20th International Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems (IIPS) for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology

P2.11

Alaska SAR Demonstration user access via the World Wide Web Interactive Processing Environment (WIPE)

William G. Pichel, NOAA/NESDIS, Camp Springs, MD; and P. Clemente-Colón, E. Malaret, and K. S. Friedman

The Alaska Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Demonstration, or AKDEMO, is a near real-time applications demonstration of coastal and open-ocean applications of SAR. Data and products are provided by the Oceanic Research and Applications Division (ORAD) of the Office of Research and Applications (ORA) within the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). SAR imagery of ocean and atmospheric phenomena, high-resolution wind speed and direction, vessel locations, and ice information are provided every day, derived from Canadian Radarsat-1 SAR data. Users include the National Weather Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Products are used for coastal wind analysis (e.g., downslope winds, gap winds, barrier jets), storm positions and morphology (e.g., polar mesoscale cyclones), and fisheries monitoring and management (e.g., monitoring the U.S./Russia Maritime Border Walleye Pollack fishery, and ice edge positions in relation to vessels participating in the winter Snow Crab fishery). Data and derived products are provided to users via an AKDEMO web site and also via the World Wide Web Interactive Processing Environment (WIPE). The WIPE software system is a web-based interactive data display and analysis tool, having many of the characteristics of an image processor and a GIS system. WIPE allows a user with only a web browser to access and overlay SAR data and products, Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) infrared and visible cloud imagery, and meteorological model output. WIPE's zoom capability allows one to view even full-resolution SAR data with only a slow-speed modem connection to the Internet (all data ingest, calculation, and data extraction are done on a central server and then the results are transferred within a small image window that can be sized to tradeoff download time for size of the region viewed). WIPE can be used merely for geo-located product display, or for sophisticated four-dimensional analysis of satellite data and products, meteorological model output, and digital elevation and bathymetry data. In this paper, the products and applications of the AKDEMO are described, the capabilities of WIPE within the AKDEMO are demonstrated, and examples of use of the WIPE tool for image and product analysis and interpretation are presented for a number of meteorological and oceanographic applications.

Poster Session 2, IIPS Poster Session II
Wednesday, 14 January 2004, 2:30 PM-4:00 PM, Room 4AB

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