IN41A-0064
Arctic Research Mapping Application (ARMAP): 2D Maps and 3D Globes Support Arctic Science
The Arctic Research Mapping Application (ARMAP) is a suite of online services to provide support of Arctic science. These services include: a text based online search utility, 2D Internet Map Server (IMS); 3D globes and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Services (WMS). With ARMAP's 2D maps and 3D globes, users can navigate to areas of interest, view a variety of map layers, and explore U.S. Federally funded research projects. Projects can be queried by location, year, funding program, discipline, and keyword. Links take you to specific information and other web sites associated with a particular research project. The Arctic Research Logistics Support Service (ARLSS) database is the foundation of ARMAP including US research funded by the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the United States Geological Survey. Avoiding a duplication of effort has been a primary objective of the ARMAP project which incorporates best practices (e.g. Spatial Data Infrastructure and OGC standard web services and metadata) and off the shelf technologies where appropriate. The ARMAP suite provides tools for users of various levels of technical ability to interact with the data by importing the web services directly into their own GIS applications and virtual globes; performing advanced GIS queries; simply printing maps from a set of predefined images in the map gallery; browsing the layers in an IMS; or by choosing to "fly to" sites using a 3D globe. With special emphasis on the International Polar Year (IPY), ARMAP has targeted science planners, scientists, educators, and the general public. In sum, ARMAP goes beyond a simple map display to enable analysis, synthesis, and coordination of Arctic research. ARMAP may be accessed via the gateway web site at http://www.armap.org. http://www.armap.org
IN41A-0065
IRIS Earthquake Browser with Integration to the GEON IDV for 3-D Visualization of Hypocenters.
We present a new generation of web based earthquake query tool - the IRIS Earthquake Browser (IEB). The IEB combines the DMC's large set of earthquake catalogs (provided by USGS/NEIC, ISC and the ANF) with the popular Google Maps web interface. With the IEB you can quickly and easily find earthquakes in any region of the globe. Using Google's detailed satellite images, earthquakes can be easily co-located with natural geographic features such as volcanoes as well as man made features such as commercial mines. A set of controls allow earthquakes to be filtered by time, magnitude, and depth range as well as catalog name, contributor name and magnitude type. Displayed events can be easily exported in NetCDF format into the GEON Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) where hypocenters may be visualized in three dimensions. Looking "under the hood", the IEB is based on AJAX technology and utilizes REST style web services hosted at the IRIS DMC. The IEB is part of a broader effort at the DMC aimed at making our data holdings available via web services. The IEB is useful both educationally and as a research tool. http://www.iris.edu/ieb
IN41A-0066
The GLIMS Glacier Database
The Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) project has built a geospatial and temporal database of glacier data, composed of glacier outlines and various scalar attributes. These data are being derived primarily from satellite imagery, such as from ASTER and Landsat. Each "snapshot" of a glacier is from a specific time, and the database is designed to store multiple snapshots representative of different times. We have implemented two web-based interfaces to the database; one enables exploration of the data via interactive maps (web map server), while the other allows searches based on text-field constraints. The web map server is an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) compliant Web Map Server (WMS) and Web Feature Server (WFS). This means that other web sites can display glacier layers from our site over the Internet, or retrieve glacier features in vector format. All components of the system are implemented using Open Source software: Linux, PostgreSQL, PostGIS (geospatial extensions to the database), MapServer (WMS and WFS), and several supporting components such as Proj.4 (a geographic projection library) and PHP. These tools are robust and provide a flexible and powerful framework for web mapping applications. As a service to the GLIMS community, the database contains metadata on all ASTER imagery acquired over glacierized terrain. Reduced-resolution of the images (browse imagery) can be viewed either as a layer in the MapServer application, or overlaid on the virtual globe within Google Earth. The interactive map application allows the user to constrain by time what data appear on the map. For example, ASTER or glacier outlines from 2002 only, or from Autumn in any year, can be displayed. The system allows users to download their selected glacier data in a choice of formats. The results of a query based on spatial selection (using a mouse) or text-field constraints can be downloaded in any of these formats: ESRI shapefiles, KML (Google Earth), MapInfo, GML (Geography Markup Language) and GMT (Generic Mapping Tools). This "clip-and-ship" function allows users to download only the data they are interested in. Our flexible web interfaces to the database, which includes various support layers (e.g. a layer to help collaborators identify satellite imagery over their region of expertise) will facilitate enhanced analysis to be undertaken on glacier systems, their distribution, and their impacts on other Earth systems. http://glims.org/
IN41A-0067
The GODAE High Resolution SST Project: Standards Based Interoperability in Action
The Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE) High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) project is a large scale international effort to coordinate the production, distribution, and archiving of a wide range of satellite-based SST datasets. Built on existing standards for data formats and both file-level and collection- level metadata, the GHRSST project has achieved a high level of success in an area that has seen little past national cooperation and even less international cooperation. Today, GHRSST data are produced in common formats following internationally accepted content standards by government agencies, academic institutions, and commercial companies around the world. By following the format and content standards for metadata and data, GHRSST has successfully built and deployed a Regional/Global Task Sharing framework in which data and metadata are produced at local centers but centrally managed at a Global Data Assembly Center and archived at a Long Term Stewardship and Reanalysis Facility. Interoperable data access is enabled at all levels of this international framework. This presentation will examine the lessons learned over the last several years as GHRSST has adopted numerous standards, including netCDF with Climate and Forecast (CF) attribute conventions for data, and both Global Change Master Directory Document Interchange Format and Federal Geographic Data Commission standards for metadata. Plans for future adoption of emerging standards like netCDF-4 and ISO19115 will also be discussed. http://ghrsst.nodc.noaa.gov
IN41A-0068
A New Data Management System for Biological and Chemical Oceanography
The Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO) was created to serve PIs principally funded by NSF to conduct marine chemical and ecological research. The new office is dedicated to providing open access to data and information developed in the course of scientific research on short and intermediate time-frames. The data management system developed in support of U.S. JGOFS and U.S. GLOBEC programs is being modified to support the larger scope of the BCO-DMO effort, which includes ultimately providing a way to exchange data with other data systems. The open access system is based on a philosophy of data stewardship, support for existing and evolving data standards, and use of public domain software. The DMO staff work closely with originating PIs to manage data gathered as part of their individual programs. In the new BCO-DMO data system, project and data set metadata records designed to support re-use of the data are stored in a relational database (MySQL) and the data are stored in or made accessible by the JGOFS/GLOBEC object- oriented, relational, data management system. Data access will be provided via any standard Web browser client user interface through a GIS application (Open Source, OGC-compliant MapServer), a directory listing from the data holdings catalog, or a custom search engine that facilitates data discovery. In an effort to maximize data system interoperability, data will also be available via Web Services; and data set descriptions will be generated to comply with a variety of metadata content standards. The office is located at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and web access is via http://www.bco-dmo.org. http://www.bco-dmo.org
IN41A-0069
DIVE Into Metadata With MMI
Within research environments, good, usable data is paramount to scientific success. However, extremely diverse data is often distributed across many institutions, collected in a variety of ways, and stored in dissimilar systems. Standards-based interoperability is the key to harnessing this variety into a strategic set of usable data. As a community collaboration, the Marine Metadata Interoperability project (MMI) exists to promote the exchange, integration and use of marine data through enhanced data publishing, discovery, documentation and accessibility. To accomplish these goals, MMI has established a collaborative web environment (http://marinemetadata.org), informative guides, workshops on current topics, vocabulary working groups, and interoperable projects (OOSTethys and the OGC Oceans Interoperability Experiment, http://www.oostethys.org/). In January 2008, MMI will launch a new initiative: the DIVE Strike Force. Called DIVE for Discover, Interrogate, Validate and Educate. The MMI strike force initiative will facilitate concentrated research into a specific area needed by the marine science community. Each focused team of scientists, technologists and data managers will work to comprehensively review and explain existing capabilities and best practices, comparing existing solutions for the community. For this first DIVE Strike Force, team efforts will be focused on metadata tools. The Tools Strike Force will: * Discover available tools for the creation and publication of metadata and metadata vocabularies; * Interrogate the community about each tool, assessing criteria to be agreed upon, for example the capabilities of each, strengths and weaknesses, level of adoption, and where each tool would best be used; * Validate the best and most applicable tools objectively; * Educate the wider marine metadata community using the MMI webpage, and other resources as appropriate. Participants in each DIVE will be solicited from throughout the community, and involvement of solution providers (e.g., tools creators and vendors) will be especially encouraged. You can see previews of the dynamic DIVE Strike Force project, and the initial Tools Strike Force activity, at http://marinemetadata.org/dive. Ongoing funding for MMI is provided by the National Science Foundation through grant OCE 0607372. http://marinemetadata.org/dive
IN41A-0070
SDI-Based Groundwater Information Interoperability
