Interactive open access to climate observations from Germany

Abstract

During recent years, Germany's national meteorological service (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD) has significantly expanded the open access to its climate observations. A first step was a simple FTP-site with the possibility for downloading archives with various categories of data, e.g. national and international station-based meteorological data, derived parameters, gridded products and special categories as e.g. phenological data. The data are based on the observing systems of DWD for Germany as well as international activities of DWD. To improve the interactive and user-friendly access to the data, a new portal has been developed. The portal serves a variety of user requirements that result from the broad range of applications of DWD's climate data. Here we provide an overview of the new climate data portal of DWD. It is based on a systematic implementation of OGC-based technologies. It allows easy graphical access to the station data, but also supports access via technical interfaces, esp. Web-Map- and Web-Feature-Services.