Scope of MeteoGIS in the International Context

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Scope of Meteo/GIS in the International Context

• Olga Wilhelmi
• NCAR
• ADAGUC Workshop
• KNMI
• October 3-4 2006

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Outline

• Current state in integration of GIS and
  Atmospheric Sciences
• Progress
• Challenges
• Usability of atmospheric data in GIS
• Usability and uses of GIS for meteorological and
  climatological applications
• Future directions

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The Purpose

• Challenges of earth system science research
  community include
• integration of complex physical processes into
  weather forecast and climate system models
• understanding interactions between climate,
  environment, and society
• integrating social and environmental information
  with weather and climate
• It is important to make atmospheric science
  usable and data accessible to a wide community of
  users, including researchers, educators,
  practitioners and policy-makers

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The Challenge
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The Challenge (cont.)

• Methods and concepts
• Limited knowledge of GIS concepts and data models
  among atmospheric scientists
• GIS community is making faster progress in
  adopting atmospheric concepts than atmospheric
  community adopting GIS concepts
• Technology
• Dimensions
• Interoperability between applications
• Data
• Formats
• Semantics
• People
• Learning curve
• Adoption of standards and data management
  practices

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International Activities

• COST 719 (2001-2006)
• NCAR GIS Initiative (2001- present)
• Professional societies (EGU, AMS)
• University Consortium for Geographic Information
  Science
• Open Geospatial Consortium
• ESRI Atmospheric User Group
• Others

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Uses of GIS

• Visualization of information
• Spatial analysis (exploration of spatial
  patterns, relationships, networks spatial
  statistics)
• Data distribution (web portals web services)
• Data integration (interoperability coupled
  systems, interdisciplinary research)
• First, need to resolve issues related to data
  usability and interoperability

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Usability of Atmospheric Data

• Atmospheric Data Modeling working group
  categorized atmospheric data for usability in GIS
  as
• GIS Ready (fully described, point and click)
• GIS Friendly (some effort to transform into
  GIS-Ready not so friendly if heavy processing
  needed)
• GIS Alien (cannot be fully described)

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GIS ReadyExisting GIS Data Structures
Shipley et al.
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GIS FriendlyImages require additional info
500 hPa chart on ArcGlobe
World File
QTUA11.tif
QTUA11.tfw
14861.3 -36.775 -5.697 -14922.7 -12838043.0 109277
34.5
QTUA11.aux

Projection
Shipley et al.
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GIS Friendly Data Processing Required
Lidar cross section over Cincinnati, OH
Shipley et al.
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GIS Alien (at least for now)Meteogram
P (x,y,z,t), attributes p,q,u,v,
Time Series weather forecast (Meteogram) for
Washington DC, starting 21 June 2006
Shipley et al.
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Potential GIS Data Structures
Shipley et al.
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NetCDF in ArcGIS (now GIS-Ready)

• In ArcGIS 9.2 NetCDF data is accessed as
• Raster
• Feature
• Table
• Direct read
• Exports GIS data to netCDF

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NetCDF Tools

• Toolbox Multidimension Tools
• Make NetCDF Raster Layer
• Make NetCDF Feature Layer
• Make NetCDF Table View
• Raster to NetCDF
• Feature to NetCDF
• Table to NetCDF
• Select by Dimension

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Using NetCDF Data

• Display
• Same display tools for raster and feature layers
  will work on netCDF raster and netCDF feature
  layers.
• Graphing
• Driven by the table just like any other chart.
• Animation
• Multidimensional data can be animated through a
  dimension (e.g. time, pressure, elevation)
• Analysis Tools
• A netCDF layer or table will work just like any
  other raster layer, feature layer, or table.
  (e.g. create buffers around netCDF points,
  re-project rasters, query tables, etc.)
• Python

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Emerging Standards

• CF Version 2
• The next generation of the Climate and Forecast
  convention of netCDF
• GALEON
• OGC testbed project to evaluate netCDF
  suitability as a WCS well known binary.
• Common Data Model (CDM)
• A new API to access netCDF, HDF, GRIB, and
  OpenDAP through a single API.
• NcML
• NetCDF Markup Language, like GML for netCDF earth
  science data

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Data Visualization

• Symbology
• Identifying common symbols and creating defaults
  for weather and climate variables
• Integrating ESRI layer file and OGC style files
• Developing 3-D symbols for weather phenomena
• Use naming standards from CF convention

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Spatial Analysis

• Interpolation methods
• More progress in interpolating climate data than
  weather data
• Challenges
• Temporal analysis (e.g., time series statistics,
  temporal interpolation, analysis and modeling of
  transitions, raster time series)
• Working across scales (upscaling, downscaling)
• Many suitable existing geoprocessing tools for
• Model verification
• Impact and risk assessment (interdisciplinary)
• Spatial patterns and suitability analysis

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Example Impacts of Climate Change
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Data Integration
GIS Client
AIS Client

• Coordinate Systems
• Many atmospheric models are based on a sphere
  much GIS data is based on an ellipsoid
• Temporal coordinate systems
• Interoperability
• Data
• Applications

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Data Distribution

• Web portals

• Data Discovery

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Example GIS Climate Change Data Portal

• Distributing outputs from NCARs Global Climate
  Model (CCSM) in a GIS format (shapefile, text
  file)
• Ongoing work downscaling

http//www.gisClimateChange.org
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Users of GIS Climate Change Data Portal
Resource management
Biomass potential
Salmon conservation
Climate Change Education
Water Resources
Agriculture
Energy
Human Health

• Since February 2005 127K hits, 15K files
  downloaded, more than 1200 registered users from
  95 countries
• Many non-traditional users
• Challenge education about appropriate use of
  data

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Future Direction

• Distributed collaboratories for geosciences
• Increased computing capacity and capability
• Increased focus on multidisciplinary research
• Web services
• Self-contained, modular applications that can be
  described, published, and accessed over the
  Internet
• promote interoperability by minimizing the
  requirements for understanding between client and
  service and between services
• Extensible, interoperable web services for data
  discovery, access and transformation
• Data services (e.g., WMS, WFC, WCS, ArcGIS
  server)
• Geoprocessing services (web GIS, ArcGIS server)
• Catalog services (e.g., THREDDS, CS-W)

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Summary

• We are seeing progress in integration of GIS with
  atmospheric sciences, however many challenges
  remain
• Ongoing work with international data standards,
  web services, and integration of atmospheric and
  geospatial data make steps towards better
  understanding of the Earth System and solving
  societally relevant problems
• ADAGUC is on the right track for addressing
  challenging questions of data distribution and
  interoperability

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Thank You!

• For more information
• http//www.gis.ucar.edu
• E-mail olgaw_at_ucar.edu