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The standard deviation (estimate of random error) is the quantitative measure of precision (Table 4). The targets for precision are applied to the standard deviation of O-B over a certain period for each of the observed variables (Table 6). Like trueness, precision will be assessed 6-hourly, daily and monthly. Also, the 5-day moving average (Alert) of daily calculated standard deviation of O-B (Table 9) will be calculated for all variables and compared to the respective prescribed threshold ( Table 6). This together with the performance indicator for Trueness will be used by the Evaluation function on their daily monitoring activities to determine the level of priority for stations showing accuracy/measurement uncertainty issues (see table in Annex2 of WDQMS Guidance Document).
Table 4 - Precision
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Definition
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Standard deviation (std) of O-B values over a defined period
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Calculation
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For each observed variable, the std of all valid data is computed for every station.
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Valid data
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Data not flagged as missing value (O-B is not NULL)
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Minimum required valid data
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Daily: 2 valid values
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Math expression
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Both bias and standard deviation contribute to the overall measurement uncertainty. The root mean square error (rmse) is a common metric used to measure accuracy, and it is applied to upper-air observations in the WDQMS web tool (section 6.2) based on the quantitative information for the two vertical layers (mean and standard deviation of O-B departures over Trop and Stra, see section 2.2) provided by the NWP reports (see Table 5).
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