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Home > 9. Operational/Synoptic

9. Handling Operational & Synoptic Marine Data

General:

Most of the other data exercises in MDL are concerned with climatological products and/or long-term data archives containing historical records.   The principal software visualization tools for those data are Ocean Data View and Saga.  This whole section deals with data that is operational, according to the European Union definition:

Operational Oceanography can be defined as the activity of systematic and long-term routine measurements of the seas and oceans and atmosphere, and their rapid interpretation and dissemination.

This includes satellite images, model products, and nowcasts/forecasts of all parameters of interest.  The enormous number of products and the huge volume of digital content requires that the relatively time-consuming conversions to GIS formats seen in other exercises must either be automated (a concept that is taking hold internationally) or other software platforms capable of dealing with the operational formats (NetCDF, GRIB, BUFR, etc.) must be employed.  One such platform is the Integrated Data Viewer (augmented here as the so-called GEON IDV) which is used extensively in the exercises which follow.

In selecting datasets for analysis & display, we have been guided by one principal:  When permission is required, then permission can be denied.  Systems that simply ask for user identifications are happily included here, but systems that require registration and/or approvals are only included if there is no alternative source for the data.

Exercises in this Group:

1. Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) Preliminary Setup

2. Visualizing Satellite-Measured Surface Temperature Fields in IDV: GHRSST, G1SST

   • NetCDF format

   • This exercise includes 3 basic routes to display NetCDF grids in IDV, so it covers most of the tricks you need to know about raster visualization.

   • See also the Panoply exercises below.

3. Visualizing Modeled Wave Analysis Grids in IDV: Wave Watch III
   • GRIB format

   • See also the Panoply exercises below.

4. Visualizing Satellite-Measured Optical Properties and Pigments in IDV: MODIS-A
   • Input from global image files in PNG format
   • XIMG auxiliary format
   • Demonstrates general method to load geographic images into IDV

   • See also the Panoply exercises below.

5. Visualizing Satellite-Measured Wave Analyses in IDV: GlobWave Point Data
   • Along-track point data in NetCDF Format

   • Requires registration with the scalar grids source site, but this is easy and expeditious

   • Download multiple passes to get a good overview of global conditions

6. Visualizing Satellite-Measured Sea Surface Salinity in IDV: AQUARIUS

   • Requires easy registration

   • HDF format images for various periods from daily to monthly

   • Only link into IDV at present is through PNG images and XIMG georeferencing files

7. Visualizing Satellite-Measured Sea Ice in IDV: OSI-SAF

   • NetCDF and GRIB formats

   • Provided here for the methodology, but the user must seek further information on the content of the scalar grids elsewhere

   • See also the Panoply exercises below.

8. Visualizing Satellite-Measured Sea Surface Height in IDV: AVISO

   • NetCDF format

   • Requires registration with the scalar grids source site, but this is easy and expeditious

   • This exercise includes scalar grids and motion vectors (i.e. U and V component vector grids)

   • See also the Panoply exercises below.

9. Visualizing Ocean Model Simulations (Scalars & Vectors) in IDV: HYCOM (Download)

   • NetCDF format

   • This model is a good example of typical simulation product suites in NetCDF (grids of scalars and vector components)

   • Model product files are subsetted and downloaded (through a special website interface) for local analysis and display.  See the alternate method below for direct connection to HYCOM, and for the special steps to color-code the vector arrows

   • See also the Panoply exercise below

10. Visualizing Ocean Model Simulations (Vectors) in IDV: HYCOM (Direct Connect)

    • Native format in OPeNDAP server unknown

    • Differs from the above download method, in that the HYCOM product catalog is loaded into IDV for direct grid selection, download and analysis of products; no files are stored locally unless desired

    • Includes the special steps to color-code the vector arrows by speed, not covered by the alternate method above

11. Converting NetCDF Scalar Grids and Motion Vectors to Google Earth Format, using Panoply

    • NetCDF format

    • Allows easy, exact subsetting of the data and direct conversion of images to Google Earth KML or KMZ images

    • This exercise includes scalar grids and motion vectors (i.e. U and V component vector grids)

    • The same method can be used for GRIB grids (and possibly also HDF grids if they are fully compatible with Panoply)

12. Converting NetCDF and GRIB Scalar Grids,  Motion Vectors/Shapes and Georeferenced Images to Google Earth Format, using IDV

    • NetCDF and GRIB formats

    • Allows easy, exact subsetting of the of major formats to Google Earth KML or KMZ images

    • This exercise includes scalar grids and motion vectors (i.e. U and V component vector grids, or speed and direction grids)

    • Georeferenced images can also be converted, but digital subsetting is not supported

13. Visualizing Modeled Meteorological Products in IDV: GFS

    • GRIB format

    • The Global Forecast System (GFS) products are arguably the most widely used meteorological simulations, cue to their ease of access (through a THREDDS catalog and complete OPeNDAP compatibility) and the fact that no fees, licenses or registrations are required.

14. Plotting Projected Tropical  Cyclone Paths in IDV: NHC

    • Point, line and polygon shapefile (SHP) formats

    • The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) publishes current location, expected trajectory, 3-day and 5-day probability cones for tropical cyclones in the western Atlantic and the eastern Pacific

    • Other agencies covering the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific do not publish mappable data parallel to the NHC products

    • These lines and polygons, in GIS formats, can easily be downloaded and added to operational oceanographic data assemblies

15. Visualizing Real-Time Temperature/Salinity Profiles in IDV:  GTSPP - Under construction

    • NetCDF 4.0 profiles from the most recent month

See Also:

• Handling HDF and NetCDF Marine Data - Getting map-ready grids from these widely-used self-describing formats.  These methods are somewhat more lengthy than the above operational exercises, as they aim to produce GIS-compatible images.

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