1. National Weather Service(NWS) Marine Weather Portal(MWP) Marine Weather Portal(MWP)http://forecast.weather.gov/mwp

2. What is the “Marine Weather Portal” and why is it needed? This information is useful to a wide variety of users, including recreational enthusiasts, the shipping industry, emergency managers, and scientists. “Marine Weather Portal” is a web portal that combines diverse coastal and marine observations and information for the Southeast and Gulf region.

3. What was the approach? To build on information management capacities developed by coastal ocean observing programs in the region through: Aggregation of near real- time observations from in-situ platforms, models, and remote sensing Integration of these with NOAA NWS observations and products Leveraging of outreach activities within both NOAA NWS and coastal ocean observing systems

4. Regional integration and information management expertise provided an essential foundation for the data delivery functions of the Marine Weather Portal The Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System (SEACOOS) developed an information management subsystem and some of the sophisticated processes and protocols needed to assemble and visualize data from various observation sites. The Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System (SEACOOS) developed an information management subsystem and some of the sophisticated processes and protocols needed to assemble and visualize data from various observation sites. Hurricane/Tropical Storm Jeanne 25 - 27 September, 2004 Merged wind observations and shore radar

5. The value of Marine Weather Portal to recreational users: A variety of data and information products can be readily accessed through tabs and windows to obtain near real- time conditions for winds, water temperature, and potential hazards. Real time information on coastal and offshore conditions promotes safety and sound planning. 8% of boating fatalities in 2004 were caused by hazardous waters. DHS Boating Statistics - 2004

6. The value of Marine Weather Portal to emergency managers: Near real-time observations provide information on winds, waves, and water levels. Hazard information is readily transferred to the general public. Improved preparation, response, and mitigation could reduce average cost of storm-related disasters by 10%, or $700M per year. Evaluation of Erosion Hazards, Heinz Center, 2000.

7. The value of Marine Weather Portal to shipping and commerce: Information on ocean and meteorological conditions aid safe navigation and promote cost-effective decisions More than 95% of US commerce is via ship – this contributes > $742 B to US GDP and creates >13 M jobs. US DOT, 1999.

8. Data Layers, Mouse Latitude/Longitude tracking

9. Data Layers

10. Data Layers, Weather Radio

11. Descriptions, Weather Radio

12. Technology In-situ aggregation In-situ aggregation Site ASCII, web service ->SQL (Xenia RDB)Site ASCII, web service ->SQL (Xenia RDB) Mapping Engine Mapping Engine Mapserver, (Geoserver– Java/J2EE),WMS,graphing-GnuplotMapserver, (Geoserver– Java/J2EE),WMS,graphing-Gnuplot Hourly pregeneration of zoom level content – images, imagemaps, platform tables Hourly pregeneration of zoom level content – images, imagemaps, platform tables AJAX, (Openlayers, Tilecache)AJAX, (Openlayers, Tilecache) Redundancy/failover of server aggregation, content production Redundancy/failover of server aggregation, content production Virtualization, vmwareVirtualization, vmware

13. Technology Separation of data production from publish/web server user load Separation of data production from publish/web server user load High web user load – simple,quick local php/javascript file accessHigh web user load – simple,quick local php/javascript file access Web services might be used to better standardize initial aggregation/caching, but too slow for direct/repeated/peak public consumptionWeb services might be used to better standardize initial aggregation/caching, but too slow for direct/repeated/peak public consumption Still would like simpler web services functions(get all latest)/schemas(O&M very complex) – possibly working regional conventions(SEACOOS netCDF, ObsKML) which can be mapped into multiple developing standards Still would like simpler web services functions(get all latest)/schemas(O&M very complex) – possibly working regional conventions(SEACOOS netCDF, ObsKML) which can be mapped into multiple developing standards