3A.2 THE WEATHER AND CLIMATE TOOLKIT Steve Ansari *, Stephen Del Greco NOAA National ...

15 Pages·2011·2.44 MB·English

by  Government Employee

3A.2 THE WEATHER AND CLIMATE TOOLKIT

Steve Ansari *, Stephen Del Greco
NOAA National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, North Carolina

Bill Hankins
STG Incorporated, Asheville, North Carolina

ABSTRACT Custom software must be written to decode or parse the
data into formats that common software packages can
The Weather and Climate Toolkit (WCT) is free, read. Furthermore, these formats and software
platform independent software distributed from NOAA’s packages are different for each major scientific genre
National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). The WCT including Engineering, Atmospheric Science, Hydrology
allows the visualization and data export of weather and and Environmental Science. By providing conversion
climate data, including Radar, Satellite and Model data. and data export tools, easy data access and integration
By leveraging the NetCDF for Java library and Common is available to an increased audience.
Data Model, the WCT is extremely scalable and capable The Weather and Climate Toolkit is the successor
of supporting many new datasets in the future. Gridded to the Java NEXRAD Tools, a successful visualization
NetCDF files (regular and irregularly spaced, using and data export tool for NEXRAD Radar data [1].
Climate-Forecast (CF) conventions) are supported,
along with many other formats including GRIB, 2. DATA
NEXRAD, AREA and GINI [Appendix A].
The WCT is based largely on the Unidata NetCDF
The WCT provides tools for custom data overlays, for Java API [4]. The NetCDF for Java API supports the
Web Map Service (WMS) background maps, animations direct reading of native formats including GRIB,
and basic filtering. The export of images and movies is NEXRAD and HDF into Common Data Model feature
provided in multiple formats. The WCT Data Export types such as time series, radial, grid, etc… [Appendix
Wizard allows for data export in both vector A]. The WCT provides visualization and data export
polygon/point (Shapefile, Well-Known Text) and raster support based on these abstract feature types [6].
(GeoTIFF, ESRI Grid, Gridded NetCDF) formats The current available release provides support for
[Appendix B]. These data export features promote the many data formats including:
interoperability of weather and climate information with • Gridded NetCDF, HDF and OPeNDAP
various scientific communities and common software • GRIB version 1 and 2
packages such as ArcGIS, Google Earth, MatLAB, etc… • NEXRAD Level-II
• NEXRAD Level-III
The WCT also supports an embedded, integrated • GOES AREA Files
Google Earth instance. The Google Earth Browser • GINI
Plug-in allows seamless visualization of data on a native
• GEMPAK Grids
3-D Google Earth instance linked to the standard 2-D
• XMRG MPE
map. Additional features include 3D rendering of Radar

sweeps in Google Earth through the use of the
Users may access data on any remote HTTP or
COLLADA modeling technology [Appendix B].
FTP server in addition to local disk. Special support is

provided for NCDC HAS orders, CLASS orders and

THREDDS catalogs.
1. INTRODUCTION
Development is under way to support all feature

types and therefore allow integration of any gridded,
NCDC archives many diverse datasets including,
point, timeseries, swath or radial NetCDF (or readable)
but not limited to, station observations, Radar,
file into the WCT.
Numerical Model, satellite. These data are in many

different complicated binary formats and represent
3. SERVICES
different abstract data types such as point, time series,

grid, radial and swath. While access to the raw datasets
Remote data services are supported, providing
is relatively easy, integration of the data into user
access to data available through web services. Current
software and applications is often extremely difficult.
data services include the NIDIS U.S. Drought Monitor [3]

(Figure 1).

Development is under way for the addition of

access to the NOAA Severe Weather Data Inventory,
* Corresponding author address:
NEXRAD Mosaic archive, the National Operational
Steve Ansari, 151 Patton Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801;
Model Archive and Distribution System (NOMADS),
e-mail: [email protected].
NCDC Climate Data Online and multi-sensor analysis software, engineering software and
precipitation totals [2, 5]. meteorological analysis tools.
Command-line batch processing is supported for all
4. VISUALIZATION data export capabilities.

