Citizen Weather Observer Program: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Network of weather stations based in the United States}}

{{refimprove|date=April 2014}}

[[File:2013-06-21 12 55 57 Citizen Weather Observer Program station EW0093 in Elko Nevada.jpg|thumb|A CWOP home weather station. The mast supports a [[Weather vane|wind vane]] and [[anemometer]], while the rain gauge and other sensors are installed near ground level.]]

The '''Citizen Weather Observer Program''' ('''CWOP''') is a network of privately owned electronic [[weather station]]s concentrated in the United States but also located in over 150 countries. Network participation allows volunteers with computerized weather stations to send automated surface weather observations to the [[National Weather Service]] (NWS) by way of the Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS). This data is then used by the [[Rapid Refresh]] (RAP) and other forecast modelmodels to produce short term forecasts (3 to 12 hours into the future) of conditions across the [[contiguous United States]]. Observations are also redistributed to the public.

==Origin==

The CWOP was originally set up by [[amateur radio]] operators experimenting with [[packet radio]], but now includes Internet-only connected stations, as well as amateur radio [[Automatic Packet Reporting System|Automatic Packet Reporting System]] (APRS)]] stations. {{As of|October 2017}}, more than 13,000 stations worldwide report regularly to the network.<ref>Citizens Weather Observing Program. [http://www.wxqa.com/checkservers2.html Hourly Number of WX Stations sending data to CWOP servers.] Retrieved on 2017-10-18.</ref>

==Description==

The Citizen Weather Observer Program is a program to collect [[surface weather observation]]s from thousands of privately operated weather stations, into the [http://www.findu.com FindU] database, and forward it to the Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System ([http://madis.noaa.gov/ MADIS] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090312040823/http://madis.noaa.gov/ |date=2009-03-12 }}), operated by the [[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]] (NOAA).<ref>David Helms. [http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dshelms/cwop.html Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) Information.] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.istoday/20021205032930/http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dshelms/cwop.html |date=2002-12-05 }} Retrieved on 2008-01-12.</ref>

===FindU===

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===MADIS===

The Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System ([http://madis.noaa.gov/ MADIS] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090312040823/http://madis.noaa.gov/ |date=2009-03-12 }}) integrates weather observations from numerous different sources, including CWOP via FindU, and drives a number of different [[weather forecasting]] products. Incoming data are subjected to temporal and spatial consistency checks, and quality flags are stored with the data, to enable users to access the most trustworthy data possible. From MADIS, CWOP data is also re-distributed to other users such as [[Mesowest]].

===Ease of sending data===

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* [[Significant Weather Observing Program]] (SWOP)

* [[Skywarn]]

* [[Safecast (organization)|Safecast]]

== References ==

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==External links==

{{commonscat}}

* [http://www.wxqa.com/ Citizen Weather Observer Program]

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070429003915/http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/index.html APRS] links and information, after Bob Bruninga, WB4APR

* [http://www.findu.com/citizenweather/citizenweather.html APRSWXNET] Information page about APRS weather reporting by Steve Dimse

* CWOP [http://wxqa.com/aprswxnetqc.html quality control] description by Russ Chadwick

* CWOP [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929044833/http://info.aprs.net/index.php?title=Weather wiki] by Russ Chadwick

* Sample FindU weather report, from [http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/wxpage.cgi?call=W0CHP-13 W0CHP-13] in PlainviewWinona, Minnesota, or W0CHP-13 [http://wx.w0chp.net Web site].

{{Earth-based meteorological observation}}