SSEC Web Map Service: Real-time and Forecast Product Mashups

The complex mix of real-time geophysical data and products continues to expand. Demand for easy access to an ever-increasing assortment of data sources and formats continues to be a challenge. Targeted audiences may range from a scientist involved in validation of an algorithm to a middle-school classroom. An emerging idea for providing access to data in a general and extensible way is the use of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Services. These standards are widely implemented and provide a conduit for a diverse user community to acquire data in their own preferred format and spatial dimensions.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), we incorporate real time geophysical data (satellite images and products, radar, etc.) from a variety of agencies (e.g., NOAA, NASA, and NSF). By creating a variety of web and mobile interfaces to a unified, temporally extended Web Map Service, we provide a fast, easy way to integrate widely different data sources into combined visualizations on demand. These aggregates, or “mashups”, make existing data more powerful by illustrating correlated features on a common projection. Mashups can be created to combine a diverse range of geophysical and geopolitical disciplines to illuminate subtle interactions.