1 OceanShare: Interactive Access to Distributed In Situ Data in a Collaborative Tool Environment D.W. Denbo C.R. Windsor NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory Presented by: Chris Moore th IIPS/AMS, 9 – 14 January, 2000, Long Beach, CA

2 What is OceanShare? l OceanShare » A collaborative tool for integrated browsing of oceanographic and meteorological data from multiple geographically distributed archives. l Combines » Uniform Java access to distributed data archives » Interactive Java graphics » Java RMI/CORBA networking middleware » NCSA Habanero product for fully collaborative environment » Platform independence (Mac, PC, Unix) l Creating » Networked access to distributed data sets in a collaborative tool environment for oceanographers or meteorologists

3 l Lack of uniformity between data sites is a barrier to data exploration and data integration activities » Need uniform, centralized access to distributed data archives! l Inter-institutional collaborations are awkward between observational scientists. » Distance is a barrier to collaboration! Why OceanShare? l Traditional techniques for remote collaborations involving environmental data are inflexible and static. » Faxing, ing, or posting on the Web provides limited interactions between scientists!

4 l Web technologies combined with Java present new opportunities for collaboration. » On-the-fly creation of interactive graphics in a dynamic environment, with white boarding and audio chat, promotes unlimited, spontaneous data exploration and discussion leading to fruitful scientific collaboration! OceanShare

5 l Scientists use networks not airplanes for collaboration Objectives l Interactive and collaborative environment for data exploration » Uniform access to multiple geographically distributed data archives » Interactive Java graphics » Integration of data from local and remote data archives » Interactive annotation of data –Highlight individual plots –add text, arrows, lines, etc » User interaction with the data –Dynamic query of data values and metadata –Graphics zoom capability with automatic rescaling of axes

6 Approach Leverage heavily from successful developments: l Habanero: distributed interpersonal communications framework supporting multi-user, collaborative work environments. l NOAAServer2: centralized and unified view of geographically distributed, networked NOAA environmental data and information servers.

7 NCSA Habanero l Developers toolkit l Transforms Java applications into multiple-user collaborative environments l Collaborative features: » Whiteboard, Text Editor, WWW Shared Session, Audio Chat l Platform independent (PC, Mac, Unix) Freely available from NCSA:

8 NOAAServer2 l Connects 5 NOAA data servers in Seattle, Silver Spring, Boulder » Atmospheric and oceanographic profiles, time series, gridded data l Object oriented data model l Off-the-shelf software for network data access l Interactive, zooming Java Graphics l Platform independent (Mac, PC, Unix)

OceanShare Architecture OceanShare client CORBA IIOP Habanero Environment Habanero communications Local data files netCDF CORBA Server IIOP Local protocols Remote Climatology CORBA Server IIOP Local protocols Remote Sea Level CORBA Server IIOP Local protocols Remote Profile Data Example showing one OceanShare client (i.e., a scientist) and remote data archives

Data Access Data can be loaded from: Swing User Interface Client Code SGT Data Model netCDF CORBA OceanShare PostgresSQL DataBase Remote Data Local Data  Local data files (presently only local netCDF files can be loaded) CORBA Data Model Server Code netCDFJDBC Remote Data Server  CORBA Remote Data Server (Remote Data Server is responsible for making the data available using the Data Model) The data access module is separate from display, allowing us to easily extend OceanShare to new data formats.

11 Habanero Communications Habanero Environment Jordans’ Client Jillians’ Client Jonathans’ Client 1 1. Jonathan selects a profile 2 2. OceanShare sends Event to Habanero Habanero informs all clients of event

12 Scientific Graphics Toolkit l Facilitates easy development of Java graphics applications l Graphics characteristics: » Interactive, publication quality graphics, with zoom capability » Flexible, object oriented » Tailored for scientific, environmental data displays l Scientific Graphics Toolkit Features: » Axes are user settable or automatically scaled » Sophisticated time axis labeling » Object oriented, labels are moveable, customizable objects » Platform independent (Mac, PC, Unix) l Freely available: »

13 OceanShare Demo Scenario: Two researchers looking at recent CTD measurements taken near 155W 0N.

OceanShare Demo Whiteboard

OceanShare Demo Local Data Selection

5 CTD profiles displayed in OceanShare

OceanShare Demo Highlight one profile

Selection of remote dataset on the network

OceanShare Demo Add new plot of TAO buoy temperatures

OceanShare Demo Add data from June 13 th

OceanShare Demo Zoom to 25 meters

22 OceanShare summary l OceanShare is a collaborative “Portal” to distributed data » Uniform, networked access to multiple geographically distributed data archives » Interactive Java graphics » Collaborative environment » Platform independent (Mac, PC, Unix) l Scientists use networks not airplanes for collaboration » Networked access to distributed data sets in a collaborative tool environment for oceanographers or meteorologists

23 Proposed collaborative Data Portals: l Climate Data Portal » Uniform access to distributed NOAA El Nino Observing System data and NODC archives of observed data l Hazardous Materials Response Data Portal » Uniform access to distributed hazardous materials data and information to support hazardous spill response efforts l Collaborative Problem Solving Environment for Fisheries Oceanography Combined Investigations (FOCI) » Fisheries biologists and physical oceanographers (Seattle, Fairbanks) » Secure document repository

24 NODC PMEL JOSS UHSLC ODU KOREA (KORDI) CHINA (NMDIS) TAIWAN (NCOR) AUSTRALIA (AODC) CO-OPS UA AOML FSU NCSU NCDC Potential Data Portal Partners: