III.6: San Francisco Exploratorium

Provide near real-time ability to visualize weather and water conditions in San Francisco Bay

Other Information:

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service is developing a new way to visualize regional data in the San Francisco Bay (http://las.pfeg.noaa.gov/SFBay). Data from shore stations, buoys, high-frequency radar, and satellites are available, but scattered among many Web pages and stored in many formats. It is difficult for regional and public interests in the San Francisco Bay area to visualize and use this system to assess real-time conditions. As a demonstration tool to support NOAA’s new partnership with the renowned science museum, the Exploratorium, and in collaboration with the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System and other regional data providers, NOAA is developing a Web page to make it easy to visualize near-real time data in San Francisco Bay. The interface will use Google Maps and the latest AJAX technology to combine and compare data from diverse sources. Users will be able to visualize water temperature, salinity, and other station-based measurements along with overlays of satellite measurements of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and radar measurements of currents. Users will also be able to compare time series of measurements from various stations and sources. Model data and animations will be added as they become available. A public version of the project will be ready by the end of 2010, and will be continually developed with new data included as they become available.

Stakeholder(s):

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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