1 The NOAA Weather and Climate Toolkit Steve Ansari, Stephen Del Greco, Neal Lott (NOAA / NCDC)

2 Overview Free, public domain source code Desktop and command-line application Simple visualization and data export Platform independent (Java-based) Leverages community tools and standards (NetCDF for Java, Common Data Model, etc…)

3 Data Raw data files on disk or remote location (URL, THREDDS, OPeNDAP, etc…) NetCDF, GRIB, GINI, HDF and more via Unidata Common Data Model (CDM): –Feature types of Grid, Swath, Radial (Time Series, Point, coming soon) Supports: –NEXRAD, GOES, Model Data, and much more.

4 Visualization Simple 2-D maps Basic overlays included (states, counties, etc…) Background images from any OGC WMS –Shaded Relief, Topo Maps, Landsat, ext… Save images and animations to Animated GIF, AVI, KMZ (Google Earth)

5 Visualization GOES Infrared Water Vapor with Blue Marble Web Map Service (WMS) background map

6 Visualization Smoothed NEXRAD Reflectivity Data

7 Visualization U.S. Drought Monitor service from NIDIS/NDMC (National Drought Mitigation Center)

8 Visualization Sea Surface Temperature (NetCDF data over OPeNDAP)

9 Visualization Internal Google Earth Instance: (Currently Windows Only)

10 Visualization Hurricane Andrew: NCDC GridSat Climate Data Record (CDR).

11 Visualization Math tool (max, min, avg, abs max, sum) (Under ‘More…’ link on ‘Data Selector’ or ‘Grid Properties’)

12 Visualization Experimental Time Morphing (Under ‘Tools’ menu) –Interpolation of data between time steps based on storm motion. –Based on Face Morphing algorithms (javamorph) –Storm motion data from NEXRAD Level-III products, RUC model or manual entry. –Many possible future applications.

13 Visualization Experimental Time Morphing (Under ‘Tools’ menu) Example Movies: Moore, OK 1999: orig. / morphorig.morph Fairview, AL 2011: orig. / morphorig.morph Surry, VA 2011: orig. / morphorig.morph Western NC 2012:orig. / morphorig.morph Pierce City, MO 2003: orig.orig. / morphmorph GOES Satellite IR:orig. / morphorig.morph

14 Community-focused Plugins IMPACT: Integrated Marine Protected Area Climate Toolkit – specialized user interface prototype built on top of WCT.

15 Data Export “Bridge” between raw Weather and Climate data and multiple scientific user communities Export Data to: Shapefile, Well-Known Text, Arc/Info ASCII GRID, Gridded and Raw NetCDF, GeoTIFF and KMZ (Google Earth)

16 Applications GOES Satellite Imagery from Hurricane Rita landfall, exported as ASCII GRID, in ArcGIS

17 Applications GOES Satellite Imagery from Hurricane Rita landfall in Google Earth

18 Applications 3D Radar Sweeps in Google Earth: –Drapes rendered image on COLLADA model (Similar to 3D building models)

19 Applications 3D Isosurfaces in Google Earth: –Output of 3D Polygons to KMZ Supported for Generic Radial, Level-II NEXRAD and Gridded x, y, z datasets. Play Movie

20 Applications Command-line batch processing of data export

21 Applications Public domain / open source API

22 Future Work Improved Point and Time Series (station data) support. Comparison between station data and grid/radial data. More COLLADA work? Cross-sections? Enhance Time Morphing features. Batch / Command-line KMZ export. Enhanced integration with the Climate Services portal (

23 Contact Thank you! Questions? WCT Website: Contact: (828) Patton Ave. Asheville, NC 28801

24