Register for MADIS access to pull Road Weather Information System (RWIS/Clarus) sensor data
domain: madis.ncep.noaa.gov (NOAA/NWS) · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Submit NOAA's MADIS Data Application (madis.ncep.noaa.gov/data_application.shtml) to become a registered MADIS user — applications are batch-processed weekly (received by Thursday 21:00 UTC, processed the following Monday).
Wait for a MADIS Support analyst to issue login credentials and an assigned distribution category (some datasets are access-restricted).
Use the MADIS API/utility programs (rather than parsing raw netCDF yourself) to pull observations, specifying station IDs, observation types, QC level, and time/domain bounds.
Request the RWIS/Clarus-specific dataset — FHWA's Road Weather Management Program ported its Clarus system into MADIS in FY2013 — for atmospheric, pavement, and water-level Environmental Sensor Station data.
Build in lead time — this is a government batch-registration system, not an instant self-serve API key process.
Known gotchas
There is no same-day self-service signup; budget roughly a week for the application-review cycle before credentials arrive.
MADIS mixes NOAA and non-NOAA (state DOT-owned) station data — pavement/subsurface fields only exist for stations that are actually RWIS/ESS sensors.
Support is email-based (NCEP.List.MADIS_Support@noaa.gov) with no published ticketing SLA.
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