SIMONS COLLABORATIVE MARINE ATLAS PROJECT (CMAP): AN INTEGRATIVE OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA PORTAL SUPPORTING THE INTERCONNECTION OF DIVERSE OCEAN DATASETS

Satellite remote sensing and autonomous sensor networks provide rich environmental data. Interconnecting these data with field expedition data expands on the insight provided by any of these datatypes alone. However, collective analyses of these heterogeneous collections are complex as datasets are scattered across distributed repositories with various file formats. To address this issue, we created an open-source data portal, Simons Collaborative Marine Atlas Project (Simons CMAP) that provides interconnected, harmonized ocean data. To reduce difficulties faced by researchers when finding, retrieving, and using publicly available data we designed Simons CMAP around three key principles: (1) The Simons CMAP database includes diverse ocean datasets in a single location. These include multi-decadal global satellite products, biogeochemical numerical model outputs, and field observations. (2) The datasets are organized in a clean and unified data structure, ensured via multiple validation steps. This significantly accelerates data analysis and facilitates the dataset interconnection procedures. (3) Standard APIs provide database access, enabling the use of both a web-based application and programming interfaces that support multiple coding languages. These applications support use by those with varying technological comfort levels. Here we highlight how Simons CMAP facilitates the interconnection of satellite data with in-situ and model data, supporting analyses across varying temporal and spatial scales.

Presentation Preference: Oral

Primary Presenter: Tansy Burns, University of Washington (tansy@uw.edu)

Authors:

Tansy Burns, University of Washington  (tansy@uw.edu)

Mohammad Ashkezari, University of Washington  (mdehghan@uw.edu)

Walker Malling, University of Washington  (mallinwa@uw.edu)

E. Virginia Armbrust, University of Washington  (armbrust@uw.edu)