Abstract

The recent expansion of weather observation networks has focused on the use of automatic weather stations (AWS). AWS offer a number of advantages, including automated reporting at very fine temporal resolution. The challenge that many national meteorological services have faced with the exploitation of AWS data is that initiatives and donors have provided different types of AWS from different suppliers, leading to a variety of systems and networks in multiple formats. Although applications are provided with each AWS network to access and visualize the data, data access is still done manually and station by station. The Automatic Weather Station Data Tool (ADT) is a web-based application developed by the International Research Institution for Climate and Society (IRI) to alleviate the difficulties associated with accessing and using AWS data collected on different systems, networks, servers, and in different formats. ADT features an easy-to-use graphical user interface and enables national meteorological services to access, process, quality control, analyse, visualize and disseminate data from different AWS systems in a single location. The intention of this workshop was to install ADT for the National Meteorological Agency of Mali (L’Agence Nationale de la Météorologie du Mali, MALI-METEO) and provide training on its use. Installation and training took place from February 27 to March 10, 2023 in Dakar, Senegal.