High-Quality Global Data Management Framework for Climate (HQ-GDMFC)

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a United Nations' specialized agency in the field of weather, water and climate. As part of its activities, WMO fosters international collaboration to develop technical guidance and standards for the collection, processing, and management of data and forecast products. We present the outcome of the collaboration led by the International Expert Group on Climate Data Modernization as part of the WMO High-Quality Global Data Management Framework for Climate (HQ-GDMFC) initiative involving various Subject Matter Experts in Climatology, Hydrology, Oceanography, Cryosphere and others. We provide an overview on key results of this collaboration including a Manual providing standards and recommended practices regarding data management; a Maturity Matrix tool for assessing datasets for the quality of their stewardship and management; and an online WMO Catalogue for Climate Data which holds and provides users with access to these assessed datasets and related climate indicators. The HQ-GDMFC Manual, Matrix and Catalogue have been recently adopted by the Eighteenth World Meteorological Congress (Cg-18) in June 2019.