Development of Spatial Enabled Products at the Bureau of Meteorology

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Development of Spatial Enabled Products at the
Bureau of Meteorology

• Kathleen Hirst
• Nicholas Farrell
• Justyna Lubkowski

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Outline

• Spatial Data at the Bureau of Meteorology
• Use of OGC-compliant web services
• Data layers available through experimental system
• Future layers being developed
• Access to the spatial data and services
• Examples
• Challenges

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Bureaus Mission

• To observe and understand Australian weather and
  climate and provide meteorological, hydrological
  and oceanographic services in support of
  Australia's national needs and international
  obligations

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Lots and Lots of Data

• Historical, Real time, Forecasts
• Meteorology, Hydrology and Oceanographic
• Observations, Models
• Many in-house applications
• What to do with all the data?

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Dissemination of Data

• Web Site
• Very popular
• Great for public

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Spatial Data

• Web Site contains many examples of spatial data

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Web gtgt Spatial Web Services

• Web Site is limited
• Need for organisations to incorporate Bureau data
  into their applications
• Need for real time data, particularly for
  emergency management agencies
• Move to deliver the spatial data using
  OGC-compliant web services (WMS and WFS)

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Advantages of spatial web services

• Users can integrate Bureau data with their data
• Using their preferred desktop or internet
  mapping/GIS package
• Less data management (no data translation,
  storage, maintenance)
• Point of truth dataset ie data from the
  authoritative data source
• Up-to-date data crucial for emergency
  management

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Advantages of web services (cont)

• Standard symbology
• Eliminates the barriers of data sharing between
  organisations
• Not dependent on proprietary software
• More time for analysis
• Saves time and money

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Standards

• Made possible through the implementation of
  spatial interoperability standards including
• Web Map Service (WMS)
• Web Feature Service (WFS)
• Web Coverage Service (WCS)
• Geographic Markup Language (GML)
• Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD)

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Spatial Enabling Bureau Products(GIS2Web Project)

• To deliver Bureau products in geospatial format
• ESRI Shapefiles, GML and netCDF
• Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) compliant web
  services
• Web Map Services (WMS)
• Web Feature Services (WFS)
• Currently experimental

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Layers Available

• Radar feeds
• Weather Observation Data
• Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) Products
• Satellite IR
• Administrative Layers

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Radar

• Converted from polar files to shapefiles
• Grouped by State
• Updated every 10 minutes (6 minutes for
  Melbourne)

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Weather Observations

• Converted from AXF (ASCII) format
• METAR observations
• Any new updates published every 15 minutes

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Weather Observations - METARs

• Station ID YPDN
• Time (UTC) 0230
• QNH (Pressure) 1012.9
• Rainfall since 9 am 0.0
• Relative Humidity 35
• Dewpoint Temperature 4.9
• Drybulb Temperature 28.9
• Wind

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Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP)

• From LAPS model (grid of 0.375 degrees)
• Converted from netCDF files (multi-dimensional
  grid)
• Interpolated into contour lines for
• Mean Sea Level Pressure (MSLP) - 2 times a day
• Points for
• Wind Analysis (10 m) 2 times a day
• GeoTIFF
• Sea Surface Temperature daily

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MSLP
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Wind Analysis
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Sea Surface Temperature
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Satellite IR

• From Japan Meteorological Agency satellite
  MTSAT-1R
• GeoTIFF format
• Updated hourly

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Background Layers

• Boundary Layers
• State Boundaries
• Public Weather Forecast Districts
• Rainfall Districts
• Fire Weather Districts

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Test Products

• Tropical Cyclone Track Maps
• River Observations (River Heights)

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Tropical Cyclones

• Track Maps developed in Java application called
  TC Module
• Data saved as GML
• Data translated to GML simple feature and
  shapefiles

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Tropical Cyclones

• Fix Points
• Track Lines
• Wind Areas
• Forecast of Track Areas
• Warning Areas
• Watch Areas

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Testing of Tropical Cyclone Track Maps by FESA in
EmerGeo application
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Hydrology

• 15 minute water level
• Flood warning
• AXF (ASCII format) to GML
• GML to shapefiles

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Testing of River Heights by NSW SES
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Future Products

• Other hydrology (24 hour rainfall, 1 hour
  rainfall, rainfall since 9 am)
• TITAN tracks (thunderstorm tracks)
• Smoke Plume Forecasts
• Aviation Products

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Hydrology

• 24 hour rainfall
• 1 hour rainfall
• Rainfall since 9 am

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Smoke Dispersion Forecast Plumes

• Based on HYSPLIT model
• Tool for prescribed burns
• Forecast each hour from 10 2300 hr for current
  and next day

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Aviation Products

• Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF)
• Trend Type Forecast (TTF)
• Area Forecast (ARFOR)
• SIGMET
• Significant Weather Charts (SIGWX)

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ISO Metadata

• Provision of ISO 19115/19139
• Supplied with shapefiles, GML
• Also within the GetCapabilities document
• ltMetadataURL type"TC211"gt
•   ltFormatgttext/xmllt/Formatgt
•   ltOnlineResource xmlnsxlink"http//www.w3.org/
  1999/xlink" xlinktype"simple"
  xlinkhref"http//ows.bom.gov.au/mapserver/public
  /metadata/sst.xml" /gt
• lt/MetadataURLgt

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Symbology

• Consistency with the maps on the Web site
• Supply of lyr files for shapefiles

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Who has access to spatial data and services?

• Registered Users
• Focus on Emergency Management and Disaster
  Mitigation
• Based on existing Bureaus Services Information
  Management System (SIMS)
• Modified to allow for web services delivery
• Provides means for authorisation and
  authentication
• Allows for IP authentication for clients that do
  not support HTTP authentication

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SIMS
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Usage Statistics

• Ability to monitor usage

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Registering for the experimental system

• Through regional Public and Marine Officer (PMO)
  and Registered User Services
• Users registered in the Bureaus Services
  Information Management System (SIMS) and assign
  the necessary products
• A deed of agreement needs to be signed
• Notification containing a URL and username and
  password will be sent

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Frequently Asked Questions

• FAQ for users available from
• http//ows.bom.gov.au/mapserver/public/faq.pdf
• Includes how to register for the experimental
  system through the appropriate person

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Links with other projects

• Sentinel
• Oceans Portal
• Australian Water Data Infrastructure Project
  (AWDIP)
• Water Initiative
• National Spatial and Information Management
  (NSIM)
• Emergency Management Spatial Information Network
  Australia (EMSINA)

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Geoscience Australia - Sentinel
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Oceans Portal
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Challenges

• Cross section coordination
• Linking with existing Bureau systems
• TC Module, SIMS
• Time based factors eg historical, real-time,
  forecast
• Zero values vs missing data
• Radar (no rain or no data)
• Poor metadata
• Accommodating for limitations in software clients
• Staff changes

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Challenges

• Evolving technology
• Incorporation of feedback from users
• Clearer governance/user requirements
• Delays in making services operational

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Questions