This analytic tool provides access to Primary Production data for the CCLME region as well as access to the Earth Viewer and Windytv Viewer, that all interact through the CCLME GIS Viewer. The Earth Viewer shows information about SST, waves, currents, and significant wave height, and it is possible to select the date of the layers loaded. From this tool, the user also can access oceanographic data from NOAA for the CCLME region.
The World Ocean Database 2013 (WOD13) from NOAA is a powerful tool for studying climate and the ocean environment, providing uniform, easy, and quality-assured access to nearly 19,000 datasets consisting of more than 200,000 oceanographic cruises from the National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC) archive. The World Ocean Database 2013 contains nearly 13 million temperature profiles, compared to 9.1 million in the previous 2009 database, and almost 6 million salinity measurements, compared to 3.5 million in the previous database. With records dating as far back as 1772, the World Ocean Database integrates ocean profile data from approximately 90 countries around the world, collected from floats, ships, gliders, and other instruments used to measure the “pulse” of the ocean.
• The Earth Viewer use the GEOS-5 data provided by the Global Modelling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center through the online data portal in the NASA Center for Climate Simulation
The "Surface" layer represents conditions at ground or water level this layer follows the contours of mountains, valleys, etc. Overlays show another dimension of data using color some overlays are valid at a specific height while others are valid for the entire thickness of the atmosphere.
| Wind | wind speed at specified height |
| Temp | temperature at specified height |
| RH | relative humidity at specified height |
| WPD |
Instantaneous Wind Power Density measure of power available in the wind: ½ρv3, where ρ is air density and v is wind velocity |
| TPW |
Total
Precipitable
Water total amount of water in a column of air stretching from ground to space |
| TCW |
Total Cloud Water total amount of water in clouds in a column of air from ground to space |
| 3HPA |
3-hour Precipitation Accumulation amount of precipitation over the next three hours |
| CAPE |
Convective Available Potential Energy from the surface indicates the buoyancy of air, a measure of atmospheric instability and predictor of severe weather |
| MSLP |
Mean Sea Level Pressure air pressure reduced to sea level |
| MI |
Misery Index perceived air temperature as combination of heat index and wind chill |
| SST |
Sea Surface
Temperature temperature of the ocean surface |
| SSTA |
Sea Surface
Temperature Anomaly difference in ocean temperature from daily average during years 1981-2011 |
| HTSGW |
Significant Wave Height roughly equal to mean wave height as estimated by a "trained observer" |
| COsc |
Carbon Monoxide Surface Concentration the fraction of carbon monoxide present in air at the earth' s surface |
| CO2sc |
Carbon Dioxide Surface Concentration the fraction of carbon dioxide present in air at the earth's surface |
| SO2sm |
Sulphur Dioxide Surface Mass amount of sulphur dioxide in the air near the earth's surface |
| DUex |
Dust Extinction the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) of light at 550 nm due to dust |
| SO4ex |
Sulphate Extinction the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) of light at 550 nanometers due to sulphate |
Significant Wave Height is the average height of the highest 1/3 of waves at a particular point in the ocean. There is a great write-up here describing what this means.
Peak Wave Period is the (inverse) frequency of the most energetic waves passing through a particular point, whether wind generated or swells. Certainly, there are many more groups of waves moving through an area, each in different directions, but trying to show them all rapidly becomes complex. Instead, we show the one wave group contributing the most energy. This has the effect, though, of creating "boundaries" between regions of ocean where the #1 wave group suddenly switches to second place. Often these boundaries represent swell fronts, but other times they are just artefacts of the ranking mechanism.
GEOS-5 data (covering all Chem and Particulates layers) comes with the following disclaimer: Forecasts using the GEOS system are experimental and are produced for research purposes only. Use of these forecasts for purposes other than research is not recommended.
• Windytv Viewer use the following global models:
ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) is sometimes informally known in the USA as the "European model". More info available at www.ecmwf.com
GFS (Global Forecast System) - the model is operated by the United States' National Weather Service (NWS)
By accessing this tool, the map region shows the Select Action panel. From this panel the user can work with the tools.
• Find Data: Clicking on the "Find Data" button
, gives accesses the "Find panel", from which the user can access samples with oceanographic information.
From the "Layer" selector it is possible to choose the kind of sample instrument (CTD, Primary Production). CTD is an acronym for Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth and is the primary tool for determining essential physical properties of sea water. If CTD is selected, in the Parameter selector the oceanographic parameter is selected (Temperature, Salinity, Oxygen, Chlorophyll), depending of the selected value in the "Layer" selector the user can access determinate parameters. In the "Month" selector, the month in which the sample was collected can be selected. The "Year" selector determines the year of sampling.
The "Find" button loads the information of the samples filtered by the parameters selected by the user, in the map, and centre and zoom the map over the result. Hovering on an entity displays a popup with metadata of the sample and the information for the different depth levels.
From the "Find Data" the Primary Production database is also accessed with various filter options.
In addition, the user can download the information of all the samples resulting from the searches, in different formats (shp, gdb, dxf) with the "Export Result" Button.
• Show Orthographic Projection: Click on the "Show Orthographic Projection" button, to access the "Show Ortho Projection" panel, a tool that allows the user to handle the Earth viewer from the CCLME GIS Viewer and gain access to all its information.
• Control Selector: This function allows to activate and deactivate the animations.
• Animated Selector: The user can select between "show currents" or "show waves" in the animations.
• Overlay Selector: From this selector the user can choose the next raster layer to load in the viewer:
• Date: Select the date of the information to be shown. If the date is not selected, the current information is displayed by default.
Further information about the data may be found on the web page of the Earth viewer.
Clicking on the "Show" button displays a panel showing a viewer, centred in the CCLME region, with the information and animation selected by the user.
When the user left clicks with the mouse on the viewer, information is shown on the pixel for this point and its position. The following image display the SST value for the position selected by the user.
At any moment, the user can change his/her preferences and redraw the information loaded in the viewer.
• Weather: Clicking the "Weather" button
gives access to the "Weather" panel, which is the tool that opens the Windytv viewer from the CCLME GIS Viewer
and provides access to all its information centred in the CCLME region.
On the right side is a toolbar that enables the user to change the layer type to find information about wind, clouds, temperature, rain, waves and pressure). The bottom slider allows the user to change the date of data shown in the viewer.
When the user clicks on the map a popup is shown with information about weather forecast for that location.
Click 'Monthly averaged SST and Chl-a' to access the 'Time Series' panel to select the Oceanographic Parameter, Start & End Year and Month.
Series of Graphs are then displayed for the respective period.
