IN51A-0110
Community Needs Assessment and Portal Prototype Development for an Arctic Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI)
As the creation and use of geospatial data in research, management, logistics, and education applications has proliferated, there is now a tremendous potential for advancing science through a variety of cyber-infrastructure applications, including Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and related technologies. SDIs provide a necessary and common framework of standards, securities, policies, procedures, and technology to support the effective acquisition, coordination, dissemination and use of geospatial data by multiple and distributed stakeholder and user groups. Despite the numerous research activities in the Arctic, there is no established SDI and, because of this lack of a coordinated infrastructure, there is inefficiency, duplication of effort, and reduced data quality and search ability of arctic geospatial data. The urgency for establishing this framework is significant considering the myriad of data that is being collected in celebration of the International Polar Year (IPY) in 2007-2008 and the current international momentum for an improved and integrated circum-arctic terrestrial-marine-atmospheric environmental observatories network. The key objective of this project is to lay the foundation for full implementation of an Arctic Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI) through an assessment of community needs, readiness, and resources and through the development of a prototype web-mapping portal.
IN51A-0111
Geobrowser Enhanced Access of Real-Time Antarctic Data
A proof of principle project was initiated in the Fall of 2006 to develop a system enabling remote field station and ship borne data, collected in near real-time to be discovered, visualised and acquired through a web accessible framework. The two principal enabling drivers for this system were the recent improvements in communications with remote field stations and ships and the advent of low cost, easily accessible geobrowser technology providing the ability to visualise multiple, sometimes physically disparate datasets within a common interface. Strongly spatial in nature the oceanographic datasets suggested the incorporation of geobrowser (Google Earth) technology into this framework. A number of scientific benefits were identified by the project, these include the overall enhancing of the value of many of the datasets through their real-time contribution to forecasting models, satellite ground truthing and calibration of autonomous instrumentation. Improved efficacy of fieldwork led to rapid discovery of problems and the ability to deal with them promptly. The ability to correct or improve experiment parameters and increase capability of routine collection of high-quality data. In the past it may have been over a year before data arrived back at HQ potentially unusable, definitely unrepeatable and significantly reducing or delaying scientific output. The geobrowser interface provides the platform from which the spatial data is discovered, for example ship tracks and aspects of the physical oceanography such as sea surface temperature can be directly visualized. Importantly, ancillary and auxiliary information and metadata can be linked to the cruise data in a straightforward and accessible manner; scientists in Cambridge using a geobrowser were able to access and visualize cruise data from the Southern ocean 20 minutes after collection.
IN51A-0112
Toward More Effective Comparison of Measured and Modeled Ionospheric Data Using Madrigal During the International Polar Year
The International Polar Year is associated with an unprecedented increase in the measurement and modeling of the polar ionosphere. This has opened the opportunity to dramatically improve the quality of the models and the underlying physical understanding, allowing improved now-casting and forecasting of the ionosphere. The Madrigal database is the traditional database used for distributing upper atmospheric data, and is used by all the incoherent scatter radar sites. The Madrigal database has also been shown to be an effective tool for distributing modeling data. One critical issue in improving models through comparison with measurements is the non-standard data products presently used by the varying incoherent scatter radars. While the parameters measured are standard, the spatial and temporal cadences of the measurements often vary widely, even for a given incoherent scatter radar. While there are various technical and scientific reasons for these variations, they do make the comparison to model runs much more difficult. In this work we discuss a higher level data product that all incoherent scatter radars can produce. This higher level product would not contain all the information in the standard products of each incoherent scatter radar, but should include all the capabilities shared by all the radars. Our experience developing a prototype of such a data product here at Millstone Hill will be discussed, along with a discussion of how this higher level data product can be distributed via the Madrigal database and more easily compared with model runs.
IN51A-0113
JCADM, new Directions in Antarctic Data Management in Support of IPY
The Joint Committee on Antarctic Data Management (JCADM) was established by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP), to assist in the fulfilment of the data management obligations imposed by the Antarctic Treaty (section III.1.c): "Scientific observations and results from Antarctica shall be exchanged and made freely available." JCADM comprises representatives of the National Antarctic Data Centres or national points of contact. Currently 31 nations around the world are represented in JCADM. So far, JCADM has been focussing on the coordination of the Antarctic Master Directory (AMD), the internationally accessible, web-based, searchable record of Antarctic and Southern Ocean data set descriptions. The AMD is directly integrated into the international Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) to help further merge Antarctic science into global science. The AMD is a resource for scientists to advertise the data they have collected and to search for data they may need. Currently, JCADM is in a transition phase, moving forward to provide data access. Existing systems and web services technology will be used as much as possible, to increase efficiency and prevent ‘re-inventing the wheel' This presentation will give an overview of this process, the current status and the expected results.