The MET API Interface (MAI for short) is a user interface to FROST, the API developed by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET) which enables public access to weather data. MAI is a software bundle written in Python and is intended to be used as a standard Python module.
The purpose of MAI is to simplify data retrieval from FROST by providing a streamlined user interface. A user can select a location, a time interval, and a series of measurements, and MAI takes care of contacting the correct access point in FROST, submitting a properly composed request, and receiving and handling the response. MAI allows querying FROST for three main purposes: 1) Retrieve all available weather-stations names in a given area (at municipality level); 2) retrieve a list of all available measurements at a selected location or municipality; 3) retrieve all data available for the selected measurements at a chosen location and time interval. The weather data is collected in a properly formatted Pandas DataFrame for ease of use.
The modularity of MAI allows for flexible development and extension of its features.
To allow MAI to access FROST, a user must first register and receive its client ID. This is done visiting https://frost.met.no/auth/requestCredentials.html and registering with an email address. MET's API terms of use as well the privacy statement hold in this steps.
After registration, weather data can be retrieved by a user in one simple call to MAI. The figure below illustrates a minimal usage example.
Figure: Minimal usage example for retrieving weather data using MAI.