Below are plots of SYNOP/BUOY/radiosonde BUFR coverage for November 2019 - reports as decoded at ECMWF, some reports not in standard BUFR are not decoded. Daily coverage (updated automatically) is available from the Monitoring Maps
Please can data producers ensure that there is a reasonable overlap of TAC and BUFR data on the GTS (at least two months, EUMETNET and GCOS recommend six months), any attempt to rush the change will result in more errors, extra work for NWP centres and possibly worse forecasts. Most countries give notice via METNOs or the WMO newsletter. Note also that reformatted TEMP reports still as separate parts are not regulation BUFR and cause problems for NWP centres (some more than others).
Surface (SYNOP) coverage
About 89% of stations now report in BUFR, earlier in 2019 several countries including Kazakhstan and Mongolia increased the number/frequency of their BUFR reports. Coverage for Europe is essentially complete apart from three NMSs (Bulgaria, Moldova and North Macedonia). For some countries stations/reports designated as "additional data" only are received in TAC but not in BUFR. Light blue markers indicate that fewer BUFR reports are received than SYNOP reports - in most cases the BUFR is six-hourly but the SYNOPs are three-hourly. (Unlike TEMP data, below, alphanumeric SYNOP reports reformatted into BUFR are generally acceptable.) From 9 February to 31 March 2019 very few Synops, both TAC and BUFR, from block 64 (West Africa) reached ECMWF. The main event in late 2019 was the cessation of alphanumeric SYNOP reports from China on 3 December 2019 (not reflected in the plot), prior to this the frequency of BUFR reports from some Chinese stations was increased to 3 hourly (as for TAC).
Some countries have stopped sending TAC SYNOP data on the GTS, but in some cases ECMWF receives reports converted from BUFR to TAC in Washington, we intend to stop processing these reports but some care is needed. Recently some stations in Africa (Mauritania and other countries) have only been available in BUFR. ECMWF is gradually assimilating a larger proportion of BUFR surface reports.
(Grey: TAC reports but no BUFR, Purple: BUFR reports but no TAC, Red *: position error. Light/dark blue indicates that there are less/more than 60% of the reports available in BUFR.)
BUOY coverage
On 6 June 2016 ECMWF started passively monitoring BUFR BUOY data in its operational system, assimilation of pressure data started in July 2016, many alphanumeric (FM18) reports ceased on 2 November 2016. For drifting buoys the BUFR feed is almost complete now helped by the fact that fewer data producers are involved (there are about 20 Indian and a few Japanese buoys not using the approved template as yet). In mid-2016 there were 51 pressure-reporting buoys reporting in BUFR but not in FM18, some of these were moored buoys including 7 PIRATA or RAMA buoys which also report subsurface temperature and salinity. Template 315008 is used for moored buoys and 315009 for drifting buoys. More details of the marine data can be found in the Marine and ocean observations pages (one issue is the move from 5-digit to 7-digit identifiers, this means that some newer buoys cannot really be coded using FM18). In December 2018 NOAA moored buoys started reporting in the correct 315008 template (they are mainly close to the US coast, but a few are further offshore). Moored buoys from Canada and the UK still report in SHIP format and are not shown in the plot below. Note that about half the buoys, shown in light blue, do not report pressure (especially those in the tropical Pacific and the Mediterranean, they are deployed to measure SST and currents). In the second quarter of 2019 we started receiving moored buoy data for the North American Great Lakes.
(Grey: TAC reports but no BUFR, Dark blue - BUFR reports including pressure, Light blue - BUFR reports without pressure. Circles/triangles - drifting/moored buoys.)
Ship data
In 2017/18 a number of European ships started using new EUCAWS hardware and software. They report (with identifier EUC*) in BUFR only. MeteoFrance has provided notice that their alphanumeric SHIP bulletins will cease in mid-January 2020.
Argo data
Most Argo reports are available in BUFR, with higher vertical resolution. Argo buoys stoped reporting in the alphanumeric TESAC code on 1 July 2018.
Radiosonde coverage
About 84% of stations report some BUFR, about 69% report native BUFR with roughly 15% reporting reformatted TEMP (see below). The proportion of native high-resolution reports is growing in fits and starts, recently in the USA (2017), Japan (July 2018), Chile+Argentia (2018), Brazil (2019) and some Russian stations (late 2018/2019) - this pushed the % with native reports over 50% in the second quarter of 2019. In October 2019 most Chinese stations started providing low-resolution native BUFR reports. NB Chinese alphanumeric radiosonde reports will stop in mid-January 2020. A few BUFR reports are incomplete (eg data above 100 hPa missing). Reports from the ASAP ships are now only available in BUFR format (most ASAPs changed identifier in late 2017). As of late 2019 stations in Finland, Norway, Sweden and France no longer provide alphanumeric reports, plus scattered stations elsewhere. Four or five European countries are now sending radiosonde descent data in BUFR (a test product - not shown). There was a dearth of radiosonde reports from West Africa in late-April/May 2019 but this recovered somewhat in June.
In 2018 there were some high-resolution dropsonde reports on the GTS and there were more in 2019 and ECMWF started assimilating them on 4 September 2019 (NB dropsonde reports are intermittent).
(Grey: TAC reports but no BUFR, Purple: BUFR reports but no TAC, Red *: position error. Blue: both BUFR and TAC, light blue indicates fewer ascents in BUFR. Triangle - ship report, X - wind-only report.)
The plot below distinguishes native BUFR (stations reporting valid radiosonde drift positions): high/low resolution (dark/light blue, using 300 level threshold) from reformatted TEMP (orange). There are now high resolution reports from all continents.
Almost all reformatted TEMP reports are sent as separate parts (A/B/C/D), this is contrary to the BUFR coding rules (there should be a single report containing data for the whole ascent) and reformatted TEMP reports are regarded as unusable by ECMWF and most other NWP centres. BUFR reports generated directly from the radiosonde raw data are much better.