Hobart

Seminar Abstract

Monday 6 April 2009, 11.30am (Tas time)
CSIRO Auditorium, Hobart

Rich Signell
USGS
Woods Hole, USA

The Model Interoperability Experiment in the Gulf of Maine: A Success Story Made Possible by NetCDF, CF-1.0, NcML, NetCDF-Java, THREDDS, OPeNDAP and MATLAB

The Gulf of Maine Ocean Data Partnership Modeling Committee has been developing a Model Interoperability Experiment in the Gulf of Maine built around the Climate and Forecast (CF-1.0) metadata standard. The goal is to allow scientists to issue common Matlab commands to retrieve geospatially referenced data, regardless of model type. Our starting point was output from six different models: the ROMS, ECOM, POM and FVCOM ocean circulation models, the WRF meteorological model and the WaveWatch III ocean wave model. Although the models all had different grid conventions and were served at different institutions, each group produced NetCDF files, used Matlab for visualization and analysis, and had a standard HTTP 1.1 web server. Only one group used CF-conventions, however, and as a result each group had their own set of analysis and visualization routines to perform nearly identical tasks. The system was designed to achieve interoperability with a minimum of effort on the part of the data providers and data users. To supply data, participants need only place their existing NetCDF files on their own web sites. The data is accessed using the "byte range request" feature of HTTP, utilized in NetCDF-Java. The CF standardization is achieved using a layer of XML (NcML) which also provides virtual aggregation of data. The THREDDS Data Server allows for central cataloging of the dataset, access via the OPeNDAP web service, and for rectilinear grids, access via the OGC Web Coverage Service (WCS) and the NetCDF Subset Services as well. The OPeNDAP + CF standard data can be accessed with our NetCDF-Java based "CF Toolkit for MATLAB". This toolkit works on any MATLAB system without compiling, delivering geospatially referenced model output from all six models using common functions. To further expand the capabilities of CF clients such as the one we have developed, we need to further expand the CF conventions to specify additional common features of model output, including staggered grids, masked regions, velocity component relationships and unstructured grid connectivity information. We also need to develop CF toolkits for other common languages such as Python and IDL.

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Location:
CSIRO = Marine Laboratories Auditorium, Castray Esplanade, Hobart

For further information, or to schedule a seminar, contact:
To schedule a seminar, contact:
Clothilde Langlais, (Oceanographic seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5399
Natalie Kelly, (Biology/Modelling seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research 0438 452 483
Jillian Enraght-Moony, (seminar administrator) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5320
Communications Manager, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (03) 6226 2265
Margaret Hazelwood, Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies (IASOS) University of Tasmania (03) 6226 2971

Last updated 21/07/09