Mapping Ocean Processes Using Open Standards

Maryann Karinch
www.karinch.com

The tsunami of December 26, 2004 drew worldwide attention to the ocean's shocking power to affect the lives of coastal dwellers. Only months before, damage from hurricanes raging through the southern U.S. took thousands by surprise, even after authorities issued alerts about their paths and potential effects. Could ocean science have offered more specific warnings to the people of Southeast Asia and Florida?

The accuracy and timeliness of coastal and ocean predictions that could help mitigate the effects of large-scale ocean phenomena have been constrained by an incomplete understanding of ocean processes. By taking advantage of OGC specifications, the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS) plays a key role in detecting signs of change, from slight to spectacular, in the coastal waters of the Northeastern U.S.

GoMOOS aims to predict coastal events, promote understanding of natural systems, and solve practical problems that affect commerce and public safety. As GoMOOS users implement open specifications such as OGC's Web Map Service (WMS), layers of data in different formats combine to tell multi-dimensional stories about the ocean—past, present, and future. GoMOOS is a national pilot program, part of a developing federation of regional and global partners that will be contributing data to larger pools of information for use by commercial mariners, coastal resource managers, scientists trying to understand complex ecosystems and predict climate change, educators, search and rescue teams, emergency response teams, and public health officials.

"Typically, maps are flat and static, but the WMS specification gives us flexibility in updating data from different sources hourly and adding a vertical dimension," says Dr. Philip Bogden, Executive Director of GoMOOS. "By extending the traditional geospatial information system capabilities with time and depth, we can put animated, interactive representations of critical data on the Internet." GoMOOS members, who are the primary sources of GoMOOS data, include U.S. and Canadian government agencies, research facilities, and commercial entities. Among the diverse group are the Atlantic Pilotage Authority in Nova Scotia, Maine Lobstermen's Association, New England Aquarium, RD Instruments in San Diego, Rutgers University, and the U.S. Geological Survey in Woods Hole, MA.

Coordinating information provided by regional oceanographic data collectors sounds complicated. Consolidating that data into a global scheme sounds daunting. Not so, however.

"In the spirit of the Internet, OGC provided specifications that allow widespread integration of data," notes Dr. Bogden. The solution serves both contributors who have legacy systems and those who don't. Some of the GoMOOS partners, for example, have Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) systems. "They can just put an OGC connector on their software and they're compliant," Dr. Bodgen explains. "Others become compliant using free, open-source software." To help members jump into the process, Christopher Thorne of DM Solutions Group Inc. wrote simple, step-by-step instructions on how to publish map data to the Internet using OGC's WMS specification on two different platforms.

GoMOOS is a working prototype for a regional ocean observing system. Although its current arena is the regional states and provinces that border the Gulf of Maine, GoMOOS is preparing to serve the entire nation when the national system comes online. And, almost certainly, GoMOOS will have a global influence.

Over the last three years, the Presidential appointed Commission on Ocean Policy has been developing recommendations for a new and comprehensive national ocean policy. The Commission's Report, An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century, articulated the needs and potential benefits of implementing a large-scale ocean observing and prediction program. It recommended creating a robust and multi-faceted observing system to sustain both operational and research applications—the kind of system taking shape at GoMOOS.

The comprehensive scheme described in An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century is essentially the ocean component of the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). Since the first Earth Observation Summit (EOS-I) in 2003, there have been four sessions of the ad hoc intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO), and a second Earth Observation Summit was held in Tokyo, Japan, in April 2004. The GEO process will lead to the endorsement of an Implementation Plan for GEOSS at the third Earth Observation Summit, being hosted by the European Commission in Brussels, 14-15 February, 2005.

The GEOSS plans include the expansion of two complementary programs that will provide regular and sustained ocean measurements: the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). Mainly driven by societal needs, the IOOS emphasizes distributed and reliable data streams that will provide confidence for timely decision-making. The OOI will collect data for scientific research that is essential to improving predictions through an increased knowledge of oceanic processes. Coordination between the IOOS and the OOI will involve interoperable data management solutions, complementary sampling and modeling strategies, and corresponding education and outreach. During the planned decade-long deployment of these systems, many of the sensors and sampling strategies developed and tested for the OOI will move to the IOOS. The addition and coordination of regional, local, and national observing programs will add value to the IOOS and OOI and help to fill information gaps. This "system of systems" clearly will not be possible without an open, OGC-based interoperability framework like that being used in GoMOOS.