the “Organization” – corresponding to the comprehensive list of supervising
organizations for all stations in OSCAR/Surface.
• the “Variable” – clicking on the second button, from the right, opens a menu that
allows to select one or more variables from the following domains:
o Atmosphere,
o Earth,
o Ocean,
o Outer Space , and
o Terrestrial,
each with their own subcategories to further refine the search as detailed as the actual
physical variable being measured.
Figure 6 Search for Stations- expanded
There are additional options for searching by Stations, as shown in Figure 6 that are
accessible by clicking on the “More Search Options” hyperlink. This reveals the options:
• Search by Climate zone – A climate zone can be selected from a drop down menu with a
list of the Koppen classification types.
• Search by Geographic Coordinates – There are text boxes that allow the selection of a
geographic range as “Longitude from” to “Longitude to”, as well as “Latitude from” to
“Latitude to”. It is possible to only insert a single value here. For example, inserting 66 into
“Latitude from” will show stations roughly above the polar circle. Only numerical entries are
valid for these boxes. Attempts to enter text and submit the search will result in an error
dialog with the message “The submitted data is invalid. Please look for the red widget in
the sections for more information.” Also noteworthy is the icon in Figure 7 in the middle of
the text boxes, that allows the user to manual draw a box around the region of interest
(Figure 8).
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Figure 7 Geographic coordinates search
Figure 8 Drag and draw selection
• Search by Elevation- the elevation range of the stations can be entered in meters in the
text boxes.
At the bottom of the page, there are two buttons: the “Search” one to submit the search
criteria and the “Reset” button to clear all prior entries.
How to find specific observing systems, such as Radars, Wind Profilers, Radiosondes etc.
One way to find stations by observation technology is to search by “network affiliation”.
Another way is to use the “station class”. As with all information in OSCAR/Surface, the
accuracy of the search results depends heavily on the quality of the metadata inserted into the
system. The table below lists how to find commonly searched observing technologies.
Technology Search by
Radars Network affiliation “WRO”
(under WIGOS/GOS/GOS_Other_Elements)
Wind Profilers Station class “WP”
Radiosondes Network affiliation “RBSN(T), or
Network affiliation “RBSN(S/T) under
WIGOS/GOS/GOS_Surface_Networks/RBSN)
Or:
Station class “WN”
Station report details
This is the result of a station search (or “report” as named in OSCAR/Surface) which displays
all station details (Figure 9), including the history of changes, as documented in
OSCAR/Surface. The station report is organized into the following five sections: “Station
characteristic”, “Observations/Measurements”, “Contacts”, “Bibliographic references” and
“Documents”, which can be expanded by clicking on the respective buttons.
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Figure 9 The main sections of the station report
Station characteristics
The station characteristics section (Figure 10) gives an overview of the general situation of
the station, such as country it is located in, coordinates, WMO identifiers and terrain
properties. All changes that are inserted in OSCAR/Surface are recorded and can be shown
here, together with the data of the change, when expanding the field in question, as shown in
Figure 11.
Figure 10 Recording the station history in the station characteristics section
(Note: Here only one position is recorded)
Figure 11 Station characteristics
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WIGOS Station identifier
Stations are identified by the WIGOS station identifier (WIGOS ID) in OSCAR/Surface. WIGOS
IDs are the official WMO identifiers and have to be used for all WMO stations from July 2016
on. An example of a WIGOS identifier is reproduced in Figure 12. Please see the initial version
of the Guide to WIGOS for more details.
An initial WIGOS identifier was created for each station and initially imported into
OSCAR/Surface. For stations formerly in Volume A, the WIGOS ID is based on the station
identifier allocated to the station by the country in Volume A. In case of Radar, GAW or
JCOMMOPS stations, it is based on the identifier used in these systems. This identifier should
not be changed, as it provides a historic reference. The administrator should be contacted if
the identifier should be changed nevertheless.
Figure 12 WIGOS station identifier
(Note: The identifier 0-20000-0-12497 is based on the indexNbr 12497 allocated to it in
Volume A. The first “0” indicates that the identifier represents a station, “20000” is an issuer
range allocated to WMO programmes or networks, whereas the third “0” is the “issuer
number”)
Multiple identifiers can be attached to a station to reflect affiliation with different networks or
programs. For this the dialogue “programs / network affiliations” can be used (Figure 13).
The program or network in which the identifier is used must also be specified.
