A century of progress in weather prediction and weather services, in small and large countries alike, has been built on routine quality observations collected and shared via international agreement. Those same data, through their availability to the research community, have underpinned the research needed to develop the scientific understanding and NWP models to support that progress.

Open and accessible data, end-to-end along the service production and delivery chain, helps ensure the transparency and reproducibility needed for the scientific process, to the benefit of all.

The need for continuity, homogeneity and quality assurance in meteorological, oceanographic and hydrological services has increased over recent decades as aviation, shipping and general warning services have been in stronger demand, and as the demand for quality assurance of climate information has increased.

The entry of new observing technologies and new participants into this regime brings new data challenges. The Southern Hemisphere (SH) and particularly mid-to-high latitudes presents special challenges of more dispersed populations and lower land-sea ratio resulting in lower observation density. This continues to be a challenge for global NWP, but also to achieve improved regional high resolution modelling for SH locations.

This paper will review recent developments on ways of improving the global weather and climate enterprise through closer collaboration between academic, private and public sectors, and the challenges for open and accessible data that this poses, and will make some recommendations for Australia and its region. These new developments present significant new opportunities and challenges for the international meteorological community especially in respect of data quality and data ownership, and maintenance of existing arrangements for free and unrestricted international exchange. This paper will also canvass the relevance of these challenges to the Australian region.