an accessible interface to marine environmental data Russell Moffitt

The Atlas Project GOAL: To provide a single point of access to oceanographic and environmental data for use by marine resource researchers, managers, and policy makers. Participants: JIMAR PFRP NOAA NMFS NESDIS NODC

Why Create The Atlas? Oceanographic data consists of a large and growing number of distinct datasets from multiple sources and archive centers. Data sets may be in a number of formats and require different display and analysis tools. File sizes can be very large. Many tools don t effectively integrate multiple data sets at once and/or utilize data from multiple platforms (remotesensing, in situ).

Project Objectives Create an interface to oceanographic data that is EASY to use. Provide help and info for all data products and publish tutorials to teach new users how to use the interface. Enable access to diverse data multiple platforms (remote-sensing, in situ, model) multiple types (gridded, point, profile, track) Allow combinations of any data basemaps & overlays Provide links to archive centers associated with each data set to enable download of original data.

The Atlas Framework GIS application style Web interface Map based front-end using user-defined spatial extents (zoom/pan) or pre-defined regions Load each layer into the application from a list of available products Select parameters temporal, spatial (lat/lon/depth), plotting output options (colors, lines, etc ), others Either basemaps with shaded and image output or overlays with contour and vector graphics Create as many layers as you wish and link layers with similar temporal and depth ranges

Basic Functions Displaying Data Coastlines and Boundaries Color Shaded Maps Contour Lines, Vectors, etc Point positions and Track Lines Advanced functions Animation Visualizations along time and depth axes

Querying Gridded Data (satellite, model output, interpolations) Identify value at point or graph values along userdefined transect Extract timeseries at point or create contour plot of transect vs. time (lat vs. time, lon vs. time, ) Create point profile or transect vs. depth plots for depth binned gridded data

Querying Point, Profile, Track Data (moorings, drifters, casts, ship-tracks) 1. Load layer and plot locations of data points 2. Query and filter points based on user defined criteria 3. Choose a point or track 4. Select an available data variable to plot against time, depth, or another data variable

Geographic Coverage Sub regions Hawaiian Archipelago American Samoa Marianas Archipelago US Pacific Remote Island Areas Freely Associated States of Micronesia The Great Barrier Reef Pacific Basin

Geographic Coverage High Resolution Regions In situ moorings Multi-spectral imagery

Distribution Format Electronic atlas complex custom displays near-real-time data Printed versions regional scope static subset of online version support users in locations with limited internet access

Web Interface What will the Web Atlas look like?

Web Interface

Scope of Atlas Variables under consideration: Note: each variable will have multiple products, i.e. climatologies, trends, anomalies, etc. Sea surface temperature Sub-surface temperature Thermocline depths Air temperature Barometric pressure Sea surface height Wind speed and direction Wind stress Chlorophyll Turbidity Currents Tides Surface solar radiation Sub-surface solar radiation Surface UV Sub-surface UV Wave height, length, energy Bathymetry Mixing parameters Dissolved oxygen Dissolved organic matter Salinity Coral bleaching indices etc

Timeline Web interface nearing end of initial development stage. (Limited demo of sample data should be available in next month or two.) New data products will be added on a continual basis. Initial focus on Hawaii region data collection and global/pacific scale data products. Other regions to follow

Adapting to Users Success of Atlas will depend on the ability to adapt to the user-base Current efforts are invested in the development of the Atlas framework. Future work will involve developing new indices, algorithms, and other derived products that best meet the needs of specific user communities (i.e., pelagic fisheries research).

Potential Improvements Diversify data access Improve range of potential data sources Access remotely archived datasets (OPeNDAP/DODS) Integrate with existing tools and interfaces Live Access Server, EPIC Geo-Spatial Databases Common GIS software / servers OGC Web Mapping Protocols share load with other servers Web Mapping Service Web Feature Service All while keeping the Ocean Atlas easy to use

Keep Updated For further information or to share comments and suggestions, please email: Russell.Moffitt@noaa.gov Please check the website for future developments: http://atlas.nmfs.hawaii.edu