MeteoSwiss has its own extensive monitoring network, which has been producing data continuously and frequently in near real time for decades. The EspaceMétéo data space could act as a prototype for other data spaces that have similarly large data volumes and real-time requirements and actively promote architectural concepts. The framework for the data space is currently being developed.
As the national weather service, MeteoSwiss provides the public, authorities and businesses with weather and climate data and related services around the clock. MeteoSwiss represents Switzerland in the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which has been promoting and enabling weather and climate data sharing worldwide for several decades through standardisation and global infrastructures. The Federal Act on the Use of Electronic Means to Carry Out Official Tasks (EMOTA, SR 172.019), which came into force on 1 May 2025, provides the legal framework for MeteoSwiss to share its data freely online. It is implemented via channels such as opendata.swiss. As such, MeteoSwiss already plays a key role in ensuring a crisis-proof society and economy (e.g. when dealing with natural hazards), enables cross-sector decision-making (e.g. sonnendach.ch), and contributes to digitalisation and new developments in artificial intelligence.
The creation of a national EspaceMétéo data space for meteorological and climatological data can easily be justified and substantiated based on numerous use cases and is an integral part of a Swiss data ecosystem. The use cases overlap in part with the known use cases for other data sharing initiatives or data space projects in Switzerland. The design of EspaceMétéo as a data space includes MeteoSwiss’s existing open government data (OGD) services, but extends beyond its current role as a data hub. In particular, EspaceMétéo enables additional equal but smaller-scale partners to participate, allowing them contribute data to a more modest extent while benefiting fully from the services.
To ensure connectivity to an EspaceMétéo data space, further modernisation of MeteoSwiss’s own data infrastructure is required. However, its resources are not sufficient for this, and additional funding must be found. As the most significant public-sector actor in meteorology and climatology in Switzerland, it is logical to propose MeteoSwiss as the operator of the data space. This does not have any influence on the way in which the data space will be organised.
A national EspaceMétéo data space lays the groundwork for connecting Switzerland to European data spaces and can play an important role in enabling EspaceMétéo participants to access or provide services internationally.
Provisional timetable |
The project started in November 2024:
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Data space contact |
Dr Petra Zimmermann, Head of Measurements and Data |
Organisations involved |
Currently involved in the project:
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Further information
Contact
Federal Chancellery
Digital Transformation and ICT Steering DTI Sector
Monbijoustrasse 91
3003 Bern