Maintaining and querying climate station information has long presented challenges to the climate community. A climatological record is only as accurate as the supporting metadata because details about the observing station, such as location, equipment, instrument exposure and time of observation, can all affect the value observed for a phenomenon. Access to this configuration information is therefore critical to using the climatological observations reported by a station.

Last year the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), as part of its commitment to increasing the accuracy and accessibility of its data holdings, began working with Climate Database Modernization Program (CDMP) contractors to create a new system to maintain and query station history information. The goal was a system that would accommodate both current and future station groups, permitting new networks of stations to be added without changes to the user interface or underlying database structure. Climate researchers are geographically dispersed, and the system had to permit access independent of geographic location.

The new web-based system, called Mi3, is now operational. This paper will present an overview of the system's capabilities and its user interface. The poster session will demonstrate the system's functionality, highlighting its query and presentation capabilities and its depth of content.