Though groundwater data are important inputs to hydrologic decision-making, they are highly distributed and heterogeneous, and thus difficult to access in a coordinated manner. The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) is developing an information system for coordinated groundwater data access, using the standards and technologies of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). In mid-stage development, the system is designed to manage and disseminate data produced by GSC scientists, as well as potentially disseminate data produced by other groundwater agencies. The system involves a typical three-tiered, mediator-wrapper architecture that includes a data tier, a mediator tier, and an applications tier. At the data tier local data sources are wrapped by OGC web services (WFS, WMS), which deliver diversely structured data to the mediator tier. The mediator tier acts as: (1) a central registry for the distributed data and other services; (2) a translator of the local data to the standard data format, GroundWater Markup Language; and (3) a consistent set of OGC web services that enable users to access the distributed data as one source. The applications tier involves both GSC and third-party web applications, such as analysis tools or on-line atlases, that provide user interfaces to the system. Apart from the data format standards used to achieve schematic interoperability, the system also deploys some light-weight data content standards to move toward semantic interoperability. These content standards include the definition of common categories for datasets such as standard subject classifications and map layers. A demonstration of the working prototype will be available, as well as discussion of the architecture of the system and the impacts on interoperability. The intent of the development is to grow the system into a national enterprise with a broad range of contributors and users.
IN41A-0071
ECHO – Enabling Interoperability between, and with, NASA Earth Observation Resources
The NASA-developed Earth Observing System (EOS) Clearinghouse (ECHO) is a spatial and temporal metadata registry that enables the science community to more easily use and exchange NASA's data and services. NASA's Earth science data has already proven itself to be extremely useful in understanding the planet Earth as an integrated system. For example, NASA's EOS data are helping scientists gain a better understanding of the processes that affect the composition of the ozone and the effects of the composition on climate change. NASA's EOS data is also helping scientists move forward in their efforts to predict natural occurrences, such as wildfires. Currently, ECHO contains metadata for over 2,149 data collections comprising 56 million individual data granules and 14 million browse images. ECHO stores metadata from a variety of science disciplines and domains, including Climate Variability and Change, Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Earth Surface and Interior, Atmospheric Composition, Weather, and Water and Energy Cycle. ECHO also has a services registry for community- developed search services and data services. ECHO provides a platform for the publication, discovery, understanding and access to NASA's Earth Observation resources (data, service and clients). In their own native state, these data, service and client resources are not necessarily targeted for use beyond their original mission. However, with the proper interoperability mechanisms, users of these resources can expand the value of them, by consuming, combining and applying them in unforeseen ways. This presentation will discuss how ECHO enables interoperability between data, between services, and the mechanisms for interoperability between data and services. It will also provide a description of how to utilize ECHO to interoperate with NASA's Earth Observations resources. Finally, it will present an overview of a generic Earth Science discovery client, built on ECHO's infrastructure. http://www.echo.nasa.gov
IN41A-0072
Web Services Implementations at Land Process and Goddard Earth Sciences Distributed Active Archive Centers
NASA's vast array of scientific data within its Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) is especially valuable to both traditional research scientists as well as the emerging market of Earth Science Information Partners. For example, the air quality science and management communities are increasingly using satellite derived observations in their analyses and decision making. The Air Quality Cluster in the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) uses web infrastructures of interoperability, or Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), to extend data exploration, use, and analysis and provides a user environment for DAAC products. In an effort to continually offer these NASA data to the broadest research community audience, and reusing emerging technologies, both NASA's Goddard Earth Science (GES) and Land Process (LP) DAACs have engaged in a web services pilot project. Through these projects both GES and LP have exposed data through the Open Geospatial Consortiums (OGC) Web Services standards. Reusing several different existing applications and implementation techniques, GES and LP successfully exposed a variety data, through distributed systems to be ingested into multiple end-user systems. The results of this project will enable researchers world wide to access some of NASA's GES & LP DAAC data through OGC protocols. This functionality encourages inter-disciplinary research while increasing data use through advanced technologies. This paper will concentrate on the implementation and use of OGC Web Services, specifically Web Map and Web Coverage Services (WMS, WCS) at GES and LP DAACs, and the value of these services within scientific applications, including integration with the DataFed air quality web infrastructure and in the development of data analysis web applications.
