Maybe this has already been mentioned on this group and I missed
it.... I was looking through a last December issue of New Scientist
and came across this environment.newscientist.com/article/
mg19225825.500-nasa-overwhelmed-by-climate-data.html

It doesn't give a lot of detail but as I understand it one could pick
any place on earth and get a latest observation, surface and upper
air. Does anybody know any more detail about this system? How often
are the observations, how close to real time are they and what is the
spacing between each one? If it is a case that they are real time and,
say, every 10km apart it will have a huge bearing on numerical models
and, I would think, put a lot of Met Observers out of a job. However,
for amateurs, it would be a transformation. The system claims it'll be
up and running by April (I guess and hope 2007!)