FY 1997

World Wide Web access to TAO and hydrographic data

Soreide, N.N.

In Proceedings of the International Workshop on Ocean Climate Variations from Seasons to Decades with Special Emphasis on Pacific Ocean Buoy Network, JAMSTEC, Mutsu, Japan, 29–31 May 1996, 339–345 (1997)

The TAO array consists of approximately 70 moored buoys in the tropical Pacific Ocean, telemetering data in real time via the Argos satellite. Supported by an international consortium, it is a major component of the global climate monitoring system. TAO data is readily available via the World Wide Web, Unix/X-windows/Internet, and anonymous FTP. Available data includes real time and historical temperature and current meter data, and computed quantities, such as dynamic height, in the form of user-selectable space-time slices and line plots. Related data sets, such as TOPEX/POSEIDON data, NMC model- generated data fields, and TOGA drifting buoy data, are also available. TAO project home pages include extensive information about the buoys, sensors, sampling schemes, cruise scheduling, and science plans and publications. An El Niño Theme Page links forecasts, analyses, and measurements of El Niño from research institutes world-wide as a resource for scientists, and to widen public awareness and knowledge about El Niño. Java prototypes provide the user with a high degree of interaction with TAO data and graphics. A new Web page provides near real-time images and data from the newly commissioned NOAA Research Vessel Ka'imimoana, which was designed and outfitted for deploying ATLAS buoys in support of NOAA's TAO mission. See http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/toga-tao/home.html. EPIC was developed at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory to manage large collections of hydrographic and time series oceanographic in-situ data sets. The EPIC desktop system (Unix and VAX) provides data archival, retrieval, display, and analysis procedures, and data files are easily available via a data file I/O library. The EPIC web browser provides World Wide Web access to data selection and dynamically generated plots and listings. A prototype JAVA interface is also available for data selection on the Web.