Simple 2D visualization is provided for all supported 6. CONCLUSION
datasets. The WCT includes pre-packaged data for
common map layers including states, counties and cities The Weather and Climate Toolkit (WCT) provides
(Figure 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6). Custom data may be added easier access to NOAA weather and climate datasets.
using any NAD83/WGS84 Shapefile. Background maps As free, platform independent, standalone software, the
can be added using Web Map Services (WMS) (Figure WCT reaches a large audience of diverse users. By
7). Predefined WMS background maps for USGS providing visualization and export capabilities, users are
topographical maps, aerial photography, Landsat, land able to easily integrate the data into their own
cover and shaded relief are included. The North applications. The WCT is built upon scalable, open
American Datum 1983 (NAD83) lat/long grid is used as source and community-driven NetCDF software which
the basis for all visualizations. This allows greater allows for flexible future development. These benefits to
interoperability with the Web Map Services. Datasets many user communities exemplify the overall NOAA
are remapped for each view extent using a nearest mission.
neighbor resampling method if needed. Basic filtering
and smoothing functionality is provided. 7. REFERENCES
Users may save images to common file formats
(such as JPEG, GIF, PNG). KMZ file export allows 1. Ansari, S., and S.A. Del Greco, 2005: GIS Tools for
visualization in Google Earth or other virtual globe visualization and analysis of NEXRAD Radar (WSR-88D)
software (Figure 8). Animations are supported with Archived Data at the National Climatic Data Center.
output in Animated GIF and AVI formats in addition to 85th AMS Annual Meeting, combined preprints CD-
KMZ [Appendix B]. ROM, 9-13 January 2005, San Diego CA, 21st
Three-dimensional rendering of Radar data is Conference IIPS [International Conference on
supported using the COLLADA modeling syntax in Interactive Information and Processing Systems for
conjunction with KMZ output in Google Earth (Figure 9) Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology], American
[Appendix B]. The rendered data image is draped on a Meteorological Society, Boston, Mass., File J9.6, 9 pp.
COLLADA model which represents the surface of the (January 2005).
selected beam elevation angle.
An internal instance of Google Earth provides an 2. Ansari, S., and S.A. Del Greco, M. Phillips, 2008: A
integrated viewing experience linked directly to the geospatial database and climatology for severe weather
standard 2-D map (Figure 10). The Google Earth data. 88th AMS Annual Meeting, combined preprints
instance is updated following each zoom and pan of the CD-ROM, 21-25 January 2008, New Orleans LA, 24th
2-D map. Conference IIPS [International Conference on
Interactive Information and Processing Systems for
5. EXPORT Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology], American
Meteorological Society, Boston, Mass., File 5A.10,
The WCT supports the export of data to several (January 2008).
common scientific formats. Spatial and attribute filtering
is provided (Figures 11, 12), allowing users to extract 3. Drought Monitor Website:
subsets of the original data. Currently supported export http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html
formats include [Appendix B]:
• Point & Polygon Shapefile 4. NetCDF for Java API Website:
• Point & Polygon Well-Known Text http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf-java/
• Raw NetCDF (native data structure)
• Gridded NetCDF (remapped if needed) 5. NOMADS Website: http://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov
• Arc/Info ASCII Grid
• GeoTIFF 6. Unidata Common Data Model tutorial:
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/workshops/

2008/njcdm/index.html
These export formats are readable by many

software packages including Geographic Information

System (GIS) applications, mathematical and statistical
Figure 1. U.S. Drought Monitor
Figure 2. NEXRAD Reflectivity Data
Figure 3. Smoothed NEXRAD Reflectivity Data
Figure 4. GOES Visible Channel
Figure 5. GOES Water Vapor
Figure 6. Sea Surface Temperature NetCDF / OPeNDAP
Figure 7. GOES Infrared with Blue Marble Web Map Service background map
Figure 8. GOES Data KMZ output in Google Earth