Implementation of the WMO Hydrological Observing System (WHOS) in the Arctic
The real-time and historical hydrological data for the Arctic basin are now available through the WMO Hydrological Observing System (WHOS), and can be visualized and downloaded through the WHOS-Arctic web portal.
WMO Hydrological Observing System (WHOS) provides a services-oriented framework linking hydrological data providers and users through a hydrological information system of systems (SoS) enabling data registration, data discovery and data access that is fully compliant with the WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS) and WMO Information System (WIS).
WHOS supports (1) publication of hydrological data on the Internet via web services, (2) brokering of hydrological data published by heterogeneous data providers, and (3) discovery, access and use of hydrological data within the WHOS network. These WHOS capabilities rely on the use of standardized web services and data formats, such as those stemming from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Two regional WHOS prototypes located in the La Plata Basin in South America (WHOS-Plata) and in the Arctic Region (WHOS-Arctic) have now reached their final stage of implementation.
To easily leverage common WHOS functionalities such as data discovery and data access on the web by means of common web browsers, WHOS web portals are available online. The WHOS-Arctic web portal is implemented using ArcGIS Online for the map interface and USGS GWIS (Graphing Water Information System) for the time-series plots.