1. Toward interoperable information use across the geosciences
Presented 23 November 2009
Second Workshop on GIS/OGC Standards in Meteorology
Dr. David K. Arctur
Director, Interoperability Programs
Open Geospatial Consortium
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

2. How can we understand and communicate about all this?
In relationship with our environment
A little perspective first… Our social fabric is evolving…
Natural Resources
Biodiversity
Population/Urbanization
Climate Change
Globalized Economy
Pollution
Science
Technology
Folks, I’d like to put the work before us in perspective. Regardless of whether you believe this version or that version of the story, the truth is that the human society’s burden on the Earth is starting to be noticeable, and the consequences for future generations are looking increasingly grim.
Specificallly:
Population dynamics, social equity issues
Sustainable development
Globalization of resource management, production & trade
Toxic waste disposal
Fresh water availability
Energy supplies and demands
We’re killing ourselves…
And who can say what really needs to be done??
Source: ESRI
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3. Meteorology is essential, and it’s not just about the weather
We can’t manage, much less improve what’s happening with these global issues unless we KNOW what’s happening.
We can’t know what’s happening without the ability to share and make effective & combined use of interdisciplinary data sources, models, and processes
We need interoperability of the knowledge and tools, not just the data
This is complicated by the volumes of data being generated, by differing semantics, and institutional barriers
There’s an increasingly urgent need for multidisciplinary collaboration. Expect that other fields of knowledge can benefit from access to weather data. Expect that weather forecasting models will get better as a result of greater understanding and ability to describe the connectedness among Earth systems.
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It’s all interconnected, and we need better understanding of “the whole”
We need to see “the whole” but reductionist approaches focus on partial aspects. Some examples of difficult questions to address: How to study the correlation of bird migration patterns with earth magnetic fields? How to better predict path of a hurricane? What disease vectors will increase with global warming? Where will fresh water shortages appear next?
Source: The University of Tokyo
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Getting There
Working together across multiple disciplines, we can address these issues
Each information community knows best how to define, collect, and use information within its frame of reference
By working on open standards for information exchange, we can start to apply multi-disciplinary approaches to better understand and predict complex phenomena and their interactions
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

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Why Open Standards?
Rapidly mobilize new capabilities – plug and play
Lower systems costs
Encourage market competition
Choose based on functionality desired
Avoid “lock in” to a proprietary architecture
Decisions to share information and services become policy decisions
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

7. What do we mean by “Open” Standard?
Freely and publicly available
Non discriminatory
No license fees
Vendor neutral
Data neutral
Agreed to by a formal consensus process
What do we mean by “open” and an “open system”? First, consider the term “open”. This adjective is used extensively in the IT industry – including the GIS industry. But very seldom do we see this term actually defined. At the OGC, we use the term Open in very much the same way as the Open Source organization does (
So, from the OGC perspective, we and our members firmly believe that all of the standards and specifications created by the OGC member consensus process must be:
Freely and publicly available: All of the OGC specifications must be available free of charge (no royalties) and unencumbered by patents and other intellectual property.
Non discriminatory: Available to any one, any organization, any time, any where with no restrictions.
No license fees: There are no charges any time for the use of OpenGIS specifications.
Vendor neutral: The OpenGIS specifications do not favor any vendor over another. They are vendor neutral in terms of their content and implementation concept.
Data neutral: OpenGIS Specifications are independent of any data storage model or format.
Agreed to by a formal, member based consensus process: All OpenGIS specifications are defined, documented, and approved by a formal, member driven consensus process. The OGC Technical Committee Polices and Procedures document all aspects of the formal consensus process.
Definitions from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Open System: A system with characteristics that comply with specified, publicly maintained, readily available standards and that therefore can be connected to other systems that comply with these same standards. A system is a combination of two or more interrelated services arranged in a functional package to perform an operational function or to satisfy a requirement. Within the OGC, many of the terms and concepts related to open systems and interoperability can be traced to the OSI-RM, or OSI Reference Model. Essentially, this is a model of network architecture and a suite of protocols (a protocol stack) to implement it, developed by ISO in 1978 as a framework for international standards in heterogeneous computer network architecture.
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OGC Web Services (OWS)
Just as is the dial tone of the World Wide Web, and html / xml are the standard encodings, the geospatial web is enabled by OGC standards:
Web Map
Server
Web Coverage
Web Feature
Web Map Service (WMS)
Web Feature Service (WFS)
Web Coverage Service (WCS)
Catalogue (CSW)
Geography Markup Language (GML)
Web Map Context (WMC)
OGC KML
Others…
Relevant to geospatial information applications: Critical Infrastructure, Emergency Management, Weather, Climate, Homeland Security, Defense & Intelligence, Oceans Science, others
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What is the OGC?
Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC)
Not-for-profit, international voluntary consensus standards organization
Founded in 1994, incorporated in US, UK, Australia
385+ industry, government, research and university members
OGC Mission
To lead in the development, promotion and harmonization of open geospatial standards …
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

