GIS and Atmospheric Science: Why, What, How?

1
GIS and Atmospheric ScienceWhy, What, How?

• Workshop on Satellite Data Applications
• August 20-21, 2003
• Sam Batzli, Environmental Remote Sensing Center,
  The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies,
  University of Wisconsin-Madison

2
Directives and Directions (why)

• NOAA 2008 Cross-Cutting Priorities
  Integrated Environmental Observation and Data
  Management System
• NCAR 10 Year Plan NCAR as an IntegratorA
  Geographic Information Systems Initiative
• Recent Activities
• NCAR GIS in Weather, Climate and Impacts
  Workshop 12-14 August 2002 Boulder, Colorado.
• GIS Session at EGS-AGU-EUG Meeting 6-11 April
  2003 Nice, France.
• NESDIS Data Users Workshop 11-12 June 2003
  Boulder, Colorado.
• Unidata Workshop Expanding Horizons 22-27
  June 2003 Boulder, Colorado.

3
GIS Overview (what)

• What is GIS?
• Computer system capable of assembling, storing,
  manipulating, and displaying geographically
  referenced information
• How it works
• Point, polygon, line, and raster layers
• Spatial relationships
• Visualization
• Applications of GIS
• Mapping, site selection, visualization, resource
  inventory and management, and more
• The future of GIS
• Enterprise networks
• Distributed relational
• Advanced modeling
• Web integration

4
Some GIS Companies

• ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute
  Inc.) makers of ArcINFO, ArcView, ArcGIS, etc.
  http//www.esri.com
• Intergraph, makers of GeoMedia http//imgs.intergr
  aph.com
• GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support
  System) Open Source, http//grass.baylor.edu
• PCI Geomatics, makers of Geomatica.
  http//www.pcigeomatics.com

Total GIS core-business revenue will grow 8 to
1.75 billion in 2003, by  Daratech's forecast.
This compares to a 2.4 growth (to 1.6 billion
in core-business revenues) in 2002 over the prior
year.
5
Basic Info Data Sources

• GIS Overviews
• http//www.usgs.gov/research/gis/title.html
• http//www.esri.com/industries/k-12/basicgis.html
• http//www-agecon.ag.ohio-state.edu/programs/ComR
  egEcon/gis/gisintro.htm
• http//www.gis.com
• Data Sources
• http//www.geographynetwork.com (live global web
  data)
• http//data.geocomm.com/ (join and download)
• http//nsdi.usgs.gov/ or http//edc.usgs.gov/geoda
  ta/ (US data)
• http//glcfapp.umiacs.umd.edu8080/glcf/esdi?comma
  ndhome(free Landsat imagery)
• GIS Standards
• http//www.opengis.org (Open GIS Consortium
  OGC)

6
Integrative Applications

• Examples of ongoing NOAA work
• Exposing the U.S. Coastal Zone. (NGDC) Presented
  by David Divins, Dan Metzger, John Campagnoli,
  and Matt Kuhn (NESDIS Workshop 2003)
• Enterprise GIS (NGDC) Presented by Ted Haberman,
  Geospatial Data Services Group (NESDIS Workshop
  2003)
• Coral Reef Information System. (NODC) Presented
  by Anthony Picciolo (NESDIS Workshop 2003)
• Coastal Risk Atlas. (NCDDC) Presented by Russ
  Beard (NESDIS Workshop 2003)
• Workshop Summary Needs
• Increasing communication among researchers and
  practitioners using GIS in meteorology and
  climatology (consortia, workshops,
  collaborations)
• Developing organization-wide GIS infrastructure
  (NetCDF API to OGC, XML standard for the
  meteorological community)
• Training atmospheric science researchers and
  practitioners in use of GIS

7
Environmental Remote Sensing Center
(http//www.ersc.wisc.edu)

• Lake Clarity
• Integration of Landsat imagery and DNR hydro
  layer with volunteer ground truth data
  (http//www.lakesat.org)
• Land cover change
• Tornado damage measurement using before/after
  change detection
• Spatial Databases
• ArcSDE/Oracle
• Web Mapping
• MapServerhttp//www.lakesat.org/statewide.php
• ArcIMShttp//foliage.geo.msu.edu/wege/viewer.htm
  
• MODIS ImageServer

8
Thoughts on Integration

• What if Severe Weather warnings included an
  in-path risk index for population, landmarks,
  land cover, and utility infrastructure?
• What if urban heat sinks could be factored into
  regional or micro-climate weather forecasts or
  climate change?
• What if GIS-based agricultural productivity
  forecasts could link soil models with real-time
  meteorological inputs?
• How can long-term climate change modeling improve
  land use planning at a statewide scale?

9
Suggested Next Steps (how)

• Nuts and Bolts Issues
• GIS practitioners need to learn about things like
  McIDAS, NetCDF, real-time data streaming, loop
  structures, data archiving.
• GIS and Weather/Climate folks need to trade data
  sets and begin to forge crosswalks and linkages.
• GIS and Weather/Climate folks need to identify
  common area of interest and focused projects and
  develop grant proposals.

10
Discussion

• Questions?

11
Browse the Sample Data

1. Pick Pilot/Navigator
2. Open ArcCatalog Start/All Programs/ArcGIS/ArcCata
   log
3. Browse to CD-ROM
4. Expand Catalog
5. Pick a State
6. Preview a blkgrp.shp file, zoom/pan
7. Preview the Table
8. Click Metadata, try different style sheets

12
Build a Data Stack

1. Open ArcMapStart/All Programs/ArcGIS/ArcMap
2. Add Data
3. Connect to Folder
4. Pick a State
5. Select the .shp files
6. Add

13
Explore the Data

• Turn the Layers On/Off
• Arrange Layers
• View Tables
• View Properties
• Symbology
• Definition Query
• Labels

14
Add Additional Data

• Tabular Data
• x-y? (.dbf)
• Or Common field?
• ExampleUSHCN stations history

• Advanced stuff?
• SQL, clip, merge

15
Quick Review

• Ok, what did we just do?
• Became acquainted with GIS
• Explored data
• Built a data stack with point, line, polygon,
  and raster data
• Mapped x-y and non-spatial data
• Whats next?
• Building thematic maps suitable for framing
• But first

16
15 Minute Break
17
Making Thematic Maps in GIS

• Switch Pilot/Navigator roles (if youre sharing a
  computer)
• Open your ArcMap document or start a new one
• Choose a theme to map examples
• State and National parks of the West
• Population density of Colorado
• Ethnicity of California by Census Block Group
• Be creative
• Add .lyr files to your map
• Switch to Map Layout view
• Choose an appropriate projection (i.e. state
  standard, equal area, equidistant, for more info
  see http//www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes
  /mapproj/mapproj_f.html )

18
Making it Pretty and Adding the Trimmings

• Use Layer Properties (symbology, and labels) to
  adjust the look of your layers
• Use the Insert menu to add title, text,
  neatline, legend, north arrow, scale bar, etc.
• Insert a new data frame to show map context
• Proof read
• Print your creation

• TIPS
• Simplify!
• Limit number and sizes and styles of fonts
• Choose colors carefully
• Nifty tool at www.colorbrewer.com