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provide robust, accessible, and innovative information services and tools

Access to data and information that crosses disciplinary, geographic and spatial lines requires a delivery system which captures salient features and is time-effective and time-efficient in its use. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are such tools. GIS is a collection of computer hardware, software, and qualitative and quantitative geographic data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. Through research and application, the GIS Initiative, within the Societal-Environmental Research and Education Laboratory (SERE), allows decision-makers access to maps of data and information that greatly simplifies cross-comparisons and problem-solving. Investigations involving computer modeled weather information; heat-related health patterns; disease patterns; and temperature and weather variability within communities are examples of research and applications within SERE that employ the use of GIS and related research. The SERE/ GIS Initiative provides access by communities external to NCAR to data and information through a web portal.

 

Priority 2: Developing and Providing Advanced Services and Tools

 

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Initiative

The GIS Strategic Initiative, led by ISSE project scientist Olga Wilhelmi, is an interdisciplinary effort that integrates the Earth's systems, environmental and social sciences through spatial analysis and interoperability of geo-referenced information. The Initiative promotes and supports the use of GIS as both an analysis and an infrastructure tool in atmospheric research. Further it addresses broader issues of geo-informatics and spatial data management.   

MMM's Hurricane WRF model output in netCDF format in ArcMap overlaid with demographic and infrastructure data. In FY07, the GIS Initiative staff and collaborators worked toward interoperability between weather and climate models and GIS analysis tools. Initiative-led efforts in adopting netCDF CF data format within ESRI ArcGIS software allowed GIS users the opportunity to work with netCDF atmospheric data in ArcGIS. The GIS Initiative continued to support NCAR's and UCAR's participation in the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). It also explored web services solutions for distributing climate and weather data to geoscience communities external to NCAR. Many NCAR research projects benefited from the GIS expertise provided by the Initiative staff. With more than one hundred GIS users throughout the NCAR laboratories, the projects range from atmospheric chemistry to homeland security. In FY07, Initiative staff also updated the GIS Climate Change Scenarios data portal (http://www.gisclimatechange.org). Through collaboration with CISL-IMAGe, Initiative staff downscaled climate projections for the U.S., which will be made available on the GIS data portal in FY08.

The GIS Initiative will continue to work on improving compatibility, accessibility and accuracy of weather (i.e., WRF) models with GIS environment in FY08. Staff will investigate conversion mechanisms between sphere-based and ellipsoid-based projections of GIS data. Through participation in “The Potentials of and Limits to Adaptation in Norway” (PLAN) project, staff will work towards integrating quantitative and qualitative information in a GIS environment and, thus, improve existing methodologies for assessing societal vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change. In FY08, the GIS Initiative will continue to support OGC, standards-based developments with the goal of improving interoperability between atmospheric and GIS data and tools.

Collaborators:
Jennifer Boehnert (RAL/ISSE), Ben Domenico (Unidata), Nathan Wilhelmi (CISL-SCD), Tim Hoar (CISL IMAGe), Brian Bush (LANL), Steve Kopp (ESRI), Scott Shipley (George Mason University), Tiffany Vance (NOAA/ National Marine Fisheries Service), Jack Sattelmaier (NOAA/NWS), Ilya Zaslavsky (San Diego Supercomputer Center), David Maidment (U. Texas), Richard Hooper (CUAHSI), Karen O'Brien (U. Oslo)

 

Atmospheric Data Access for the Geospatial User Community (ADAGUC)

The ADAGUC project aims to reduce the need for users to invent their own data converter and mapping tools. Selected space borne atmospheric datasets will be made accessible by GIS to allow for easy data comparison, resampling, selection, manipulation and visualization. ADAGUC focuses on interoperability and harmonization of data resources such that a ‘GIS-enabled' user can work with these datasets. ADAGUC serves as a pilot for applying GIS -technology in meteorological and climate datasets. The ADAGUC project expected results will be: Open Source conversion tools for conversion of selected atmospheric datasets into an Open Standard GIS format, published atmospheric datasets in GIS format, and a web service that demonstrates the usability of the above described tools, formats and datasets to the geospatial and atmospheric community.

Collaborators: O. Wilhelmi (NCAR), John van de Vegte (KNMI), Wim-Jan Som de Cerff (KNMI), Frans van der Wel (KNMI), Ben Domenico (Unidata), Stefano Nativi (U. Florence)