Figure 13 Additional identifiers can be added under "programs/network affiliations"
Observations/measurements
This section shows all observations, past and
present, that are/were taken at the station,
together with details about the instrument
used, data processing applied and the
observation schedule. If the observations are
made under a Program/network, this affiliation
and the identifier used are also displayed here.
Observations are structured as “data series”
and “segments”.
Attributes such as data format and the data
processing centre are recorded at the level of
the data-series whereas observing schedule
and instrument used are stored in data-
segments. An example of a data-series can be
seen in Figure 14.
Major changes to the properties of a data-series
or data-segment may warrant closing the
current one and adding a new one instead of
simply recoding a change in the current one.
What is the difference between a
data-series and a data segment?
A data-series represents the entirety of
observations of the same variable taken at
this station.
A segment is a sub-set of these
observations, and represents those that
were taken without major interruption and
under roughly the same conditions.
Example: The sampling method and
observing schedule of a pressure
observation are changed to 10 minutes
and 30 minutes respectively, from 30 and
60 minutes on 1/1/2016. The current
segment is closed (end date 31/12/2015)
and a new one with the new observing
schedule created. The segment remains part of the same pressure data-series.
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This is the case when the characteristics of series or segment were changed to such an extent
that it is no longer continuous. The user may then decide to create a new data series or data
segment based on the following concept and example:
Figure 14 Observations/measurements section of station
Station contacts, Bibliographic references and Documents.
These three sections list station contacts, references and the available documents with further
information on the station. Station contacts include various roles, such as operators, national
focal points, maintenance technicians etc.
How to Search for Contacts
The search for contacts functions as a searchable directory of station owners or Points of
Contact (POCs). Figure 15 shows the options to search by name, either by entering the text
or using the drop-down menu to browse the entries, and the more advanced search using the
Contact’s country and the variables being measured at the station.
Figure 15 Search for Contacts
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How to identify the National Focal Point for OSCAR/Surface of a country?
In order to find the National OSCAR/Surface Focal Point, the list of all contacts is generated
using the “Search for contacts”, detailed “Search” - “WMO Region/Country”. The roles of a
contact are revealed when clicking on the person (Figure 16).
Figure 16 Detailed attributes of a contact in OSCAR/Surface
How to Search for Bibliographical Reference
Another function in OSCAR/Surface is the ability to locate any citations input for the station. If
the user knows the Author’s name or the year of the publication, the search can return the
stored references (Bibtex) corresponding to the matches. A keyword search allows for a wider
search of the text of the citation, as shown in Figure 17.
Figure 17 Search for Bibliographic References
How to Search for Instruments
OSCAR/Surface stores the instrument metadata according to the WIGOS metadata standards.
As such, a user is able to query the data for Manufacturer, Model, Serial number, and Period of
observation. Figure 18 shows the further search options available by clicking on the “More
search options” link, which reveals criteria for the Variable, Program/Network affiliation,
Organization, RA or Country of the instrument’s location, Climate zone, geographic
coordinates, and elevation.
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Figure 18 Search for Instrument- expanded
II. CHANGING INFORMATION IN OSCAR/SURFACE
The following section is dedicated to National Focal Points and Station contacts on how to
access and edit observing stations metadata in OSCAR/Surface.
The authorization and access control module in OSCAR/Surface
Only authorized users can change information in OSCAR/Surface. The administrator, working
at the WMO Secretariat, creates the login for National Focal Point (NFP) upon receipt of a
nomination from the Permanent Representative. The National Focal Points can in turn create
additional users and associate them with stations within their country. The National Focal
Points have the right to edit all stations in their associated country, whereas other users can
only edit stations they are directly associated with, as well as create new stations in their
associated country. Also, these authorised users can add additional contacts to a particular
station granting them editing rights to this station.
A Focal Point for a Network, such as a Focal Point for the Antarctic Observing Network
(AntON), has the authority to make changes to all stations affiliated with the respective WMO
observing system or network. These Network Focal Points are designated by the WMO
governance of the programme or network in question. This means that the approval workflow
for affiliating a new station to a network is not implemented in OSCAR/Surface, but it is left to
the Network Focal Point to make sure the process of adding the station has been followed,
before approving it in OSCAR/Surface.
The Table 2 details the access rights of the different types of users. Figure 19 shows the
hierarchy of roles in OSCAR/Surface.
Role Create Station Edit station Create user
Admin everywhere Everywhere everywhere
NFPs For their country All in their country For their country
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Contacts For their country Only own stations For their country
Network Focal Point everywhere Only own network For their country
Table 2: User role and access rights
Figure 19 Access and role module in OSCAR/Surface
How to Log-on to OSCAR/Surface and register a new user
The log-on or user registration procedure is needed in order to update information in
OSCAR/Surface. The registration has to be completed once. In this process the authorized
email of a National Focal Point or Station contact is synchronized with the Electronic Identity
and Access Management system used by OSCAR/Surface. To complete this initial procedure, a
new user needs to log on to the system (Figure 20).
