Unidata and Oceanography Through the Ages Rich Signell

Unidata and Oceanography Through the Ages Rich Signell USGS Coastal and Marine Science Center Woods Hole, MA & NOAA Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Program Office Silver Spring, MD Unidata 25 th Anniversary Oct 16, 2009

Typical Ocean Model Grid (curvilinear structured grid) Curvilinear orthogonal horizontal coordinates Stretched surface and terrain following vertical coordinates

In the beginning (25 years ago)… …there was darkness

® US Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) ® IOOS Plan defines: • Global Component • Coastal Component § 17 Federal Agencies § 11 Regional Associations

Problem: Each institution had a custom web page display of model forecasts. How to compare to data and to each other? University of Maine University of Massachusetts - Boston

Data Interoperability System Design

THREDDS/Nc. WMS Web Mapping Service for Quick Browsing

IDV for more sophisticated visualization

Net. CDF-Java Toolbox for Matlab for scientific analysis Model 1: UMASSECOM Model 2: UMAINEPOM Data: SST 2008 -Sep-08 07: 32

Summary n n n What did we get through the use of Unidata technology? n Standards-based delivery of aggregated model data with minimal burden on the data provider n Single point of access for regional model results n Model data interoperability via standard software n Multiple modes of access for users n More eyes on the model results n More usage of model results n Faster feedback to modelers n Improved models! We now have an IOOS THREDDS Catalog that points to 17 THREDDS servers running in all 11 IOOS Regions So are we done? Well….

Ocean Model Native Grid Type #2 (triangular unstructured grid)

Unidata and Oceanography in the Future n n n Develop support for unstructured grids: Need a new Scientific Feature type in the CDM, new class and methods in Net. CDF-Java, delivery via WMS in TDS, and visualization in IDV. Develop protocols and back end software in the TDS to allow server side functions such as subsetting and averaging functions. Strengthen ties between Unidata, the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), and the NSF-sponsored Ocean Observing Initiative Cyber. Infrastructure (OOICI) project. I hope to play a role here…

Thank You Unidata!

Extra Slides

n n Matthew Arrott speaking at the Ocean Observing Initiative Cyber. Infrastructure kick-off meeting one month ago. This is a 40 million dollar, 5 year project, and there were approximately 100 people in the room): "Let me explain why Unidata is here. Everytime I go out in the field and look at the tools that scientists are using, they are using Unidata's tools. It is our view that how you get to the CI will be through Unidata's tools. This is why you see us speak more about infrastructure than about application. We are not developing applications that in conflict with the existing practices of scientists. We are there to accelerate their practices, to expand their practices. The best way to do that is to deploy into the existing operational context and Unidata represents one of the strongest institutions in the country in terms of supplying applications to the end users. "

Temperature at 1 m depth

Vertical transects along path