WMO World Meteorological Organization Working together in weather, climate and water MCH Meteorology, Climatology and Hydrology Data base Management System WMO, Climate and Water department: Nirina Ravalitera www.wmo.int
What is MCH? Data Base Management System (DBMS) MCH stands for Meteorological, Climatological and Hydrological data base management system (DBMS). What is a DBMS? A Data Base Management System (DBMS) is a computer program (or more typically, a suite of them) designed to manage a database, a large set of structured data, and run operations on the data requested by numerous users. (source :From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
For whom? Small NMHSs that don t have any DBMS or outdated solutions to digitize, store and process large amount of data. NMHSs looking for a simple, customizable and license free solution to store, analyze and generate reports and maps on large amount of data.
What does MCH do? Define your stations
What does MCH do? Define your own variables
What does MCH do? Capture data Manually, using tables and data validation rules Through import function
What does MCH do? Display data in various formats Graphs, tables, maps Draw isolines on maps
What does MCH do? Export your data Available formats: CSV, txt and MCH
What does MCH do? Perform primary processing On variables and stations
What does MCH do? Process Synop messages Encode and decode Synop messages in CREX and FM12 format
WMO System requirements for MCH Work station (stand-alone) Stand-alone configuration (typically for small NMSs) Processor speed of 1.5 GHz or faster A video resolution of at least 1024 x 768 1 GB of RAM (minimum 500 MB) Operating system Windows 2000, Windows XP or later Disk space 5 GB Costs: ~ 400 $ (Netbook) 900 $ (Notebook)
System requirements for MCH Network configuration (client-server) WMO Network configuration, typical configuration for NMHSs with regional offices Two servers are recommended, 1 operational and 1 mirror. Processor speed of 2 GHz or faster, A video resolution of at least 1024 x 768, 2 GB of RAM A 250 GB hard disk 100 GB of free space for the database Operating system Windows 2000 professional, Windows XP, Windows 2000 server or Windows 2003 server or later. A network connection Computers on the client side Costs: Two servers: 3000 $ Client computer: 900 $ / computer Licence for operating systems: 1000-3000$ (server) Client access licences: 5 pack ~200$/ 20 pack ~800$;
Installation MCH is provided with a complete installation and user manual All additional softwares (MySQL, Apache ) are available in the package and free of charge Presence of an informatics expert is recommended (to solve issues related to administrator rights, network connection ) during the installation Installation time: 2-5 hours
Training requirements Basic user : 1-3 days Enter data, generate simple reports Technical user: 3-5 days Upload, revise historical and recent data Generate sophisticated reports (maps and graphs) Advanced user: 5-7 days Definition of stations, group of stations Definition of variables Definition of validation criteria Definition of maps Advanced data processing
Where has it been installed Mexico (National Water Commission) Uruguay CIIFEN - Centro Internacional para la Investigación del Fenómeno de El Niño (Ecuador) Paraguay Honduras Costa Rica Ghana (Pilot country for the English version)
Disadvantage Configurable system Few developers
User Community
Advantages OPEN SOURCE based No fees for the licenses Full access to the source code A configurable system (you define your variables and stations etc.), and allows you to connect external modules Manages Hydrological, Climatological and Meteorological data under a unique platform Multilingual, using an external text file, currently available in Spanish and English, French version under development
How and where can you get MCH? An official request signed by the Permanent Representative of your country with WMO
Updates MCH based on Free Pascal : July 2013 MCH for Linux : 80 % achieved
Thanks! Merci! Gracias!