What is CWOP?

Just what is CWOP and what does it have to do with Hams? CWOP stands for Citizen Weather Observer Program. Not only Ham radio operators but also non hams contribute weather data from their home weather stations.

The Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) is a private-public partnership with three main goals:

1) to collect weather data contributed by citizens;

2) to make these data available for weather services; and

3) to provide feedback to the data contributors so that they have the tools to check and improve their data quality.

The weather data are collected by internet alone and internet-wireless combination. All of the non-hams and some of the hams send data via internet to the APRS-Internet Service . Other hams send data via packet radio (144.390 MHz), to Internet Gateways that relay the data to the APRS-IS via internet. More details can be found at the APRSWXNET web site. The findu.com server is connected to the APRS-IS, and receives the weather data. Every 15 minutes the findu.com server lists current data from registered CWOP stations. Those data are sent to the NOAA MADIS program to become part of the NOAA mesonet data set. The data are checked for quality and then redistributed to users.