Data Access

Access to the WOUDC data archive is available via numerous mechanisms in support of vendor neutral, multi-application access and integration. Whether you are using the website, geospatial tools or custom solutions, the WOUDC data archive provides flexible, authoritative data access.

Every effort has been made to make the WOUDC data archive as accessible as possible. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions on improving data access, please contact us.

Data Policy

All data and metadata are subject to the WOUDC data policy.

Data Revisions/Updates

The data revision dates are available on the stations list for stations that have provided revised data.

Data Search / Download

Observation data are made available via the data search / download page, which allows users to browse and filter the entire archive in a responsive, interactive manner. All data provide a link to download data for offline use in a variety of formats.1

Please consult the Data Search / Download How To for detailed information.

Note (1): Please note that dataset specific limits are put on bulk data download to maintain quality of service.

Web Accessible Folder (WAF)

The entire archive of contributed data files in Extended CSV format is made available at https://woudc.org/archive/ for users to browse, download or integrate into their workflows.

Static dataset archive files are also available on the WAF in CSV format with ZIP compression. These archive files are updated on a daily basis and provide users the option to download an entire dataset in CSV format.

Please consult the WAF How To for detailed information.

Web Services

New WOUDC API Service in Beta

WOUDC provides a central OGC API at the following endpoint: https://betageo.woudc.org/oapi.

The API provides discovery, access and visualization functionality to all WOUDC data and metadata, as well as providing processes for data validation and quality assessment.

In addition to traditional data access mechanisms, WOUDC has made the archive available using geospatial web services adhering to publically available international standards. Web services are systems designed to support machine to machine interaction over a network, and are typically utilized in a client/server computing environment made available through programmatic access, associated tools and applications.

The WOUDC web services adhere to open standards ratified by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) which enable interoperability and thus make data easy to discover, access, visualize and integrate. OGC and ISO standards play an important role in World Meteorological Organization interoperability as part of the WMO Information System and are supported by numerous off the shelf open source or commercial tools.

The following OGC web services are made available for standards-based, dynamic data access:

1. Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW)

The provides a common interface to discover, browse and query discovery metadata (data about data). The WOUDC CSW provides a yellow pages catalogue of all WOUDC data available in the archive. Metadata records are formatted using the ISO 19115/19139 geospatial metadata standards.

WOUDC OGC CSW

WOUDC provides OGC CSW (version 2.0.2) at the following endpoint:

https://geo.woudc.org/csw?service=CSW&version=2.0.2&request=GetCapabilities

2. Web Map Service (WMS)

The provides a common interface to visualize geospatial data layers. Typical use of WMS includes simple visualization in web or desktop GIS applications via web friendly image formats such as PNG or JPEG.

WOUDC OGC WMS

WOUDC provides OGC WMS (versions 1.1.1 - 1.3.0) at the following endpoint:

https://geo.woudc.org/ows?service=WMS&version=1.3.0&request=GetCapabilities

3. Web Feature Service (WFS)

The provides a common interface to access geospatial data. Typical use of WFS includes custom query / raw access to geospatial features. The WOUDC WFS provides archive data in numerous formats, including Extended CSV, KML, CSV, GML, ESRI Shapefile, MapInfo, GeoJSON, and NetCDF.

The WFS has a server side limit of a maximum of 200000 features to ensure quality of service and availability.

WOUDC OGC WFS

WOUDC provides OGC WFS (versions 1.0.0 - 1.1.0) at the following endpoint:

https://geo.woudc.org/ows?service=WFS&version=1.1.0&request=GetCapabilities

4. Web Processing Service (WPS)

The provides a common interface to define rules, inputs, outputs for geospatial processing / calculations. Typical use of WPS includes custom processes (buffer, overlay). The WOUDC WPS provides a suite of tools used in support of validation of submissions to the Data Centre.

WOUDC OGC WPS

WOUDC provides OGC WPS (version 1.0.0) at the following endpoint:

https://geo.woudc.org/wps?service=WPS&version=1.0.0&request=GetCapabilities

Definitions Service

Web Services are modelled and managed using a data taxonomy. An RDF-based definitions service exists to describe WOUDC's data taxonomy and relationships.

WOUDC Definitions Service

WOUDC provides RDF/SKOS at the following endpoint:

https://geo.woudc.org/def

ISO Codelist Catalogue

Codelists are managed using the ISO 19115 standard. An ISO 19115 codelist catalogue exists to describe various WOUDC's domain objects for use in metadata.

WOUDC Codelist Catalogue

WOUDC provides the ISO Codelist Catalogue at the following endpoint:

https://geo.woudc.org/codelists.xml

Please consult the Web Services How To for detailed information.

Examples

The following GitHub examples provide high level access and workflow examples of integrating WOUDC Web Services:

  • pywoudc: High level package providing Pythonic access to WMO WOUDC data services
  • notebooks: A collection of data centre workflows implemented as IPython notebooks