NOAA View: An Exploration Tool to Simplify Data Access and Visualization

Abstract:

A normal search for data would, ideally, start with the defining a variable of interest and eventually moving down to the acquisition method or analysis type. Too often, data archives assume the users understand the complex terminology of sensors and model names, or even worse - their acronyms. Imagine a non-subject matter expert, especially an educator or hobbyist, trying to navigate this sea of data and seemingly nonsense strings of letters like AVHRR, ESM2M, CFSR, or MLOST. At the NOAA VIsualization Lab, we deal with these issues on a routine basis, and are trying to make data discovery for formal and informal educational use much easier. In this talk, we'll describe the efforts to build the NOAA View data exploration tool, which provides access to over 100 variables from a myriad of satellite, in situ, model, and analysis sources across the agency. NOAA View, a WMS and OpenLayers based web tool and data portal, not only serves data imagery, but also links back to original sources in the data archives. The current architecture as well as plans for future versions will be detailed, along with examples of uses across the geophysical sciences. In addition to the talk, please visit NOAA View at the NOAA exhibit. www.nnvl.noaa.gov/view