10. Liaison Open Standards / Organizations
International Organization for Standards (ISO)
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Digital Geospatial Information Working Group (DGIWG)
OASIS
Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
buildingSMART International / Alliance (bSi / bSa)
IEEE Technical Committee 9 (Sensor Web)
Web3D Consortium
Others
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

11. Environmental Information Collaborations
NCAR – US National Center for Atmospheric Research
MoU with University Corporation for Atmospheric Research on behalf of NCAR established 2005
TDWG – Taxonomic Data Working Group
MoU established 2006
WMO – World Meteorological Organization
MoU is now signed
iEMSs – international Environmental Modeling & Software society
MoU in process
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12. OGC Interface to Geoscience Models
Established geospatial interface with predictive models using Web Coverage Service (WCS) standard
WCS Access to model outputs as 5D grids: parameters varying in three spatial dimensions with two time coordinates (model run time and forecast time)
GALEON Interoperability Experiment
Geo-interface to Atmosphere, Land, Earth, Ocean, NetCDF
This Geo-Interface for Atmosphere Land, Earth, Ocean and NetCDF Experiment, is being advanced by a number of OGC members to improve the ability of the science and research community to share and apply important (and complex) science information. Using the OGC Web Coverage Service (WCS), organizations around the world can simplify the exchange and usage of important scientific information and models. See and for more detail.
The graphic shown is the result of information acquired in real time from several different servers using the WCS standard. The result is a 5D rendering of the jet stream over North America (information presented in 3 dimensions over time (4D), rendering an animation of fluid dynamics)
Hopefully, the OGC based best practices produced by this experiment will help the science community improve their collaboration on climate issues by minimizing the time spent on barriers to information sharing.
The Experiment is also producing valuable feedback to the OGC process for potential improvements in the WCS standard in the future.
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

13. GML Application Activities
Profiles
GML Point Profile
GML Simple Features Profile
GML GeoShape for use in IETF
GML in JPEG2000
GeoRSS: GML Serialization
US NSDI GML Schemas for Framework Datasets
Base Transportation
Roads
Governmental Units
Linear Reference Systems
Dictionaries
Hydrology
Community Application Schemas
Climate Science Modelling Language (CSML)
CityGML
CleanSeaNet
NcML/GML (NetCDF and GML)
TDWG Biodiversity GML
GeoSciML - Geological Sciences ML
MarineXML
Ground Water Modeling Language
WaterML
Further information on OGC Network
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

14. Uncertainty Markup Language (UnCertML)
XML schema for describing uncertain information
Descriptive capabilities range from
Simple statistics, to more complex representations such as
Parametric distributions at each point of a regular grid, or
Jointly over the entire grid.
Based on ISO/IEC guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement (GUM)
UnCertML available as an OGC Discussion Paper
Coordination with GML and SWE
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15. Sensor Web Enablement (SWE)
Enables discovery, access and application of real time sensor observations for enhanced situational awareness
Sensor Model Language (SensorML)
Transducer Markup Language (TML)
Observations & Measurements (O&M)
Sensor Planning Service (SPS)
Sensor Observation Service (SOS)
Sensor Alert Service (SAS)
Web Notification Service (WNS)
IEEE (sensor) and OASIS (alert) stds
Quickly discover sensors (secure or public) that can meet my needs – and learn about what they can do (location, observables, quality, ability to task)
Obtain sensor information in a standard encoding that is understandable by the user and by software
Readily access sensor observations in a common manner, and in a form specific to my needs
Task sensors, when possible, to meet my specific needs
Request and receive alerts / notification when a sensor measures a particular phenomenon, or completes a requested task
Information Models and Schema
Sensor Model Language (SensorML) for In-situ and Remote Sensors - Core models and schema for observation processes: support for sensor components, georegistration, response models, post measurement processing
Observations and Measurements (O&M) – Core models and schema for observations
TransducerML – adds system integration and real-time streaming clusters of observations
Web Services
Sensor Observation Service - Access Observations for a sensor or sensor constellation, and optionally, the associated sensor and platform data
Sensor Alert Service – Subscribe to alerts based upon sensor observations
Sensor Planning Service – Request collection feasibility and task sensor system for desired observations
Web Notification Service –Manage message dialogue between client and Web service(s) for long duration (asynchronous) processes
Sensor Registries – Discover sensors and sensor observations
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