Figure 20 Login and registration of a new user
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Figure 21 User registration
Registration consists of the following six steps as triggered by the system (Figure 21)
Note: Step 4 should be skipped, as supplying a mobile phone number does not work in all
countries.
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In case there is an issue exists with the registration the following message is triggered with
directions and further steps.
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Having completed this procedure, it suffices to supply the username and password to log on to
OSCAR/Surface.
How to create a new station
Once logged on to OSCAR/Surface, the Management console appears in the main menu. The
“register new station” dialogue can be reached from there. The form shown in Figure 22 is
used to create a new station in OSCAR/Surface.
Figure 22 New station registration
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The dialogue is separated into the same five sections as the “station report” page, each of
which allows to edit the elements corresponding to that category. Some elements, such as the
name of the station, are mandatory, and the station cannot be saved unless all mandatory
elements have been provided. Should incomplete information be supplied, an error message is
shown upon saving, indicating that some elements are missing, as shown in Figure 23. The
missing fields and section headers are coloured in red. However, it is possible to save the
station as draft to save the information so far supplied for later editing.
Figure 23 Error message indicating missing fields
Input of a new WMO Index No (WIGOS ID)
The WIGOS Identifier consists of four blocks:
1. the "WIGOS Identifier Series" (a number): For observing facilities the "WIGOS Identifier
Series" takes the value '0';
2. the “Issuer of Identifier” (a number): ISO 3166-1 numeric country code (E.g. Rep. of
Korea: 410);
3. the "Issue Number" (a number): Define own procedure or use '0';
4. the "Local Identifier" (a set of characters): Define own procedure (maximum of 16
characters).
Each observing station must have at least one WIGOS station identifier associated with it. The
station identifier(s) associate the station with its WIGOS metadata. Observing stations that had
been allocated with WMO Station IDs before the introduction of WIGOS station identifiers (i.e.
before 1 July 2016) may continue to use those identifiers. With the launch of OSCAR/Surface
these station were uploaded in the system incorporating the new WIGOS ID structure using
'20000' in the section "Issuer of Identifier". E.g. station 'INCHEON' is recorded as '0-20000-0-
47112'.
A Member for which there is an ISO 3166-1 can assign its numeric country code as the “Issuer
of Identifier” number for its newly established observing stations. For example, in the case of
Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), it is appropriate to use '410' as the “Issuer of
Identifier” number. This structure provides for an open range of station numbers that can be
defined and allocated by Rep. of Korea to its expanding network (i.e. 0-410-0-......).
If any of the stations previously had a World Weather Watch IIiii identifier, then an additional
identifier should not be created (the WIGOS identifier would be 0-20000-0-IIiii SI=0 or 0-
020001-0-IIiii if SI=1 - unless IIiii had been issued to more than one station in the past, in
which case the most recent would have issue number 0, and the others would be assigned
other issue numbers so that the metadata can be distinguished).
Please see the initial version of the Guide to WIGOS for more details.
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Saving a station as a draft for further editing
When saving a station as the draft, it is neither publicly visible nor can it be found via ‘search’.
To continue editing, find the station in the list of “My stations”. To locate the draft, open > My
stations > select Program / network affiliation (e.g. GOS) > click on ‘Status’, as shown in
Figure 24.
Figure 24 Locating a station that was previously saved as draft in "my stations"
Note that once a station is published, it can be edited (see ‘How to edit an existing station’)
but it can no longer be saved as a draft, as the station is already public.
Recording changes
The history of changes of almost all information in OSCAR/Surface is stored to be able to
better understand the station history and development of capabilities over time. Therefore, all
such fields have a date input field, in addition to the actual field capturing the information.
When completing such a field, the date at which the change actually occurred should be
indicated. For example, a change of instrument in a station may only be documented in
OSCAR/Surface after the technician in the field has completed the work. In this case, the date
when the instrument was changed should be indicated here, not the date when the information
is input into the system (Figure 25).
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Figure 25 Recording changes
Closure of a station
Set the “declared status” in “programs / network affiliation” to “closed”. Also set an end date
to all “data segments” that are affected (all, a priority). It means to edit “segment” and put a
date into the field “to”.
