I. Policy Background

On 20 May 2014, the Party Leading Group of CMA issued “the Comments by the Party Leading Group of CMA on In-depth Reform of Meteorology”(ZQDF[2014] No.28),which highlighted the in-depth reform of meteorological service system for sped-up development of a new open, diverse and structured one. It called for a further reinforcement and enhancement of public meteorological service as a new pattern that features government leadership, market resource allocation and social participation, to further meet increasing meteorological service requirements from the economic and social development process as well as the production activity by and well-being of the general public.

On 10 October 2014, CMA issued the “Circular of CMA on Issuance of the Implementation Scheme of Meteorological Service System Reform”（ZQDF[2014] No.91）,which defined basic ideas, targets and requirements for the reform, and also put priorities on reinforcing support by the meteorological facilities for meteorological services to the society as a whole, developing actors in the meteorological service market, improving meteorological services as an industry, and invigorating the public meteorological services by involving social forces.

The Sixth National Meteorological Service Conference, held by CMA in Beijing from 31 October to 1 November 2014, explicitly proposed to: (1) break the monopoly for a meteorological service system with Chinese characteristics featuring modern operations, diverse actors and law-based management; (2) improve the open and sharing platform for basic meteorological data and products; (3) build a society-oriented big data platform for national meteorological services to promote basic information and data sharing between the meteorological community and upstream/downstream sectors and service users; (4) improve the society’s use of meteorological service information, lead social capital and forces to an extensive and in-depth involvement in meteorological services in a law-based and orderly manner, in order to shape, step by step, an unified, open, competitive, orderly meteorological service market system.

In March 2015, CMA Order No. 27 – Management Measures on Meteorological Information Service – was officially issued and began to be implemented on 1 June the same year. Its issuance further manifested the clear attitude of CMA to open the meteorological information service market, develop actors of the market, and open to the society basic meteorological data and products, as evidenced with the specific measures.

II. Functional Position

According to the overall work arrangements and requirements of CMA for a new meteorological service system and openness of basic meteorological data and products, the National Meteorological Information Center (NMIC) accelerated the development of the China Meteorological Data Service Website built upon “China Meteorological Date Sharing Service System”, further identified the functional position of the Website, i.e. an authoritative and unified meteorological data and product opening and sharing platform for various social users by using cloud computing, big data and mobile internet technologies, which is aimed to create a leading domestic meteorological data center as a CMA-owned brand, in support of CMA’s effort to open basic meteorological data and products.

In June 2015, the Website entered into pre-operational phase, providing users with various services including easy data discovery, multi-dimensional data catalogue navigation, flexible and convenient data retrieval, visual display and analysis of data and products as well as GIS-based integrated display. For diverse and personalized needs of users, the Website provides them with real-time, direct, seamless data interface support. Meanwhile, it also provides mobile application service to satisfy their work and life. With the go-live of the China Meteorological Data Service Website, “China Meteorological Data Sharing Service System” is retired and its registered users may search and download data by logging on the Website.

III. Support Team

The development, routine operation and maintenance of the China Meteorological Data Service Website are undertaken by NMIC, which is a CMA’s operational facility with over 260 staff. NMIC, also known as Beijing High Performance Computer Application Center and/or CMA Meteorological Data Service Center, operates, manages, maintains, constructs and services national meteorological basic information, computers, backbone networks and communication resources, the Climatic Data Center of which manages and services various meteorological data from home and abroad, in particular the China Meteorological Data Service Website; the Operational Control Office of which collects in real-time, monitors and routinely operates, maintains and supports various meteorological data and products from home and abroad; and the Data Research Office of which processes and produces meteorological data and products and technically supports users.

To improve service quality, the Website places a priority on collection and handling of comments and suggestions from users and feedback to them. At present, several channels have been put in place to answer questions that users encounter in their use of data, including: online interactive Q&A that helps staff record, track and respond to users’ comments and suggestions; smart voice hotline (01068407499) that provides users with online service by professionals; ad hoc manual service platform (user support and service office, Climatic Data Center, NMIC), through which professionals make face-to-face exchanges with users to collect and respond to their questions and suggestions.

 IV. Objectives

The Website provides various social users with basic meteorological data and products. It is our goal to deliver efficient, quality and authoritative meteorological data services. Satisfaction knows no finishing line while service just a starting point. Your interest and support are our driving force, and your comments and feedback are sources of power to improve our service quality!

We welcome your access and cordially invite you to become a member of the Website!