The Open-CDMS initiative

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) recently included supporting open sources Climate Data Management Systems (CDMS) as part of its official mandate. IDEMS has been part of the initial debates about the direction for the WMO Open-CDMS efforts and initial efforts to build bridges between some established CDMS’s as they open their code bases up. The importance of open tools to support the management historical climatic records is accentuated given the current climate emergency.

The integration of Open-CDMS with data analytic tools is a specific area of expertise that IDEMS brings to this team. We are recognisant of the privileged role we play supporting the development of tools and training of partners without having the grave responsibility for holding the irreplaceable climatic records themselves. As such we value the opportunities we have to support met services in both preserving and exploiting invaluable  resource. 

CLIMSOFT

The only African open-source Climate Data Management System for National Meteorological Services is Climsoft. IDEMS plays a support role in the development while supporting the principle that Climsoft is developed primarily in Africa, to serve an African audience, in this case African Met Service.

The UK Met Office has been a long term supporter of the Climsoft project and it is them who is contracting IDEMS to support the development of Climsoft. This includes the mentorship of Kenyan developers who make the major contributions to Climsoft. As Open-CDMS continues to develop IDEMS also has an active role in ensuring CLIMSOFT needs are being integrated into the international effort and in supporting CLIMSOFT to identify and take advantages of the relevant Open-CDMS advances.