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For the projects like TIGGE, S2S, UERRA or LC_WFV it is important to have good checking tools deployed on the both ends of the processing chain, provider's and ECMWF's ones, to avoid common operational problems related to preparation and dispatching the data for the project.
Find below some examples what we use to do at ECMWF as a part of the operational data processing suites. If you are our data provider, please try to install similar checks on your end to minimise our common future support effort. It would help us handling increasing number of similar projects in a sustainable way and without additional resources.
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Data encoding check
- the proper data encoding to the required data exchange format (WMO GRIB2) can be checked by the dedicated ECMWF tools
Comparing data content against reference
- the number of the fields must be as expected
- the actual field list must be the same as expected
- see example in Comparing data content against reference how to create a reference fields list from your input data and compare it against the actual data content
Data quality check
- the best and most complete quality control can be done by a custom made tools only, e.g. during the forecast computation by the model
- the basic quality control can be done using the dedicated ECMWF tools which are simply checking the allowed limits (min/max values in each grid point) of each parameter
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