16. OGC Web Processing Service (WPS)
WPS-client
Communication over the web using HTTP
WPS
GetCapabilities
DescribeProcess
Execute
Algorithms Repository
Data Handler Repository … … … …
Algorithm 1
Data Handler A
Web Processing Service
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

17. “Chaining” Web Services For Decision Support
Assess Wildfire Activity
Demonstrated in 2004 as part of OGC Web Services Testbed 2
Service chaining creates Value-added products
OGC
Interfaces
Decision Support Client
Internet
WCS
(NASA Data Pool)
WPS - WCTS
(Producer-B, Vendor-2)
WPS - Classification
(Producer-C,Vendor-3)
WFS
(Producer-n, Vendor-x)
Web-based geospatial service chaining and decision support. How do we reliably and repeatedly combine results from several distributed services on the web to produce a result for a user? Service chaining is the term commonly used for the process of organizing disparate web based services into an orderly process. For instance, a raw image is sent to a service that performs a coordinate transformation. This services sends the transformed image to a classifier service that processes the image to highlight areas of active fire. The result of this service is sent to a user’s client along with other geospatial data such as vegetation overlays, transportation. Service chaining will play an important role in future capabilities. …
Web Servers
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

18. Models Types from Interface Perspective
Does user request “run” the model?
Are source data & parameters fixed?
Example Model
Applicable
OGC Service No
Yes
Access to daily run of a large model
Access: WMS, WFS, WCS, SOS
Prediction based on moving window of input measurements
Access:
WMS, WFS, WCS, SOS
Predictions based on several datasets
Processing:
WPS
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

19. WPS for Hydrological Modelling
A recent GIS reference text describes the web application architecture shown here using OGC WMS, WFS, and WPS to enable generalized (multi-vendor) servers, clients, and related tools.
Geospatial Services and Applications for the Internet, M. Gould, et al., Springer, 2008
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

20. GEOSS Observations and Models
Home:
The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) is being developed by the Group on Earth Observation (GEO). As of September 2009, GEO’s Members include 80 Governments and the European Commission. In addition, 56 intergovernmental, international, and regional organizations with a mandate in Earth observation or related issues have been recognized as Participating Organizations. The AIP is a spiral development process for building and testing exemplars of services and clients for using GEOSS resources.
GEOSS Architecture Implementation Pilot (AIP) develops and deploys new process and infrastructure for GEOSS
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

21. Estimated rainfall accumulation and flood prediction model
From portal select desired theme(s) and area of interest
Selected workflow automatically activates needed assets and models
Disaster Management Information System (DMIS)
Mozambique
Workflows
Wizard
Wizard picks appropriate workflow for desired result
Estimated rainfall accumulation and flood prediction model
Baseline water level, flood waters and predicted flooding
Flood Model
GEOSS AIP-2 Flood Prediction and Response Led by NASA, Spot Image, Northrop Grumman, ERDAS
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

22. Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.
GEOSS Portal
OGC WPS Access to Model
req
resp
Research Scientist
IP3 Client & Workflow engine
OpenModeller
Server
OGC WPS
CSW
IP3 Distributed Community Catalog/Mediator
req
req
req
req
req
req
req
req
Broker
resp
resp
resp
resp
resp
resp
resp
resp
WCS
WFS
Other Non-OGC Services
GBIF
WCS - T
Non-OGC Services
GEOSS AIP-2 Biodiversity & Climate Change Led by CNR, Univ of Colorado, GBIF
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

23. WMO Information System (WIS) and GEOSS
Access
Data and Product Users
WMO Information System (WIS)
National Centres
WIS Global Information System Centres (GISC's)
WIS Data Collection or Production Centres (DCPC's)
Earth System Models
Global Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS)
Discovery
Other Data Sources
GEOSS Clearinghouse
WIS and GEOSS are complementary systems that should support each other well.
Earth Observation Systems
From presentation: “ Interoperable Interfaces for Selected WMO Systems, WIS, and GEOSS,” 26-Oct-06.
For more information see “Services Oriented Architecture Concepts Applied to Specific WMO Systems, E. Christian, 23 Jan 2007.
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

24. Interoperability is about Organizations
“Interoperability seems to be about the integration of information.
What it’s really about is the coordination of organizational behavior.”
David Schell
CEO and Chairman
OGC
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

25. Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.
Dr. David Arctur Director, Interoperability Programs Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC)
Questions?
Copyright © 2009, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.