A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enhance the development and use of geospatial standards has been signed between the Open Geospatial Consortium and the World Meteorological Organization.

The MOU in question establishes the collaboration between the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations' authoritative voice on weather, climate and water. The two organizations will in fact collaborate on the development, application, and promotion of standards and best practices for the content and exchange of environmental data for the benefit of the worldwide scientific and operational communities of meteorologists and hydrologists.

This collaboration will support the implementation of the WMO Information System, which aims at creating a single global infrastructure to collect and share information concerning WMO and related international programs.

On this occasion, Mark Reichardt, President and CEO of the OGC said: "OGC benefits from the WMO's application of OGC's open standards and direct WMO community involvement in OGC standards process. Members and stakeholders of the WMO will benefit greatly from open standards that improve discovery, sharing and application of diverse collections of information to address important issues related to meteorology."

From his part, Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of WMO, added "the joint activities of OGC and WMO will be instrumental in promoting and advancing technology interoperability for the discovery, access and use of information related to weather, climate and water."

Further information:

• Original news item – OGC website
• World Meteorological Organization (WMO) website