Earth, Air, Fire, and Water: Integrating Visualization of Weather and Land Processes with Mapservices

This presentation looks at mapservices as a method for integrating the visualization of weather data and Earth surface data. The motivation for this work comes from two of NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) thematic initiatives: 1) Fire and Smoke, and 2) River Ice and Flooding. These initiatives seek to reduce the risk of hazards through collaboration among scientists, agency officials, and on-the-ground professionals. The work involves developing, testing, and integrating satellite-derived datasets principally from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument and other instruments aboard the NOAA-20 and Suomi-NPP satellites and the ABI sensor on GOES satellites. In this presentation, hazards such as wildfires, floods, ice dams, and smoke serve as examples of tightly related Earth surface conditions and weather events. For example, the path of smoke from fires is directed by the wind; terrain and rainfall combine to affect flooding; wind, temperature, and humidity affects fire behavior; heavy rain on burn scars after a fire can cause debris flows in areas of steep terrain. However, it is only relatively recently that geography-based GIS systems have begun to accommodate rapidly changing weather data. The examples in this presentation are generated through the "RealEarth" system as WMS and WMTS services, accessible through web interface or API. RealEarth is a data discovery and visualization platform developed by researchers the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS). In the context of hazards, publishing data sets as mapservices gives GIS users immediate access to the latest data and can improve situational awareness.