IN41A-0073
XML Data Unification for Visualization
Under the auspices of the US DOE and NASA, multiple projects are using high-end supercomputing to expand our knowledge in planetary and solar physics, plasma and accelerator physics. Such simulations generate data using very different formatting conventions, even if they use a standard file format such as HDF5. This makes visualization and comparison of different codes problematic, requiring individual readers for each code and visualization tool. In this poster we present Fusion Simulation Markup Language (FSML), an extensible XML- based schema embodying the conceptual commonalities of the data, along with a C++ API for reading FSML- described data stored in HDF5 files. By creating FSML instance files to describe the differences in the conventions adopted by applications, and using the API, we can read data from heterogeneous sources such as NIMROD, M3D, and VORPAL into multiple visualization tools such as AVS/Express and VisIt. http://collaborate.txcorp.com/collaborate/distributed-technologies/fsml-project-folder/
IN41A-0074
Earth System Atlas: citable publication and visualization of datasets
The rapid growth of digital data archived around the world, stored on a large number of different web servers and in numerous formats, are often under-exploited because of the difficulties that arise from data persistence, ease of access and format incompatibilities. The metadata and physical infrastructure necessary to make these data widely accessible and useful to the scientific community and the wider general audience (policy makers, educators, and the lay public) is often incomplete, or missing altogether. Web access to data also has a tendency to disappear when funds are no longer available to support these scattered individual efforts. As a result, access to and knowledge of data sources and their reliability and limitations is frequently a major stumbling block for scientists, policy makers, NGOs, educators and others. Data from significantly different disciplines have been stored and manipulated in highly different ways, and while it is possible to overlay diverse data on a superficial level, finding ways to make them interact in a meaningful way is non-trivial. The purpose of the Earth System Atlas, now operational with a Steering Committee and Editorial Board, is to collect, peer-review and offer for graphical display and on-line manipulation a wide range of data sets representative of the entire Earth system, helping to promote new ideas in research while providing a venue for bona fide citable publication of datasets. A preliminary version of the Atlas is now visible at the link below. http://www.earthsystematlas.org
IN41A-0075
Interoperability Between Geoscience And Geospatial Catalog Protocols
In the past several years, interoperability gaps have made cross-protocol and cross-community data access a challenge within the Earth science community. One such gap is between two protocol families developed within the geospatial and Earth science communities. The Earth science community has developed a family of related geoscience protocols that includes OPeNDAP for data access and the Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services (THREDDS) catalog capability. The corresponding protocols in the geospatial community are the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) protocols Web Coverage Service for geospatial data access and Catalog Services for Web (CSW) for data search. We have developed a catalog gateway to mediate client/server interactions between OGC catalog clients and THREDDS servers. In essence, the gateway is an OGC Catalog server that enables OGC clients to search for data registered in THREDDS catalogs. The gateway comprises two parts: the CSW server and a THREDDS-to-CSW ingestion tool. There are two key challenges in constructing such gateway, the first is to define the mapping relationship between the catalog metadata schema of CSW and that of the THREDDS, and the second one is to ingest the THREDDS catalog content into the CSW server. Since our CSW server is based on the ISO19115/ISO19119 Application Profile, a key challenge is to semantically map the ISO 19115 metadata attributes in ISO Application Profile to the THREDDS metadata attributes in the THREDDS Dataset Inventory Catalog Specification Version 1.0. With the mapping established, tools that translate the THREDDS catalog information model into the CSW/ISO Profile information model were developed. These dynamically poll THREDDS catalog servers and ingest the THREDDS catalog information into the CSW server's database, maintaining the hierarchical relationships inherent in the THREDDS catalogs. A prototype system has been implemented to demonstrate the concept and approach.