Multipurpose station concept / duplicate stations
OSCAR/Surface is observation centric and focuses on documenting the observations made at
the station. The concept of a station in OSCAR/Surface is mainly used for describing the
physical environment in which the observations take place. Therefore, it is possible that
multiple traditional stations that report with different identifiers to various observing programs
are grouped together in OSCAR/Surface as a single station. Each observation is then affiliated
to an observing program with its own identifier. At the same time physically identical stations
may have initially been imported as separate stations into OSCAR/Surface. It is the
responsibility of the station operator to decide whether stations should be represented as
separate entities in the system.
Program/Network affiliations and approval
In order to indicate that a station is related to a specific observing programme, the
corresponding data-series must be affiliated with such a programme. This can be done from
the observations/measurements screen by editing the data-series and selecting the
programs/affiliations sub-form (Figure 26). In some cases, joining the program may be
subject to approval. In this case, the programme focal point will receive an automatic e-mail
asking for approval of the request. While the approval process in not completed, the affiliation
will show as “pending”.
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Figure 26 Affiliating a data-series with a program / network
Editing of an existing station
The edit menu can be reached by clicking on the “edit” button which is shown on the station
report when the logged on user has editing rights to the station (Figure 27). To get to the
station report any of the quick access, search or map filter methods can be used.
Figure 27 Edit button
Editing the station is then done using the same form as the “register new station”, where most
of the fields have been already populated. It is important to remember that the date of such a
change must be documented in OSCAR/Surface, too, as described above.
Change of elevation of station or instruments
When the elevation of the station is changed, the elevation of the installed instruments must
be also updated if needed. The “propagate” button can be used to do this automatically. This
function should be used with care, as the instrument position is not always identical with the
position of the station.
When the edits cannot be saved
In case of missing information, the system refuses to save the change. This is especially likely
with stations that have not been edited yet, as the information may have been created with
incomplete information when the system was populated.
Another reason why the edits cannot be saved is an internal error in the system. In this case,
a red notification is shown, and the station will remain in editing mode. In such a case, it is
worthwhile checking whether the changes have been applied to the database or not. This can
be done by opening the station report in another window, while keeping the current one open.
If the latest changes can be seen there, it means that they have been saved by the system,
and the current windows can be closed. Otherwise, the changes need to be saved again to
make sure they are permanently stored in OSCAR/Surface.
Session timeout
The session is closed after 30 minutes of inactivity. Therefore, when making lengthy changes
with long pauses between edits, it is recommendable to keep a second window open to check if
the session is still alive before saving the edits. In case the session is no longer active, logon
again in the second window before saving the change.
Editing Radars or JCOMM stations
OSCAR/Surface also contains information that is regularly imported from external portals. This
is the case for stations maintained by JCOMMOPS as well as the Weather Radar Database
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operated by the Turkish Meteorological Service. Therefore changes to these stations cannot be
applied in OSCAR/Surface, but have to be made in the respective portals.
How to copy a station
Instead of creating a station from scratch, it is often easier to create a station by using an
existing one as template. For this, it is possible to copy an existing station. To do this, locate
the existing station in the “my stations” screen, as can be seen in Figure 28. From there it is
possible to copy it using the “copy” icon on the right. The new station will be opened as the
“edit” screen. Only relevant attributes are copied.
Figure 28 The copy action in the “my stations” screen
How to delete a station
Normal users cannot delete stations in OSCAR/Surface. The reason for this is that the purpose
of OSCAR/Surface is to document current and past stations in order to see historic trends.
Deleting a station removes all traces of it from the system, even for the period during which
the station was active. Therefore, rather than deleting the station, it is in most cases more
appropriate to set an end date of the data-series and set the reporting status of the station to
“closed” (see ‘Closure of a station’). Stations created for testing purposes can be removed by
the administrator. In this case the contact form can be used to request removal of a station.
How to get help and report bugs
There is a contact form in OSCAR/Surface that can be used for both to get help and also report
bugs. Requests submitted through this form are tracked and responded by the OSCAR/Surface
operating team and the WMO Secretariat.
How to make mass changes/Is there an API/how to synchronize existing database
with OSCAR/Surface
OSCAR/Surface will provide a Machine2Machine (M2M) API that has been under development
and will be available in the next release.
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Annex I – list of fields in OSCAR/Surface screen
The list of fields will be provided in the next version of this guide.
In order to get an overview of the information fields needed to complete a station, one can try
creating a “dummy” station, which is saved as a draft or not saved at all, using the “register
new station” dialogue. It allows browsing through all forms and fields required for creating a
new station.