WOML version 2010 ⁄ 11 ⁄ 15 released

Phew! Last week I finally managed to release the latest version "2010/11/15" of the WOML modules Core, SWO, Quantity and Text forecast. The issues pending longest consisted of documentation (who would have guessed?). All-in-all 23 issues were resolved in this release:

Some highlights:

• It is now possible to share any GML objects (with an id) among the members of a forecast or analysis by adding them to sharedObjects property as members of ReferenceableObjectArrayAssociationType as defined in AbstractMeteorologicalObjectCollection. These objects can be referenced by using the local Xlink variation (href attribute with "#" + the gml:id of the object) by any number of objects wishing to link to these shared objects. By adding often recurring elements, like particular ValidTimePeriods, Elevations or KnownPlaces, as shared objects, the verboseness of the XML representation of the forecast is reduced. This notation also makes the shared nature of these objects explicit: If you change the value of a shared object, it should also affect all the objects that refer to it. In the previous WOML versions it was only possible to share connection points shared by Line Objects.
• New Sensible Weather Object types for pressure related objects: LowPressureCenter, HighPressureCenter, PolarLow, Cyclone, Anticyclone, Mesocyclone, Antimesocyclone, Mesolow, PolarCyclone, TropicalCyclone, Ridge, Storm and ConvectiveStorm.
• Implemented possibility to describe changing maximum wind speeds along a JetStream (was: Jet): each curve segment may now have it's own maximum wind speed defined.
• It's now possible to use categorized measurement values like "sunny" or "cloudy" as values of GeophysicalParameterValue. Previously it was only possible to use single numerical values or numerical ranges. Also introduced FlowDirectionMeasureType for describing values for flow measures with both direction and a numerical value (like wind speed).
• New Point or Surface objects for time series of measured or predicted values.

The documentation of SWO page in WOML wiki is much more elaborate now, including UML class diagrams for all major WOML Feature types and related object types defined in WOML and GML schemas. I will try to do the same effort with the WOML Quantity by the next release.

Have fun!

P.S. If you are using or are considering to use WOML in projects, or have any comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me or add a comment to this post. We'd really like to hear from you.