AgmedaWin – a tool for easy and flexible management of meteorological data*

Abstract

Decision support systems in plant protection need plausible and complete meteorological data as the main input. While meteorological data are provided by the German meteorological service, several states in Germany have built up their own meteorological networks. These states use the software AgmedaWin to import, manage, present, evaluate and export the measured data. At the core of the program is a flexible import module which facilitates the import of files in different formats from all types of meteorological stations by using import profiles to describe the structure of the files. Several algorithms are integrated in AgmedaWin to ensure plausibility and completeness of the data. The program also includes a module to compare the data of neighbouring stations. AgmedaWin is being used so far in seven states of Germany since 2005. With an XML–based export interface the data are transferred from AgmedaWin to the Internet system ISIP (http://www.isip.de) in which all data are stored and used as input for decision support systems. Furthermore the unprocessed meteorological data can be evaluated in ISIP or downloaded as files in different formats by external users.