NOAA ENTERPRISE ARCHIVE ACCESS TOOL (NEAAT):ACCELERATED APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT (XAD)

A challenge for any consumer of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) environmental data archives is that the disparate nature of these archives makes it difficult for consumers to access data in a unified manner. If it were possible for consumers to have seamless access to these archives, then they would be able to better utilize the data and thus maximize the return on investment for NOAA's archival program. When unified data access is coupled with sophisticated data querying and discovery techniques, it will be possible to provide consumers with access to richer data sets and services that extend the use of key NOAA data. The approach is to develop a middleware application that would provide seamless access to all existing archives, in effect allowing each archive to exist “as is” but providing a translation service for the consumer. This approach is deemed more feasible from an administrative and technical standpoint; however, it still presents unique technical challenges due to the disparate architectures that exist across NOAA archives. NOAA has begun developing the NOAA Enterprise Archive Access Tool (NEAAT). The purpose of NEAAT is to provide a middleware and a simple standardized API between NOAA archives and data consumers. It is important to note that NEAAT serves two main purposes: • To provide an application programming interface (API) that enables designated consumers to write their own custom applications capable of searching and acquiring data seamlessly from multiple NOAA archives. • To allow archive managers to expose their data to consumers in conjunction with other NOAA resources without modifying their archiving systems or way of presenting data. The NOAA Enterprise Archive Access Tool (NEAAT) development effort is being managed by the Comprehensive Large Array-data Stewardship System (CLASS) project. Design, development, and initializing the solution are conducted using the Accelerated Application Development (XAD) process. XAD allows user requirements to be developed and tested in a quick-turnaround cycle including feedback from the user and/or user representative, and also allows the flexibility of multiple releases in a short turnaround timeframe. Once it is operational, NEAAT will provide a number of benefits to NOAA and its customers. These benefits include maximizing the return on investment for the many NOAA archives, providing a capability that enables easier development of customized applications, and minimizing the effort to acquire data.