1. IRI Data Library Overview
Specialized Data Tools
Maproom
Generalized Data Tools
Data Viewer
Data Language
Dataset
Variable
ivar
multidimensional
So here is the IRI/LDEO Data Library shot at this, connecting the space of data and data manipulations. At the bottom we have the compute engine/data organization, which is what maps the data/manipulation space into URLs, i.e. the WWW.
Built on top of that are some general data tools, i.e. they can be applied to any dataset and adapt accordingly. There is a data language, making it possible to specify sophisticated analy ses. And there is a data viewer, making it possible to quickly graph data in a number of standard ways.
And there are also more specialized tools, designed for particular audiences to view specific things. We have a Maproom (soon to be or already map rooms) which contains continuously updated views of aspects of the climate system, as well as specialized tools aimed at particular audiences that let a use extract views/data with a few clicks.
There is a tradeoff here: the general tools are great, but require a user to navigate a vast set of datasets and a vast set of possible manipulations, which not everybody is up to. The specialized tools are a way to make sophisticated c alculations easy to access.
IRI Data Collection
URL/URI for data, calculations, figs, etc

2. descriptive and navigational pages
IRI Data Collection
GRIB
netCDF
images
binary
GIS
spreadsheets
“geolocated by lat/lon”
shapefiles
Database
Tables
queries
“geolocated by entity”
Servers
OPeNDAP
THREDDS
images w/proj
IRI Data
Collection
Dataset
Variable
ivar
“geolocated by vector object”
Calculations
“virtual variables”
images
graphics
descriptive and navigational pages
Having got all that data into the data library, we can process it in a uniform way.
The data structure leads directly to calculations and “virtual variables”, i.e. many
of the Data Library entries are actually calculations done on other entities, e.g.
PressureLevel data zonal velocities computed from hybrid level divergence and
vorticity, or sea surface temperature anomaly computed from sea surface temperature
and sea surface temperature climatology
User Interface – the data collection structure and metadata is used to generate a
web interface to the data – provides navigation through the datasets, a viewer that
slices and dices, many manipulations and calculations.
We also generate output Data Files in many different formats, as well as tables of
various kinds, many of which are useful to one kind of user or another, i.e. different data cultures
have different preferred formats. Atm/Ocean like netcdf and straight binary, GIS prefers sets of
images, Public Health prefers tables.
We also act as a data server using OpenDAP and THREDDS, again mostly useful for Ocean/Atm
We have perhaps implemented OpenGIS Web Map Server v1.3 – a bit of a mistake, since v1.3
is the next version rather than the currently widely used one. Time will correct this, with any luck.
It is important to note that everything following from the structure and attributes in the IRI Data Collection, no additional configuration is done to control the conversions to different fromats or to serve the data with different protocols. Not all data can be served in all formats.
OpenDAP/THREDDS is particularly important because it can express any dataset and/or any analysis, so that I can transfer calculations between servers. At least, it will once I code transmission of SimpleFeatures with OpenDAP.
Clients
OPeNDAP
THREDDS
Data Files
netcdf
binary
images
Tables
OpenGIS
WMS/WCS