Access and Dissemination of Gridded Climate Observations and Model Projections Using the Applied Climate Information System (ACIS)

In recent years the use of climate data products has grown considerably. The use of subsets of data from large gridded climate data sets has become a common component of resiliency plans, vulnerability assessments and risk analyses. Often the users of such data products have limited experience working with the quantity of data and formats that are typical of most climate data sets. Likewise observations and model projections are often housed on different servers and stored in different formats and map projections which further complicate analysis.

The Applied Climate Information System (ACIS) developed by the NOAA Regional Climate Center Program offers users access such data using either a standardized web service protocol and format or via browser-based interfaces. Sophisticated users can use ACIS web services to perform on-the-fly data queries and user-specified reductions such as computing counts of days above thresholds, run-lengths, and occurrence values such a the last frost date or first snowfall. Data can also be summarized temporally (e.g. monthly or annual averages) and spatially (e.g. county or river basin averages). Although output is returned as a json object by default, other output formats including geotiff and gif can be specified. This use of ACIS is exemplified through its use in the Climate Explorer within the U.S. Climate Resiliency Toolkit. Access to other ACIS-based data products via customized web interfaces will be also be presented. Such interfaces are widely used by the USDA and National Weather Service.

ACIS data and web services make use of a combination of cloud-based and conventional data storage and server platforms. Redundant data storage and servers assure 24-7 access and optimal responsiveness. Observational data are updated continually in real-time as new data become available or data quality control processes are completed. These updates are immediately synchronized among servers. Through this process data from any number of federal, state or local data networks can be accessed and integrated as needed by the user.